Posted on 12/28/2023 10:55:22 AM PST by Red Badger
Pizza Hut franchises across California announced that they will be laying off 1200 delivery drivers due to the new minimum wage for fast food employees, which is set to take effect in 2024.
The minimum wage hike was an initiative of Governor Gavin Newsom.
LA List noted that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 1228 on Sept. 28, which boosts the average hourly wage for more than 500,000 California fast food workers in April 2024.
“That’s a romanticized version of a world that doesn’t exist,” Newsom said at the bill-signing event, according to the Associated Press.
“We have the opportunity to reward that contribution, reward that sacrifice, and stabilize an industry.”
Now, Pizza Hut operators have filed notices saying they were discontinuing their delivery services to comply with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN).
According to a WARN Act notice filed by PacPizza LLC with the state’s Employment Development Department, Pizza Hut said:
“We have made a business decision to eliminate first-party delivery services and, as a result, the elimination of all delivery driver positions.”
Meanwhile, Southern California Pizza Co. announced that 841 drivers at locations in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Ventura counties will be laid off.
“Well, I knew that was coming. All these big corporations they have to make money,” said Scot Ward, owner of Stone Pizza in Roseville.
CBS News reported that fast food workers who advocated for the minimum raise increase said it was desperately needed, saying they were not making a livable wage.
“This new law that’s coming in, I feel like it will have everybody equal, you know?” said Maria Hernandez, a manager for another local fast food chain in Folsom, and a fast food union member.
“I was working long hours and making basically no money. With these extra five dollars, it’s a great deal,” said Hernandez.
Last year, McDonald’s announced it was testing automation technology to replace its workforce and make many of its employees redundant.
As The Daily Fetched reported:
The fast food restaurant announced that customers could use kiosks and a mobile app to get food from a conveyor belt instead of speaking with a staff member.
The new concept is designed to give the restaurant team “the ability to concentrate more on order speed and accuracy, which makes the experience more enjoyable for everyone,” Keith Vanecek, the restaurant’s franchisee, said.
Meanwhile, critics said the restaurant concept came following left-wing politician’s call for a minimum wage hike.
They’ll just shift to 3rd party delivery which is spotty.
Extra fees to the customer can lower sales.
Third party services like Door Dash, etc is contract work. 1099 reporting so the driver is on the hook for all of the SS taxes and no perks.
They are also harder to control and quality suffers. Their drivers don’t pay attention or check their orders. Lots of mistakes.
And from my experience the drivers tend to be foreigners.
“”McDonald’s announced it was testing automation technology to replace its workforce...
Look for this to be made illegal. We can’t have good union workers be replaced by machines.””
Well....If the right union thugs at the top receive their own 10-20% payoff, they will sell out the regular workers without blinking an eye.
PS...with the mounting brownouts and blackouts of the electric grid, will the fast food kiosks have there own power source?
Another observation - places like In N Out Burgers have such long drive-thru lines, they put a staff member outside to go down the line taking orders (before the car gets to the regular order spot). Will this staff be eliminated also? Oh, silly me. In the Brave New World of Governor Newsom, the drive-thru will be illegal. Or will it be EVs only can use a drive-thru, since the EV buyer is ‘saving the planet.’
Delivery drivers are laid off and the pizza companies will contract with grub hub to deliver their pizzas.
Fast food companies will automate.
Go look at a modern McDonalds - they have set up an entire digital and online infrastructure to facilitate automation and they are well along with replacing human labor.
You can order online, pay online and either have the food delivered or pick it up at the counter.
The 15 dollar min wage activists have given them plenty of time to get ready.
It is really time to leave that place. They may be independent-contractor drivers and/or pizza workers inthe rest of the country.
McDonalds kiosk-it’s really easy. You don’t have to deal with ‘just the sandwich?’ after you’ve said Big Mac just the sandwich. I learned how to use it when no one showed up for work-only 3 food preparers. I had to teach a couple of old folk how to use it who otherwise would have gone hungry.
You miss the point.
Forget Pizza and let them eat cake.....
Any politician that did not see this coming is hardly worth their carbon footprint. It is not 3D chess, it’s not chess or even checkers. So look for the other reason. Many delivery companies are Cali-based, are they not? Uber Eats, for example. Out of SanFran, no? So let’s see a contribution list for all the yea votes. I’ll bet there is a story there.
This topic has been referenced already in several other posts. Please search.
Stupid and self defeating.
Of course drivers are going to lose their jobs. Restaurants will have to increase prices to cover the costs. They will shift the burden to consumers, like every other company. The end result will be more businesses closing, fewer jobs and less tax revenue for the government.
Typical politicians. They either do not understand how the private sector works, or they don’t care, or probably both.
““This new law that’s coming in, I feel like it will have everybody equal, you know?”
Yeah. Equally unemployed.
Just another nail in the coffin of CaliFUBAR.
Here in California every fast food joint is on my boycott.
Insane for the prices they charge for what give to the illegals a pay increase.
The true minimum wage is zero.
How much does the employee make the employer per minute?
Makes sense that these would be the first jobs to go. With DoorDash and Uber Eats, etc., there really is no reason for any restaurant to have their own delivery services.
California already passed a law severely restricting who can be considered an independent contractor. Pretty much decimated the gig economy there. Even Uber and Lyft drivers are considered employees not contractors there.
Having 2000 pizza drivers lose their jobs is a small price to pay for giving them a living wage. /s/
You got a wood fired oven?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.