Fast food workers in dozens of cities will strike today in support of higher wages. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has been providing financial support and training to those organizing the activities.
One of those target cities is here in San Diego.
From UT San Diego:
San Diego fast food workers will join a nationwide 1-day strike Thursday as part of a call for a $15-an-hour minimum wage and the right to unionize.
Employees from McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Subway and Chipotle will gather Thursday morning at the downtown San Diego Wendy’s on Broadway, joined by supporters from community groups and the clergy.
San Diego is one of about 50 cities across the country participating in the 1-day action, following similar strikes held in a smaller number of core cities in May and July.
Other citizens around San Diego and across the country have a different idea – they are revising meal plans today in support of the free market and their favorite fast food restaurants.
This is from San Diego blogger B-Daddy:
McDonald’s, Subway then In-n-Out
The title of the article refers to my dining plans for breakfast, lunch and dinner in light of the “fast-food” strike set for tomorrow. I will be showing solidarity with the workers of those establishments who choose to show up and provide the generally good service we have come to expect in all American businesses. I predict that I will have no trouble getting my meals, as the “strike” is an astroturf operation of the SEIU. If the strike by San Diego’s roughly 8,000 fast food employees was otherwise, why would the strikers only gather at a single establishment downtown? For the publicity and the photo op, of course. I just feel sorry for the jurors who won’t be able to hit the Wendy’s on their break from duty. Other than that, this will be a great big fizzle. To my astroturf point, the AP is reporting:Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, which is providing the fast-food strikes with financial support and training. . .
The strike is stupid for other reasons. If the strikers were successful, then eventually fast food outlets would employ vastly more automation to make their meals, reducing the number of employees. Further, it would harm the nation’s economy by not providing entry level positions that allow young people to learn the life skills necessary for success at work. How is that fast food workers would get paid $15 an hour when my son only gets minimum wage in his union job at the grocer?
…The call for higher wages not supported by skills hurts job creation. I think employers should fire workers who miss their shift to strike tomorrow, but I could understand wanting to play it low key. McDonald’s is doing so:
Casillas said in an email that McDonald’s did not plan to take any action against employees who participate in the strike.
[…]
So join me [Thursday] at a fast food joint, this could be a boon for the industry, and it will help reduce youth unemployment.
Fellow San Diego W.C. Varones is planning to eat at Chipotle, which is another strike target. He offers this counter to union charges that the current minimum wage is unfair: Your humble blogger got his first work experience in the food service industry, and learned more there than he did in college. Why would we deny such a valuable experience to future generations?
Our group of activists is also trying to promote our buycott via the Twitter hashtags: #SupportFastFood and #FastFoodBuycott.
Myself? I am very fond of McDonald’s fries…and capitalism. So, I am heading to the Golden Arches after a day at the beach.
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Comments
I say give them all $15 a hour. In six months all the fast food joints will be closed because no one will be able to afford to eat in any of them.
When I lived in Ireland I used to see the CIE workers do this sort of thing on a regular basis. There’d be a strike because the drivers and conductors wanted higher wages. During the strike people would make other arrangements to get to work/school/shopping. Buses would start running again but with higher fares. Because of higher fares some people would continue their alternate arrangements. So total fare box revenue would stay about the same, so no raises offered the next contract, as well as cuts in service and staffing. More striking because of no raises and layoffs. Lather, rinse, repeat, with ridership dropping every year as it became too expensive.
At some point in the decade after I left they must have seen the light, or else declared bankruptcy, since the fares when I visited 8 years after leaving were less than when I had lived there. The buses also had a lot more people on them.
I suspect it would indeed take all the jobs disappearing completely to wake these people up, and even then, only a few would actually understand what had happened and why.
Sigh then I would never get to eat a Wendy’s Spicy Chicken ever again. I can’t get the crust to stick on mine–how do they do it?
Plus in terms of fat and calories, as much as the wacko health food people claim that fast food french fries are bad, my home made fries are less tasty and probably much worse.
Pat the raw chicken dry, with paper towels. Dredge them in flour and shake off the excess. Dip the flour coated pieces in an egg/milk combo. You want the liquid to be thick, not overly drippy. If I have any leftover light cream or half and half, I use that instead of milk. The coating sticks better. Then dip the chicken in whatever coating you want. It should stick like it’s been glued because it has been.
Can we come by for dinner?
