"For Us By Us"
I'm still waiting for the racial discrimination case to be brought by the Whites (if any) working here.
Posted on 01/07/2003 2:25:43 PM PST by leadpenny
Dow Jones News Wire via Yahoo!
DES MOINES, Iowa (Dow Jones)--A U.S. magistrate has denied class-action status to a racial-discrimination lawsuit by some black employees of Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores.
The restaurant chain's parent company, CBRL Group Inc. (NasdaqNM:CBRL - News) , Tuesday confirmed the Dec. 31 ruling by federal magistrate Walter E. Johnson in a case brought by seven African-American employees in 1999. Their suit contended that the chain had denied blacks advancement opportunities and hadn't properly evaluated and trained them.
"In most stores over most years, there was no difference in pass rates between the races," the judge wrote, referring to promotions. "There was no pattern of adverse pass rates against African-American test-takers across the entire company," his lengthy ruling said in part.
Plaintiffs have an opportunity to appeal the recommendation, which a federal court eventually must approve or reject.
CBRL, of Lebanon, Tenn., issued a statement calling the magistrate's ruling " consistent with what we have said from the very beginning: there is simply no evidence Cracker Barrel engages in a pattern of discrimination against African- American employees. Indeed, quite the opposite is true."
The company said that about 13% of its nearly 50,000 employees are African- Americans, and that more than 7% of its field managers are black.
Last October, a federal judge in Georgia denied class-action certification to another lawsuit, alleging discrimination against African-American customers at Cracker Barrel restaurants.
-By Richard Gibson, Dow Jones Newswires; 515-282-6830; dick.gibson@ dowjones.com
I'm still waiting for the racial discrimination case to be brought by the Whites (if any) working here.
As for the restaurant, I have no use for it. It's my wife and kids that make me stop. The tourist-trap "country store" that they make you walk through to get to the restaurant is nothing but a bunch of overpriced kitsch. It's a nightmarish vision of Old Farmer's Almanac ads come to life.
The restaurant food is just plain lousy. Bland as can be. Now I love country cooking, which is what this restaurant purports to be. But this isn't country cooking. It's like what your grandmother would cook if she was cooking in a prison cafeteria.
And to top it all off, you can't even get a beer with your bland food. Not even the staple drink of an old-time New England country meal - hard cider. For the restaurants are as dry as a Kansas saloon on the morning after Carry Nation took a sledgehammer to the place. I guess the founder of this Cracker Barrel chain must have been a Prohibitionist or something.
Judge: No Class Action in Restaurant Suit
Tuesday January 7, 5:50 pm ET
By Harry R. Weber, AP Business Writer
Judge Says Cracker Barrel Suit Should Not Be Class-Action
ATLANTA (AP) -- A federal magistrate has recommended that class-action status be denied in a lawsuit filed by black Cracker Barrel restaurant employees who say they were segregated from white workers and generally received "back of the house" assignments such as cook and dishwasher.
The decision, entered last week in U.S. District Court in Rome, is another setback for workers who filed several lawsuits against the Lebanon, Tenn.-based restaurant chain. The suit involves employees at Cracker Barrel locations in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
In October, a federal appeals court in Atlanta ruled that a separate discrimination suit against the company could not include an additional 40 plaintiffs and the NAACP. The would-be plaintiffs claimed that black customers were subjected to racial slurs and served food taken from the trash.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Grant Morris, noted the decision is only a recommendation, and that it must be approved by the presiding judge in the case.
"That is clearly the important decision we are waiting for," Morris said. "It's not necessarily a setback." He said he would file objections by Jan. 20 to the magistrate's recommendations.
Cracker Barrel applauded the decision Tuesday.
"There is simply no evidence Cracker Barrel engages in a pattern of discrimination against African-American employees," the company said. "Indeed, quite the opposite is true. We treat all of our employees with dignity and respect."
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. operates 466 restaurant in 41 states.
Shares of Cracker Barrel parent, CBRL Group Inc., were down 17 cents Tuesday to close at $29.40 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Back then, it really was country cooking, and breakfast was basically an all you could eat thing. They didn't advertise it as such, but as long as I kept asking for more, the waitress kept bringing it.
Back then, it was a great place to eat. Now, I agree with you, Sam. Not worth the time, much less the money.
And what's worse, they don't even put any sugar in the cornbread. As a result the muffins taste like saw dust.
(Old joke #1: How can you tell the difference between a Yankee and a Southern? The yankee puts sugar in his cornbread.)
(Old Joke #2:)
-- Ask anyone in the world what a yankee is and they'll say, "An American"
-- Ask an American what a yankee is and they'll say, "Anyone from New England"
-- Ask anyone from New England what a yankee is and they'll say, "Anyone from Vermont".
-- Ask anyone from Vermont what a yankee is and they'll say, "Anyone who puts chedder cheese on his apple pie."
So be careful how y'all condemn them. They're keeping the perverts out, right? {/sarcasm OFF}
(Neither piece of bigotry should, of course, be the subject of political remedies.)
We think it is fun because of all the vintage toys. Tinker toys sold in containers just like when we were kids, is just one example. Beanie Babies are sold there, too, at a reasonable price.
We've taken to enjoying their Friday night fishfry every now and then.
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