Posted on 02/11/2024 10:13:38 AM PST by Salman
Hundreds of fast-food workers met in Los Angeles on Friday to kick off the launch of the California Fast Food Workers Union, a statewide union aimed at organizing cooks and cashiers at fast-food companies across the state.
The new union comes in the wake of a victory at the end of 2023 to boost pay for California’s more than 500,000-strong fast-food workforce to $20 an hour.
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In California, over 80% of fast-food workers are people of color and two-thirds are women. In recent years, workers at fast-food chains throughout the state have held strikes in response to poor workplace conditions including excessive heat exposure in the workplace, sexual harassment and retaliation against workers, child labor violations, and wage theft.
“I’m very proud to say that we’re going to have a union. This is like a dream come true for me to be able to say this,” said Angelica Hernandez, who has worked at McDonald’s for 19 years in Los Angeles, California. “McDonald’s and other brands like Carl’s Jr, Chipotle – they have to listen to us. They’ve been making millions and millions of dollars in profits, and they want to keep their employees working at minimum wage.”
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(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Yup. I was one of them a long time ago.
There should actually be NO minimum wage.
I got my first regular job by apprenticing for free at a local gas station where my friend worked. Did that for probably two months. One of the regular employees quit, so guess who got hired to replace him? For pay!
The minimum wage is always $0.
Oh they will listen, to the humming of automation while you sit in your mommy and daddys basement with out a job
It is like this where I work. The management team tend to hire people like themselves (race and/or sex). They like about their belief in diversity, equity, and inclusion even though that is what the company I work for preaches.
..... Something like that would be in the purview of a union action so the employers would not attemp that. The best time for the employer to move on automation would be before there is anything in their contract to protect them from it.
.
The first order of the Union will be to minimize or even halt the cost saving Automation...
More unemployment, more blight, more reasons to move out of the once-great state of California.
BTW, the law affects more than fast food workers. As the prices rise and the (cough, cough) quality suffers, there will be fewer customers thus less biz for the food suppliers, and their suppliers. The inverse multiplier effects leading to more unemployment, lower tax collections, and more need for govt services.
FWIW, the Planning Commission in my town just approved another fast-food joint, this one a fried chicken place. Raising Cane’s, or something like that. Just fried chicken parts, toast, French fries, and I think lemonade. That’s all they sell. The drive-thru aisle has stacking for 23 (!!!) vehicles. Holy Crap! Their marketing plan hit a home run, as did the one used by a ‘coffee’ outlet in this region known as Dutch Bros. Wildly popular. They don’t promote their food or coffee, necessarily. They sell an image. That image is adopted by many of their very young and vacuous clientele as an essential part of their identity. “Brand Loyalty” for these kinds of places is phenomenal, and little unsettling.
And it drives away normal people who don't even bother applying in the first place. This is why good people don't want to get involved in politics anymore.
> The railroad union insisted on having firemen long after there was a fire to attend on locomotives. <
I friend of mine was a fireman on a diesel locomotive. As you noted, union rules. I once asked him what he did on those long country runs. “Wave at the cows,” was his reply.
Re lower wages for young teens, I agree. We don’t hire kids to pick crops anymore because we have to pay them prevailing wage. They have no skill set or work ethic, and I have to pay them $18 to train and babysit? No thanks. 20 years ago we would employ kids for 3 hours a day, they learned how to show up on time, put some sweat in and earn some extra scratch for music, games, whatever. Those days are long gone. Good job leftards.
I meant to write “lie” instead of “like”. My typo.
And of course in IT, there are the Indian managers who only hire Indians.
The writing was on the wall in California, so the chains will get what they deserve, for not paying attention.
As with everything else, there will be fewer outlets cranking out higher volumes. FWIW, I remember my first McDonald’s hamburger. I was six, and my sister and I finally pestered our folks enough that they finally took us there one day. I took one bite of my burger. It tasted weird and awful to me, and I could not finish it. Cured. (That is, until they came out with breakfast items many years later. A McMuffin with some orange juice was my cheap, fast, go-to on the road breakfast for years. Now it costs around $83, I think, and the people behind the counter aren’t particularly friendly.)
How terrible, having to pay prevailing wages. Gosh so awful, so awful. So you hire scab aliens instead, right?
The balls to make that statement. I hope your crops rot.
I tried my hand at restaurant automation but unfortunately the companies themselves are developing and manufacturing the equipment so the small shops can’t get their foot in the door. Otherwise that’s exactly what I would be doing.
Robots are scabs.
Lol.
Que up the ChiCom made food-bots.
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