Is that recipe copyrighted? I only ask because this is a law blog and one can’t be too careful around lawyers.
So the Twinkie strike never happened?
Twinkies are back and being made by non-union workers now.
Twinkies are smaller and have higher prices now, too, with the greedy Management in place.
It’s a price we’re happy to pay if it puts just one union thug out of work.
Leslie is correct:
“The strike is stupid for other reasons. If the strikers were successful, then eventually fast food outlets would employ vastly more automation to make their meals, reducing the number of employees.”
The technology is already here to do in the cashiers and the burger flippers.
At least with those machines they would get my order right. I always want them to hold the ketchup, mustard, mayo or sauce.
As much as I like the sweet ladies at our local McD’s…. I would love to have the ability to bypass the horrible *static*static*whut*static*order*static*like?*static* stuff.
Push buttons to make my order in, oh, ten seconds instead of five, and have it on ME if someone screws up the “no whipcream” or “no mayo”? Sign me up.
Can’t Kalifornia just be given back to Mexico?
What the left fails to realize is that no one has a moral obligation to provide employment to anyone.
And I have no moral obligation to support insanity in the guise of workers demanding wages not commensurate with their skills.
Sounds like a win-win to me.
This is all the unions have left. If you think these “staged” events will change anything, have I got news for you.
Usually, unioons use strong arm tactics to sign workers up. But stores, it seems, can spot a “union organizer” miles away. And, the workers don’t want to be signed up!
Unions don’t have an “act two.”
While in DC, where Walmart planned to open two stores, because of the local ruling a minimum wage job pays $15 per hour; those plans were “put on hold.” People who shop Walmart’s have been going to a different location all along. And, because of “Obummer Care” … workers are finding their hours cut. Where they once worked a full weak, they work under 29 hours, now.
Astro-turfed union agitators make noise, but the workers are NOT STRIKING, they’re serving food.
After a couple years in fast food, a worker will understand how efficiently they should work on any other job. Hamburger “college” is cheap schooling. Maybe they’ll learn to provide a service and become an entrepreneur.
Expensive schools teach entitlement and how to destroy someone’s business, as they did in Detroit. We can’t all be tenured government union workers.
oh, I guess some did walk out … and Detroit closed one store. Hopefully they fire those guys that walked out on the job.
If I start a business I want a contract with my workers that they will not walk out with intent to coerce money from me, when I have contracts to fulfill. They can organize, but if they destroy my company, they broke a contract and owe me big time. Why would anyone run a business where the workers can always put a gun to their business head?
Treat good workers well and things work better. If not, the business usually fails anyway.
Nope, as a thieving Manager you have no right to block your workers – the People Who Actually Build It – from organizing.
If you are so greedy, you should do all the work yourself. Then you can keep all the money.
You should put your money where your mouth is and build your own restaurant or other company, and then you can pay your workers whatever you like and under any conditions you like.
whiney theiving little bitch aren’t you?
Wow. Let me guess… Everyone in authority is an —hole, right? Everyone who makes decisions in a business venture is a greedy blood sucker who only wants to see people lower on the ladder suffer. Do I have that correct? Except if someone like YOU were in charge, right? YOU’D make things better, wouldn’t you? YOU’D be a true leader – respected and loved by all the other workers. You know this due to your vast amount of business experience. Tell me, have I got it just about right?
Workers don’t build, they work. Employers employ people (workers) for that purpose.
Boycott? I’ll give up my daily Hardee’s Breakfast Platter With Bacon and carton of white milk when you pry it from my cold dead hands.
White milk??? You racist! /sarc
The onus of the union-controlled USDL is suddenly very obvious. In the old days, workers without union affiliation did not dare strike or they were summarily dismissed from the payroll. Labor law has rigorous rules that must be followed in order to openly solicit unionization among employees and there are notifications that must be made to company management. Obama’s SEIU is obviously not at all fettered by such rules.
I had a Rally’s burger today. Two servers. One, borderline rude, no idea of customer service. The other one, bright and chipper, polite, smiling. Their jobs aren’t rocket science and anybody can do it. It’s not a job for someone trying to support a family, but in Democrat-run America, many fast food workers are doing just that because they are ill-educated, got pregnant young, and don’t know how to get out of the trap they are in. Some are school kids hustling a buck, which is good job training for them. If the strike spreads, the chaos that Obama has been fostering throughout America will come full bloom. The Democrats created the situation; many of the poor adopted lifestyles and habits that continue it; and now the Democrats and Obama are trying to capitalize on disaster.
