Then
Now
Posted on 08/29/2013 9:16:20 AM PDT by Biggirl
I want to see some evidence these people really are present day fast food employees, versus SEIU paid agitators.
I remember when .45 cents an hour was common for that type of work. But a burger only cost 20 cents.
Then they wanted more per hour, and burger prices began to climb.
If I were the owner of any of these places being victimized by these employees, they would be out of a job as soon as they walk out the door. Let the courts try to force me to rehire them.
Do robots spit in the food? Would Je$$e Jack$$on know?
Walking around Chicagos loop (business district) not a single striking fast food worker in sight, and its the lunch hour.
My understanding is that many (most?) union contracts are tied to the minimum wage.
Thus, if the minimum wage increases, according to contract, the union worker’s wage increases by a commensurate amount.
In the end, this strike has nothing to do with care and concern about the “poor folks” earning minimum wage; rather it is a money grab organized by the unions.
The president of the union local.
All of the technology to automate McDonalds is availble today and it wlill be installed if need be.
Fast food jobs are for teens to provide them with spending money and college funds. They are not career paths.
To all those fast-food workers who voted for LIBs/DIMs/nobama...Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Automated food production? End of fast food “restaurants”?
I was glad when gas became self-service, and LOVE ATMs which means I don’t have to go into the bank, wait in line and speak to someone who doesn’t understand English. Ditto for self-service at the supermarkets and hardware stores. I am not for putting anyone out of work but I am tired of dealing with surly clerks who act as if they’re doing ME a favor by helping me or checking me out.
So, yes, let it be so.
When I got out of the Navy in 1985 my first job was as a $15/hr maintenance technician in a factory with over 7000 workers. When I did a corporate transfer in 1998 I was up to $29/hr and in a factory with over 6000 workers. In 2001 the bottom fell out, I was laid off and have been going from one closing company to the next ever since, with lower wages each time.
Today the first factory I was in is shut down completely. The 2nd one is a shell with less than 100 people in it and will be gone as soon as they can sell it. My latest company, where I was making less than my starting wage in 1984, laid me off due to lack of work about 6 weeks ago. I haven't collected any unemployment checks yet but took a temporary job that paid $9.25/hr and an hour from now I am going to be interviewed for a minimum wage job in a supermarket, praying that I can convince them to take me on full time rather than part time so I can get health insurance for my wife and myself, or at least give me a goal of making full time within X amount of days. If they don't then odds are I will take it anyway and spend every nickel I make on part timer's health benefits while I search for something full time. I'm just trying to survive until I'm old enough to cash in my 401k without penalties and move to another country where it is cheaper to live. That wasn't the American Dream I had in mind when I was growing up.
Not everyone out there is an uneducated, shiftless slacker. I worked and saved all my life. Our house is paid off. We have no debt other than utility bills. None of that matters anymore. The old maxim of work hard and you will get by is dead. At least we still have the dream of one day being able to sell everything we worked all of our lives for and use it to get the heck out of Dodge. There are millions out there who work just as hard and are a lot worse off.
Occupy Burger King
a protest in front of a Burger King in Copley Sq Boston. "Fast food companies are some of the wealthiest corporations in America while many fast food workers are forced to rely on public assistance for their families and also to get health care for their children."
----
"If you think health care is expensive now, just wait till it's 'free'"--PJ O'Rourke
The EBT folks who get stuff for free...free at last... free at last...thank God almighty EVERYTHING'S free at last!
"Everything free in America"--West Side Story
Work hard, get educated, earn more!
Let them strike. The restaurants will either go out of business or hire new workers because the public will never pay the higher prices. Either way, the strikers lose. And they deserve to lose.
CC
The vitriol on this thread directed at people who are actually holding down jobs is unbelievable.
Free Market American Economy 101: All honest work has value.
Why is it okay for people who screw wingnuts onto bolts to strike for sixty dollars an hour? Nobody suggests that they all be fired and the factories shut down. That requires no more education than flipping burgers.
If the fast food franchise owners can’t find workers who’ll work for the wages they’re offering, then they’ll have to raise wages or go out of business. That’s the way it works.
But to unilaterally sneer and mock people who are doing the work of the world, work that needs doing, should not be part of the discussion. Fine. We get it. You’re too good or too awesome or something to empty the grease vat. You don’t have to. But it’s work that needs doing, and I have more respect for someone who does that for a living than some overpaid government worker — cop or firemen or DMV clerk — who gets HUGE FAT OUT OF PROPORTION wages on MY dime the exact same way — unions holding everyone hostage.
At least if the fast food workers form a union, we can vote “no” on higher burger prices and buy our burgers elsewhere. So what’s it to you if they strike or not?
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.
