Fast Food Workers Strike - Anybody Affected?

[Cow Poke]

They're asking for $15 an hour, which just so happens to be what I pay my cleaning lady, for what it's worth.

Do you also pay her workers comp, health insurance, supplemental life insurance, disability insurance, accidental death & dismemberment, vacation, sick time, performance bonus, stock options, paid holidays and tuition assistance? How much do you match her 401(k). What about her self employment tax?

[Juvenal]

Do you also pay her workers comp, health insurance, supplemental life insurance, disability insurance, accidental death & dismemberment, vacation, sick time, performance bonus, stock options, paid holidays and tuition assistance? How much do you match her 401(k). What about her self employment tax?

What, you think my real name is Costco?

[Cow Poke]

Do you also pay her workers comp, health insurance, supplemental life insurance, disability insurance, accidental death & dismemberment, vacation, sick time, performance bonus, stock options, paid holidays and tuition assistance? How much do you match her 401(k). What about her self employment tax?

What, you think my real name is Costco?

That information came from McDonalds.

[Meta Knight]

Do you also pay her workers comp, health insurance, supplemental life insurance, disability insurance, accidental death & dismemberment, vacation, sick time, performance bonus, stock options, paid holidays and tuition assistance? How much do you match her 401(k). What about her self employment tax?

What, they want $15/hr plus all those benefits? To work at McDonald's? Freaking preschool teachers make less than that, and at least that takes, you know, schooling.

[Cow Poke]

What, they want $15/hr plus all those benefits? To work at McDonald's? Freaking preschool teachers make less than that, and at least that takes, you know, schooling.

There are lots of jobs that are "entry level" jobs, and should be seen as such. I have an aunt (actually, it's my wife's aunt, so... aunt-in-law?) who worked at McDonald's in the late 60's flippin burgers and baptizin fries, and today she OWNS SIX McDonald's restaurants, and is quite wealthy. There's a guy who used to be in my Church who owned (I heard he sold them) two McDonald's in the Houston area.

The entry level job is not intended to support a family.

[Epoetker]

Why are we pretending that the minimum wage paid at these institutions is the only source of income for their workers? Why aren't the charities and government agencies in bed with the corporations being demonstrated against? What is the union's principled position on the corporation's policy of supplementing that minimum wage by government subsidies?

We already know two of the largest private employers in America, Walmart (Wal-Mart) and McDonald's actively promote welfare and EBT/SNAP/Food Stamps for their employees. It's even part of Walmart's growth strategy and inventory forecasts (revenue management) to factor in EBT/Welfare-dependent customers (it could be argued Walmart is indebted to a continued growth of those reliant on entitlement programs to expand)

Remember: both McDonald's and Walmart openly brag - in corporate messaging - about their non-white workforce; the former's employees can even call the 'McResource line' to learn how to take advantage of whitey's tax-dollars:

"McDonald's workers should have no problem qualifying for government programs like food stamps and heating assistance. The hamburger chain pretty much admits that in a call made by a worker to "McResource"-- a helpline set up for its workers.

The advocacy group Low Pay is not Ok recorded a phone call made to the helpline by one McDonald's worker Nancy Salgado. The group circulated an edited video of the recording. McDonald's said the video was "not an accurate portrayal of the resource line" because it was "very obviously" edited.

However, CNNMoney reviewed the full recording of the call.

Salgado, who has worked at a Chicago McDonald's for 10 years and makes $8.25 an hour, asked the McResource representative a number of questions related to getting assistance to pay for her heating bill, her groceries and her sister's medical expenses.

Salgado told the representative that she was recording the call for her sister.


The helpline operator never asked Salgado how much she made per hour, and how many hours per week she worked beyond the fact that she was a full-time employee. But she said that Salgado "definitely should be able to qualify for both food stamps and heating assistance."

The representative then pointed her toward a number of resources in Chicago, such as food pantries and a program that would help cover some of her heating bill. She said she would email her specific phone numbers and programs.

The operator also explained that the McResource line is available to help McDonald's workers who need help navigating the process of getting public assistance. The helpline's phone number is posted in fliers at many McDonald's locations.

McDonald's said in a statement that "the McResource Line is intended to be a free, confidential service to help employees and their families get answers to a variety of questions or provide resources on a variety of topics including housing, child care, transportation, grief, elder care, education and more."

In summary: two of America's top 10 private employers openly advocate for their employees to get on EBT/SNAP/Welfare, with one of those companies bragging in conference calls about the rate of commerce at the first of the month (because of entitlement abuse); another private company has the contract for EBT/SNAP, which awards them 31 cents to $2.30 each time they process an individual card... do you understand why no one truly opposes the growth in Food Stamp usage?

Racial Socialism 101. You're paying for your own dispossession.

Food stamp fraud? Who cares? JP Morgan Chase still gets a processing fee in the end!

When I heard that one of the protests was in Detroit, I instantly stopped listening. The strikes are a distraction, and will never hit the real target.

[Sparko]

There are lots of jobs that are "entry level" jobs, and should be seen as such. I have an aunt (actually, it's my wife's aunt, so... aunt-in-law?) who worked at McDonald's in the late 60's flippin burgers and baptizin fries, and today she OWNS SIX McDonald's restaurants, and is quite wealthy. There's a guy who used to be in my Church who owned (I heard he sold them) two McDonald's in the Houston area.

The entry level job is not intended to support a family.