I wonder if the adults working at these burger flipping jobs could survive on their current wages without government support in the form of food stamps/medicaid/etc. Take those programs away and would they suddenly go searching for better paying jobs?
Better paying jobs through development of skills and knowledge, or areas with lower cost of living.
That’s exactly how the thieving 1%er CEO Manager class makes it work for them – pay starvation wages, which they want to reduce anyway – and expect Government to pick up the slack.
The plan is to destroy the middle class – take 99% of the wealth and concentrate it in 1%: the most sociopathic, greedy, and evil 1% of the population.
Is this a parody, or are you for real?
“The plan is to destroy the middle class”
A job at McDonald’s has never been a “middle class” job. Ever.
Just watch. Don’t be surprised if McD’s Corp decides to introduce self-serving menus and cash registers, a la Wal-Mart. And self-serve menus with the push of an iPad button at the drive-thru. The only faces to see will be the ones doing the orders inside. Saves lots of costs for employer. Zero customer interaction. No more whining about minimum wage. Automatons never complaint. All of it being run by an IT manager.
That is the future.
And the unions won’t even know what the H&#@$ hit them!
Blaaahgrrrrr wahggr mahrrger CEO’s blarhger! Mahrrger blaggher starvation wages! Wharrger mahrrger evil 1% Managers!! Middle class blarhger!!!!
Don’t they get it? If their jobs suddenly started paying $15/hr better educated, more experienced job seekers who can actually speak coherent English would be taking those jobs. There’s a reason these folks don’t currently have a $15/hr job.
Let’s throw basic economics out the window for a second and assume it were possible to make a jump from $8/hr to $15/hr and still remain profitable.
If they could afford to suddenly start paying $15/hr the people striking right now wouldn’t stand a chance! Potential employees actually worth $15/hr would start applying and these new people would SMOKE 75% of the current employees. Professionalism, attitudes, customer service, attendance; The vast majority of current employees would be toast! There would be so many high quality applicants the managers could afford to get rid of anyone that wasn’t a perfect fit.
The issue is cost of living. The resolution is to address the distortions which cause inflation in the local economy, including forced integration of disparate economic classes, and other policies promoted by redistributive change political and economic models.
I’m sorry, what?
I used to be a CFO for a transportation and warehousing company. One of our divisions was a full boat teamster LTL operation. My old boss the owner had this great saying:
Who sentenced you to work here?
If they want a job paying $15 an hour, go find one. However, understand that the job you are in now, is not one that will support $15 an hour. No one forced you to take the job at McDonald’s or any other fast food restaurant. If you want a higher paying job, go interview for one.
This, at PJ Tatler:
“Here’s someone who supports the dumbest strike ever. She isn’t the most sympathetic advocate for higher wages for entry level work. See if you can spot all the reasons.”
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/08/29/if-you-want-people-to-feel-sorry-for-you-you-might-think-about-hiding-the-big-screen-tv/
I worked at a big tax preparing company for one season, never again cuz it’s minimum wage for serious work. There, I did the taxes of a person who came in with lots of names and SS#’s, kids who may not have been hers. She paid minimum taxes and got somewhere between $5,000-$7,000 in returns because of child tax and other credits. It was all a scam cuz the folks who pulled down that kind of return knew how much work to do every year before they stopped and went on welfare or worked off the books.
Anyway, she insisted it was necessary that she get her refund early cuz she had bills, etc. Okay. So, she got a same day refund. Later that evening, at the local Walmart, who did I meet coming out of Sam’s place with a monster screen tv?
crap food from crap restaurants worked by people who didn’t pay attention in school and are now crying because they can’t raise six kids on a burger king salary. guess what nancy, you should have thought of that before you and your five baby-daddy’s started cranking out the SNAP coupons.
I don’t really get how someone can strike that has no union to “in theory” protect them, all they are doing is not showing up and will be fired properly so.
They quit their job that’s all DOH. Whatever ass group who encouraged them do so won’t be around to pay the bills, not even silly picket pay which is what most often squat.
OOPS just actually read posting and it said SEIU that figures, they are screwed.
It’s as if these entry level workers feel these are permanent jobs that will sustain them for the long run. Why might they feel this way?
