strike
27th April 2011, 17:08
I work at a "family owned" restaurant in a samll rural town. The restaurant has been in town for twenty years and gets a lot of business, particularly from truckers and elderly residents of my town. The restaurant is not a chain. The owners like to give it a down home small-town feel, but they employ 40-50 people, more than ny local fast food chain of which there are many.
The conditions are not good to say the least. First, the health concerns: The managers never wear gloves when grilling, prepping, or baking. They don't wear hairnets either, though the employees are expected to at all times, and non-compliance with this gets a write up/infraction, and after three you are suspended without pay for a week. I have seen managers drop meat, vegetables and staples on the floor, pick them back up, and immediately toss them into the grill/fryer. This is a daily thing, it is not an isolated incident.
Some of the cooks work 62 hour weeks, and subsequently go for two to three weeks without a day off. This restaurant does not pay overtime or benefits. If you work more than 40 hours, they pay you minimum wage in cash, not time-and-a-half. 40 hours maximum goes into your check, no more. This particularly irked me. Also, management does not handle scheduling at all. Half the time no schedules will be posted and workers will be sitting at home and receive a call to come in. If they can't they get their hours spitefully reduced the next week. If you're not on the restaurant's schedule, you lose hours.
Also, you are supposed to be eligible for a pay raise every six months. I have talked to cooks and waitstaff that have worked at this restaurant for three years plus and some have received NO pay raise, or only one. There is no division of labor. I am a dishwasher and on my breaks I will be ordered to burn boxes or move stock, all of which are not my job. Dishwashers get used to fill every hole left when management leaves or when someone calls off.
I want to organize a union here, because the people who work at this restaurant have kids, have apartments and student loans to pay and management really dicks them around. The thing is, the restaurant is technically for sale (for 2 million, kind of an absurd proposition in a town as poor as mine) and I am worried that a union would put all of the employees straight out of a job. What is the appropriate tactic to approach this situation with? Should I grumble,but stay on and build up my wages and get through it? Or is there potential for organization here? The cooks and waitstaff and prep-cooks are angry, that is true. they dislike management and a three at this moment have responded well to talk of a union.
Halp!
Solidarity.
The conditions are not good to say the least. First, the health concerns: The managers never wear gloves when grilling, prepping, or baking. They don't wear hairnets either, though the employees are expected to at all times, and non-compliance with this gets a write up/infraction, and after three you are suspended without pay for a week. I have seen managers drop meat, vegetables and staples on the floor, pick them back up, and immediately toss them into the grill/fryer. This is a daily thing, it is not an isolated incident.
Some of the cooks work 62 hour weeks, and subsequently go for two to three weeks without a day off. This restaurant does not pay overtime or benefits. If you work more than 40 hours, they pay you minimum wage in cash, not time-and-a-half. 40 hours maximum goes into your check, no more. This particularly irked me. Also, management does not handle scheduling at all. Half the time no schedules will be posted and workers will be sitting at home and receive a call to come in. If they can't they get their hours spitefully reduced the next week. If you're not on the restaurant's schedule, you lose hours.
Also, you are supposed to be eligible for a pay raise every six months. I have talked to cooks and waitstaff that have worked at this restaurant for three years plus and some have received NO pay raise, or only one. There is no division of labor. I am a dishwasher and on my breaks I will be ordered to burn boxes or move stock, all of which are not my job. Dishwashers get used to fill every hole left when management leaves or when someone calls off.
I want to organize a union here, because the people who work at this restaurant have kids, have apartments and student loans to pay and management really dicks them around. The thing is, the restaurant is technically for sale (for 2 million, kind of an absurd proposition in a town as poor as mine) and I am worried that a union would put all of the employees straight out of a job. What is the appropriate tactic to approach this situation with? Should I grumble,but stay on and build up my wages and get through it? Or is there potential for organization here? The cooks and waitstaff and prep-cooks are angry, that is true. they dislike management and a three at this moment have responded well to talk of a union.
Halp!
Solidarity.