Yep. Basically something for a little extra money, or for kids just starting out. The incentive is to get out of that rut and earn more. Finish school.

If McD's paid their workers $15/hour, they would have to charge $10 for a hamburger. If all fast food restaurants did the same, then fast food prices would inflate, which means that $15/hour would just buy less as the prices spread amongst all other industries. They would be in the same boat as now, at the bottom of the ladder wanting more.

[Sparko]

It's all a Union marketing ploy anyway.

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fast-food-worker-strikes-arent-what-they-appear-to-be-2014-09-04?page=1

Americans today will see photos of fast-food worker demonstrations on national news and think the employees themselves are going on strike.

Americans will conclude that the demonstrations are a spontaneous display of employee dissatisfaction with wages. In fact, the strikes are being organized by unions and unelected worker centers that are desperate to attract new members, even at a cost of leaving millions of Americans unemployed.
...
The Service Employees International Union funds Fast Food Forward through other worker centers such as Jobs with Justice and New York Communities for Change (formerly ACORN), which leads the Fight for 15 movement. The group was launched by the SEIU in late 2012.

While portrayed as grassroots efforts, these protests are orchestrated by the SEIU, which is concerned about its future because union membership continues its steady decline among private-sector employees. Only 6.7% of private employees today belong to unions, compared with 12% in 1990 and 16.8% in 1983, the first year the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the rate.

The SEIU is using worker centers to do its dirty work. Labor unions cannot use extended picketing, disruptive protests or secondary boycotts, but worker centers are not prohibited from doing so. Worker centers such as Fast Food Forward claim to represent employees. But not one worker has cast a vote for Fast Food Forward.

© Copyright Original Source

[Zymologist]

I still don't understand why, if raising the minimum wage is such an obviously good thing, we shouldn't raise it even higher. Sooner or later we must see the problem with that.

[Sparko]

I still don't understand why, if raising the minimum wage is such an obviously good thing, we shouldn't raise it even higher. Sooner or later we must see the problem with that.

Unions started out helping workers, but nowadays they are mostly about gathering numbers in order to gain political clout. They couldn't care less about the well being of their members. The members are basically tools to be used to pressure government, business, and anyone else into doing what the Union wants. So they get workers to join by promising them higher wages and so on, then when the workers get laid off because the business can't afford them any more, the union just uses them as cannon fodder to man some other strike, and basically pays THEM lower than minimum wage to do it. It's really sad.

[tabibito]

The question needs addressing: what is the good of paying workers barely enough to buy food and pay for shelter? Who benefits? Your workers can't buy anything, which means that other people can't sell anything, which means that no-one can buy your thing.
Costs for a company go up, and it's only reasonable for the company to increase its charges to compensate.
Costs for a worker go up, ....
Company makes the highest profit possible on the smallest outlay possible - sound business sense.
Worker makes the highest profit possible on the smallest outlay possible - rapacious greed.

[Sparko]

The question needs addressing: what is the good of paying workers barely enough to buy food and pay for shelter? Who benefits? Your workers can't buy anything, which means that other people can't sell anything, which means that no-one can buy your thing.
Costs for a company go up, and it's only reasonable for the company to increase its charges to compensate.
Costs for a worker go up, ....
Company makes the highest profit possible on the smallest outlay possible - sound business sense.
Worker makes the highest profit possible on the smallest outlay possible - rapacious greed.

The pay is not as bad as that. It is generally paid to teenagers who live at home and those going to school. They generally don't have a family to support. It is a way for people to get into the work force and work their way up, or have some extra spending money. It is not meant as a household wage. They are on the bottom of the workforce. The ground level. UNSKILLED labor.

Now if you doubled their wage to $15/hour, then everyone higher on the work ladder is going to want more too. You don't think a college graduate would be happy with a minimum wage worker making as much as him do you? So basically all the wages increase in a ripple effect. Which means that it costs companies more to make things and more for people to buy things. The end result is that everything is exactly the same as it was before except everything costs more. No gain. the $15/hour will still be the entry level wage and they will still be dissatisfied and want more (because everything is more expensive). IT has already happened. Do you think $7.25 was always the min wage? No. It was lower and people wanted more. So they got more, and then prices went up and they were in the same boat. So they wanted more, and it continues.

[Cow Poke]

I still don't understand why, if raising the minimum wage is such an obviously good thing, we shouldn't raise it even higher. Sooner or later we must see the problem with that.

EGGzackly ... why not $20 an hour and a company car?

[Sparko]

EGGzackly ... why not $20 an hour and a company car?

I want a plane!!

[Cow Poke]

The question needs addressing: what is the good of paying workers barely enough to buy food and pay for shelter? Who benefits? Your workers can't buy anything, which means that other people can't sell anything, which means that no-one can buy your thing.

It's the law of supply and demand -- In North Dakota, they're actually paying sign-on bonuses to hire people to work at McDonald's, and up to $12 an hour. Why? Because that's what they have to pay in order to have enough people to run a store.

Costs for a company go up, and it's only reasonable for the company to increase its charges to compensate.

Would you pay $10 for a Big Mac, and another $10 for fries and a drink?

Costs for a worker go up, ....
Company makes the highest profit possible on the smallest outlay possible - sound business sense.
Worker makes the highest profit possible on the smallest outlay possible - rapacious greed.

A franchise owner does not make the BILLIONS that everybody complains McDonald's Corporate makes. One of the FEW controllable costs is labor.