Because jobs are plentiful, there’s a labor shortage, and they don’t have to put up with working conditions like this anymore:
- Ashley Sierra, a Dollar General employee in Marion, Georgia, was paid $11 an hour, and given part-time hours. Her paychecks were $200 to $260 a week. She said “the store was often understaffed and overstocked with items that block aisles, and she feared for her safety over potential robberies and theft when she and just one other co-worker are working the entire store.”
- Workers at a McDonalds in Los Angeles went on strike May 2 because of plumbing issues making workers sick. Jasmina Alfaro, one of the striking workers, says “for the past year a foul odor had been emanating from pipes near the drive thru window. Despite the odor, workers were still expected to conduct business as usual. Alfaro said she had missed days of work due to getting sick from the odor and had not been compensated for that time missed from work.”
- Jack in the Box employees in Sacramento, California, went on strike for 3 days in April “over faulty equipment and safety concerns, and short staffing.”
- Wendy’s workers in Weaverville, North Carolina, went on strike for 9 days in April “over sexual harassment and abuse from the restaurant’s general manager toward employees that upper management had not addressed.” Charity Bradley, a manager there, said she was retaliated against for complaining by being “taken off the schedule and locked out of the crew app used to communicate with co-workers.”
If you want to read the sappy statements issued by corporate PR flacks in response to these incidents, read the article here; the Guardian included them in their reporting as part of their commitment to objective journalism.
Now ask yourself this. You’re probably reading about employers wailing over how hard it is to hire workers now. But how much sympathy do these employers deserve? Businesses large and small treated workers with disrespect for decades and got away with it. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, they can’t get away with it anymore. If you want to have employees, pay them well, respect them, and treat them right. Otherwise, go out of business.
Related story: A manager at a fast-food restaurant in Vancouver, Washington, was arrested for pissing in milkshake mix that may have been served to customers. He no longer works there. Read that story here.