Fast food workers on strike

[Nephew Twiddleton]

http://news.yahoo.com/video/workers-strike-fast-food-restaurants-100409347.html

Now this is interesting. I like that Papa John's is one of the ones being targeted. Wonder how much he's going to try and jack up his pizza now in order to pay those ingrates that work for him.

[Cainad (dec.)]

Nice. I hope this pans out for the better.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

As do I.

Maybe it will start spreading. I mean, fast food workers thinking about unionizing? What's next?

[Triple Zero]

deep fried union rings?

[Salty]

This will help a lot of poor folk if it works.

My mom raised my sister and i working for Burger King for 13 years. She worked salary, 60-80 hours per week, never once took a vacation. Then she moved to Georgia on an impulse, came back six months later, and the dick who owned the franchise before filing for chapter 11, told her she was SOL in regard to a similar position again.

We could have certainly used a livable wage, and i still dont know quite how she did it.

[Junkenstein]

This could get interesting. Bosses will be quite aware of how close to the poverty line many of these workers will be. I suspect that any gains here will result in larger losses. I doubt this will get much traction quickly, but a state/nationwide strike would certainly have an impact, even just for half a day.

Of course, everyone could just get sacked. Chains like these do treat workers as quite expendable and I doubt the PR hit would be too big to bear. Unions are already evil in the USA so protecting the job creators freedoms would probably be the agenda.

[Salty]

On the other hand, we would probably all be a little better off if these places shut down forever.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

This could get interesting. Bosses will be quite aware of how close to the poverty line many of these workers will be. I suspect that any gains here will result in larger losses. I doubt this will get much traction quickly, but a state/nationwide strike would certainly have an impact, even just for half a day.

Of course, everyone could just get sacked. Chains like these do treat workers as quite expendable and I doubt the PR hit would be too big to bear. Unions are already evil in the USA so protecting the job creators freedoms would probably be the agenda.

Unions are only evil in some parts of the USA. You know, the parts with the loudmouths who like to shoot themselves in the foot because someone offered them a package deal to screw over the homosexuals and other assorted Satanists.

[Junkenstein]

On the other hand, we would probably all be a little better off if these places shut down forever.

While long-run better, that would involve a holy shitton of short-medium term fuckups. Just think about the unemployment rate if Mcdonalds went bang tomorrow. Several multinationals are larger than small countries.

Which could lead to a curious situation of "fast food bailouts" if it turns out they've been doing some creative accountancy and investments. Fuck, now I've written that, it almost seems inevitable. "Mc(insert nation here) burger". Bad example, but I'm trying to say that the list of shit that is "too big to fail" must have to include shit like this.

And as seen with the UK banks, you can need a bailout and still manage to skim the top, bottom and sides at the same time. I doubt Fast Food CEO's would be averse to doing the same.

This could get interesting. Bosses will be quite aware of how close to the poverty line many of these workers will be. I suspect that any gains here will result in larger losses. I doubt this will get much traction quickly, but a state/nationwide strike would certainly have an impact, even just for half a day.

Of course, everyone could just get sacked. Chains like these do treat workers as quite expendable and I doubt the PR hit would be too big to bear. Unions are already evil in the USA so protecting the job creators freedoms would probably be the agenda.

Unions are only evil in some parts of the USA. You know, the parts with the loudmouths who like to shoot themselves in the foot because someone offered them a package deal to screw over the homosexuals and other assorted Satanists.

Generalising, gladly corrected. My overall impressions were that even where unions are accepted, they're not treated with great respect by anyone not in/affiliated with said union. I seem to recall electical workers getting a lot of shit around the NYC storms which basically got reduced to "Bad anyway, worse because unions" Presumably the Union was trying to stop them working dangerous lengths of time/hazardous conditions. Seems correct as my right to electricity is more important than some guy's life, right?

[Salty]

Hah. If the fast food companies needed a bailout you'd see Obama taking a giant bit out of a Whopper during a State of the Union address.

But yes, families that depend on those places for survival, like mine was, would suffer the most.

Still, it seems like putting a patch of gauze on a gangrenous limb.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

On the other hand, we would probably all be a little better off if these places shut down forever.

