Get Woke, Get Fired: Even in New York, the iron laws of economics once again prove stronger

The "fight for 15" -- a minimum wage of $15 an hour -- has been a rallying cry on the left for a while now, and they've succeeded in implementing it in various blue states. And look what's -- so utterly predictably -- happening:

Its workers were the first to stage rallies demanding a minimum wage of $15 an hour. Then, they pressed for changes in the way national restaurant chains set their work schedules.

Now, they are asking the City Council to shield them from being fired without a valid reason. That protection, the sort of job security that unions usually bargain for, would be a first for a city to provide to workers in a specific industry, labor law experts said.

City Councilman Brad Lander said he planned to introduce a bill on Wednesday that would require fast-food businesses to show “just cause” for firing workers and give them a chance to appeal dismissals through arbitration.

To the New York Times, every business issue looks like a job for lawyers, government intervention, or both. Every economist this side of Paul Krugman warned that every dollar above the real minimum wage (which is $0.00/hour) would have to come from a combination of price rises, quality reduction, or staffing reductions. And now that kiosks, which actually will work for $0.00 an hour), are here, McDonald's and other fast-food chains need fewer economically overpriced laborers, especially ones who don't show up for work and fret that fast-food jobs aren't, you know, careers.

The Times is trying to frame this story as Mean Old Management vs. Underpaid Non-Union Minority Workers:

Mr. Lander, a Democrat from Brooklyn, said he was responding to surveys of fast-food workers indicating that “there’s a substantial percentage of employees that have been fired unfairly.” One woman said she was fired from a Chipotle restaurant for not smiling enough.

Because surly, lackadaisical service is just what customers love!

But restaurant industry officials and lawyers who represent the industry said the proposal was just the latest stratagem employed by a national union that has been trying to organize fast-food workers ever since they first staged protests for better wages and working conditions in 2012.

The Service Employees International Union adopted the workers’ Fight for 15 campaign, which spurred New York and other cities and states to raise minimum wages to $15 an hour and in some places higher.

“We’re always skeptical about any efforts by the S.E.I.U., that they’re really anything more than a front to help them increase their dues-paying membership and their political agenda,” said Matthew Haller, an executive with the International Franchise Association in Washington. Read the rest of this story, if you can. It's a blend of economic self-interest, labor union tub-thumping, social justice crusading, and a good old sob story about workers who got fired for missing a shift, and other such trivial matters. Wait til the downsizing at the burger counter really gets underway in earnest. Then you'll really see some wailing, although not from the kiosks -- and not from the customers, either.

Now that some blacks are getting red-pilled, Democrats are importing a new loyal base that cannot attain goals above a minimum wage job. They must be unionized, protected, exalted, and held up as the true beacons of the New American dream: incapable of self-sufficiency at any level and completely dependent on Uncle Sugar. Minimum wage jobs are grunt jobs for young folks just starting out. It was never intended to be a career, and the idea of raising a family if that’s all you can earn is ludicrous, but that’s the loonie left for you.

I had a shop unionize while i was there.

* No new worker protection (Management just made sure ALL paperwork was properly documented)

*HUUUUGE pay raise - .15/hr.

* union mandated insurance that nobody could afford as we paid half.

*worker/ management relations destroyed

*everyone who agitated for union (some long time employees) left within 3 months.

I know the article relates to raising minimum wage; just pointing out how well “improving” the organic market relationship between business and employee works out when “improvements” are imposed.
Sorry for the loosely related rant.

My first restaurant gig was as a busboy. Second best job I ever had.
I was paid minimum wage+ a percentage of waitress tips.(they tipped me what THEY thought I was worth.)
busted my butt everyday, and in 3 months I had enough spare income to buy a NIB Mini-14 with extra mags and 1000 rounds.( right after Clinton’s assault weapon ban.)
After 30 years in the business, I know busboys are not necessary, but are a great help. Busboys are the first ones sent home on slow nights, and the first ones let go when times get tough.
Bottom line- make yourself indispensable.

Given all these non-union union protections, I see two things happening here:

1) Fast food restaurants become 95% automated, from order taking to order prep to order delivery, with a tech-savvy manager to keep the machines running, and one or two minimum wagers to clean up the tables, empty the trash and see that the floors and bathrooms don’t get disgusting, or

2) The union thugs try to organize these places, in which case option 1 above comes into play.

Any economist could tell you what would happen. Minimum wage laws are aimed at the young, inexperienced, often minority worker. Yet, when the law goes into effect, more often than not, the employer is going to realize he cannot sustain his current staffing level and he is going to have to fire some people. So, who should he fire? It's to his own interest to fire the least experienced worker, who is often young and a minority. On the bright side, those who are no longer working can say:

But, if I could find a job, I'd be making $15/hr.

Little comfort when you can't find a job.

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