I blame Obama’s policies — especially expansions to programs like food stamps, ObamaPhones and medical care (ObamaCare). Fewer workers strive for higher-paying jobs because more of their needs and wants are provided by the government. Obama taking away these workers’ incentive to succeed.
I also blame Obama’s woeful economy that makes it impossible for young and low skill workers to succeed, even if they want to.
Ask the steel workers how it feels to have a high union mandated skill but no job to be paid for.
That’s one of the reasons why most of our steel mills are closed here in the US.
Back in the 70’s steel workers demanded and got high wages and ridiculous work rules that fattened their salaries until the competition from overseas drove the price of steel down and the steel makers out of business.
If your ever near Gary, IN or Bethlehem, PA, and yes Detroit, MI, go look at the rusting rotting steel plants that they can’t convert, sell or use so they just sit there a blot on the landscape.
All caused by UNION greed.
Keep in mind that for a Union worker to benefit, YOUR wages have to remain low, other wise their standard of living would remain the same.
Also, no striker has ever recovered the amount of money they lost during a strike by an increase in pay or benefit. NEVER.
Who are the beneficiaries of Unions? The mediocre, the mundane and the UNION officers.
yeah, when I lived in Atlanta it was always a pleasure to go to Chick a Fil…. smart, clean-cut and customer-service-oriented kids working there. the kids competed for those jobs because the company offered college scholarships. amazing what market forces can do.
No kidding! I’m in the deep south and let me tell you Chick-fil-A doesn’t take anyone who isn’t nearly perfect as an employee. The difference is astounding.
Employers should have the right to choose. I see plenty of diversity in there but the one kind of “diversity” I don’t see is the riff raff kinds. All are well spoken and courteous.
I never eat food that I don’t prepare myself.
All of those places could disappear tomorrow and it would not matter to me.
I expect to see a major push to automation in food service, and fewer workers being hired as time goes by.
Fly Eastern!
That $15.00 per hour job costs their employer much more than $15.00 per hour. The necessary increase in prices would put them out of business. If I want an $8.00 burger, there are several actual restaurants with servers that will cook it to my specifications for 8 bucks.
I used to wholly own and operate a Roly Poly Rolled Sandwiches franchise and remain a minority owner (till my former manager pays off on buying it). The average profit margin for restaurants is about 5%. Franchise groups often settle for 2%. Given the narrow margins, even small rises in labor costs must be passed on to customers, same as how rises in taxes are passed on to customers via higher prices.
Labor is paid by management. Management places a value on each job position. A janitor is worth x amount per hour, an accountant x amount, and so on. When management is forced to pay more for a given job than it is worth, bad things happen. Management is forced to raise prices or eliminate as many of those jobs as is necessary to keep the doors open and an acceptable profit margin. In the restaurant business that’s about 5%. Tinkering with the formula is bad. Letting the free market sort it out is good.
***Letting the free market sort it out is the only reason there is a fast food industry in the first damn place.***
This is not rocket surgery.
weird.
working shit jobs inspired me to do something with my life.
You suppose a $15. an hour they could wash their hands before returning to work? Probably not!
Fast food employees are “at will”. Meaning they don’t show up without a valid excuse(illness, etc.) they can be fired.
Considering how many people are looking even for a $7.25 job right now, I don’t think managers will bat an eyelash at firing their sorry butts and will have someone on a wait list to work tomorrow.
Do you think the strikers will ever figure out that being employed at $7.25/hour is preferable to being unemployed at $15/hour?
Morons.
Thanks for the link, Leslie. I followed up today by having all three meals from fast food places. My favorite comment was from an employee at In-N-Out who responded to my question about the strike with this. “On strike? We’re never on strike. Why would we go on strike? This is a great company to work for.” Read the whole article at The Liberator Today. Thanks.
We need to ban public employee unions, that will do the wretched movement in.
briNg back the “AUTOMAT’
So they think a business can just absorb the cost of more than doubling their labor costs, is that it? I’m guessing these people failed basic math. Which is probably why they’re still working at McDonald’s when they’re 30.
Reduce their salaries below minimum wage a bit to cut food prices and have them work for tips (they will do well on volume).
Customer experience becomes better and they get a compromise salary.
It would be incredibly stupid and insane if this were ever to pass. Fast food service is considered one of if not the lowest job in America. If the job suddently paid 15 an hour minimum wage or effective minimum wage would soon follow. Go home people and try to think outside the box because your grumbles and demands won’t get it done.