While long-run better, that would involve a holy shitton of short-medium term fuckups. Just think about the unemployment rate if Mcdonalds went bang tomorrow. Several multinationals are larger than small countries.

Which could lead to a curious situation of "fast food bailouts" if it turns out they've been doing some creative accountancy and investments. Fuck, now I've written that, it almost seems inevitable. "Mc(insert nation here) burger". Bad example, but I'm trying to say that the list of shit that is "too big to fail" must have to include shit like this.

And as seen with the UK banks, you can need a bailout and still manage to skim the top, bottom and sides at the same time. I doubt Fast Food CEO's would be averse to doing the same.

This could get interesting. Bosses will be quite aware of how close to the poverty line many of these workers will be. I suspect that any gains here will result in larger losses. I doubt this will get much traction quickly, but a state/nationwide strike would certainly have an impact, even just for half a day.

Of course, everyone could just get sacked. Chains like these do treat workers as quite expendable and I doubt the PR hit would be too big to bear. Unions are already evil in the USA so protecting the job creators freedoms would probably be the agenda.

Unions are only evil in some parts of the USA. You know, the parts with the loudmouths who like to shoot themselves in the foot because someone offered them a package deal to screw over the homosexuals and other assorted Satanists.

Generalising, gladly corrected. My overall impressions were that even where unions are accepted, they're not treated with great respect by anyone not in/affiliated with said union. I seem to recall electical workers getting a lot of shit around the NYC storms which basically got reduced to "Bad anyway, worse because unions" Presumably the Union was trying to stop them working dangerous lengths of time/hazardous conditions. Seems correct as my right to electricity is more important than some guy's life, right?

I seem to remember something like that too now that you mention it but I'm a bit fuzzy on the details. I'll have to look it up.

But the dynamics of what's conservative here is different than in other parts. I have plenty of conservative friends, because they're still social progressives. Not sure what their take on unions would be but everyone knows someone from a construction worker family, or some other unionized labor.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Hah. If the fast food companies needed a bailout you'd see Obama taking a giant bit out of a Whopper during a State of the Union address.

But yes, families that depend on those places for survival, like mine was, would suffer the most.

Still, it seems like putting a patch of gauze on a gangrenous limb.

I can see that, yeah.

But I don't know, if fast food workers are striking, that says something to me. And perhaps it will say something to corporate top dogs and their investors.

[Junkenstein]

Hah. If the fast food companies needed a bailout you'd see Obama taking a giant bit out of a Whopper during a State of the Union address.

But yes, families that depend on those places for survival, like mine was, would suffer the most.

Still, it seems like putting a patch of gauze on a gangrenous limb.

Cover the gaping wound and it's a problem for tomorrow. That's the modern way.

And you say Obama with a whopper, wasn't this quite a popular picture?


World leaders are a very short step from being straight up advertising shills. I'm starting to suspect the reason they're not yet is that these kind of firms haven't needed bailouts yet. I bet it wouldn't take that much more lobbying cash.

[Triple Zero]

On the other hand, we would probably all be a little better off if these places shut down forever.

While long-run better, that would involve a holy shitton of short-medium term fuckups. Just think about the unemployment rate if Mcdonalds went bang tomorrow. Several multinationals are larger than small countries.

And in the case of McD's not just in just US either.

Although somehow I see McDonalds as really too big to fail.

Wait no that's not right. Other chains (either national or global) will just take their places. Location location location. And if there's no big chain to take it, unlike big banks, running a fastfood joint isn't exactly hard (ok I couldn't do it but that doesn't say much), especially if the big chains just went belly-up.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

On the other hand, we would probably all be a little better off if these places shut down forever.

While long-run better, that would involve a holy shitton of short-medium term fuckups. Just think about the unemployment rate if Mcdonalds went bang tomorrow. Several multinationals are larger than small countries.

And in the case of McD's not just in just US either.

Although somehow I see McDonalds as really too big to fail.

Wait no that's not right. Other chains (either national or global) will just take their places. Location location location. And if there's no big chain to take it, unlike big banks, running a fastfood joint isn't exactly hard (ok I couldn't do it but that doesn't say much), especially if the big chains just went belly-up.

Yeah, McDonald's is just everywhere. I could see it going into a gradual decline, but not just suddenly going into some sort of collapse.