Strike for $15.00 an hour, Sub shop fires everybody

[Noomi]

Isn't that illegal? I mean, maybe not to pay someone to work for you, but cash in hand?

No, not illegal. It's called contract labor.

Interesting. Not sure if cash in hand is illegal here - it wouldn't surprise me if it was. Taxes, and all.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Who won?

Sub shop loses business while they scramble for new employees, employees go get another low paying job

The business owner won obviously. He/she 'got rid' of a bunch of semi literate drop outs who demanded to be paid what the business owner did not think was in his businesses' best interest. It's simple.
The 'loss' his business will suffer will be written off for years and the owner will actually make money on his 'loss' tax-wise'.
Don't worry about the owner finding replacement employees. He'll put a sign in the window "Help Wanted" and get a thousand applications of which he will choose the 20 employees with the very best employment records. Win-win.
As an aside re employees. The very best employees like to work with other excellent employees. Makes the work easier when you don't have to work beside a whining/ stoned/drunk/illiterate/Liberal 'male who pees sitting down' 'Metro' all night.

You do realize you are talking about minimum wage employees don't you?

The owner fires everyone and has to spend a week hiring and training new employees. The fired employees spend a week looking for a new low paying job

Nobody wins

Umm..The owner made a decision that will enable him to keep his business going.
The workers have to find new jobs. And they will think twice before engaging in another one of these fruitless job actions.

 

[Againsheila]

Again, the issue is not a pony.

It's a fair distribution of wages of an enterprise.

Sorry.

The enterprise sets the wages.

Employee has the right to market their skills elsewhere for greater remuneration.

Sorry.

Not really. They brought in immigrants, both legal and illegal to keep our wages low. We can't just move to another country, it's impossible. They won't take our unskilled labor. We're the only country in the world that doesn't protect the jobs of it's citizens.

 

[thereisnospoon]

The shutdown had nothing to do with employees wanting higher wages

The sub shop is shutting down for a month and coming back as a burger joint. Of course they are firing their employees

Yeah, right.
You can believe that if it makes you feel better.

 

[Noomi]

Umm..The owner made a decision that will enable him to keep his business going.
The workers have to find new jobs. And they will think twice before engaging in another one of these fruitless job actions.

But who is going to want to work for someone who will fire you at the drop of a hat?

 

[OODA_Loop]

Again, the issue is not a pony.

It's a fair distribution of wages of an enterprise.

Sorry.

The enterprise sets the wages.

Employee has the right to market their skills elsewhere for greater remuneration.

Sorry.

Not really. They brought in immigrants, both legal and illegal to keep our wages low. We can't just move to another country, it's impossible. They won't take our unskilled labor. We're the only country in the world that doesn't protect the jobs of it's citizens.

Really. You can improve and market yourself.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Actions have consequences. A sub shop in Chicago was the target of a recent protest of workers wanting $15.00 an hour. The shop fired everyone, three days before Christmas, en masse, everyone got the can.

That's the way to deal with these kinds of protests.

Chicago sandwich shop fires all its staff in an EMAIL just days before Christmas | Mail Online

A Chicago sandwich shop has fired all its employees over email just days before Christmas.
Staff at Snarf's Sub Shop in River North received the bad news on Sunday night in a group email notifying them that the drastic action was effective immediately.
The company blamed 'increased competition and losses' for the firings.
Director of operations Doug Besant said in the email the restaurant will likely close for a month as they remodel and reconcept the business into a burger joint.

The River North Snarf's shop was closed for four days, from December 5 until December 8, as employees went on striking for higher wages and better benefits.
They joined workers of fast-food chains like McDonald's, Subway, Potbelly and others in a broader strike orchestrated by the Worker's Organizing Committee of Chicago.

And now the owner(s) needs to recruit, check the backgrounds of and train new staff who in short order will demand a fair wage and some benefits. Actions do have consequences.

The employer is not going to pay wages above the market rate for low skill entry level work.
Benefits? For a part time entry level job?.
Have you patronized one of these businesses? The workers are mostly part timers. Many are kids and older people just looking to put a few bucks in their pocket.
Working in a sandwich shop is not a career.

 

[thereisnospoon]

The workers joined a strike demanding 15 bucks an hour to make a sammich?

Give me a break. Some of these illiterates think that making a sammich is a career job. Some jobs aren't worth 15 bucks an hour including making a sammich.

Stay in school, get your education, lay off the drugs and grow a set of testicles. Life isn't fair, never has been never will be. Stack the deck in your own favor by getting an education. The rest will work out on its own.

Silly liberals.

Amen!

 

[thereisnospoon]

If I owned a small business I would automatically pay my workers $1 over the prevailing rate. It would cost me $8 a shift

When you go to many of these places, the workers are disinterested, tattooed and pierced, rude and lazy. If I went to one of my competitors establishment and found they had workers I liked, I would hand them a card and offer them a dollar more.

$1 for each worker per shift. Three workers. $24 per shift. Two shifts per day $48 per day...Open 364 days per year...$48 X 364= $17242 per year..Plus Social Security, another 6.5%..Plus another 1.5% medicare tax..
A sandwich shop is going to do maybe $3-$4k per week. Slower in winter.
For a location such as the North Side of Chicago, that's two months lease payments.
Obviously you are clueless...

 

[thereisnospoon]

Actions have consequences. A sub shop in Chicago was the target of a recent protest of workers wanting $15.00 an hour. The shop fired everyone, three days before Christmas, en masse, everyone got the can.

That's the way to deal with these kinds of protests.

Chicago sandwich shop fires all its staff in an EMAIL just days before Christmas | Mail Online

A Chicago sandwich shop has fired all its employees over email just days before Christmas.
Staff at Snarf's Sub Shop in River North received the bad news on Sunday night in a group email notifying them that the drastic action was effective immediately.
The company blamed 'increased competition and losses' for the firings.
Director of operations Doug Besant said in the email the restaurant will likely close for a month as they remodel and reconcept the business into a burger joint.

The River North Snarf's shop was closed for four days, from December 5 until December 8, as employees went on striking for higher wages and better benefits.
They joined workers of fast-food chains like McDonald's, Subway, Potbelly and others in a broader strike orchestrated by the Worker's Organizing Committee of Chicago.

So an incompetent Corporatist wannabe goes out of business.

I'll be in mourning for 10 seconnds.

More hateful rhetoric from the resident communist.
You'll be really pissed off when the business reopens and is more successful.
And still no unrealistic fifteen bucks an hour.
Dream on, sucker.

 

[thereisnospoon]

So while it seems that there are folks who just want flat wages to continue.
According to several economists, flat/stagnant wage growth is a large contributor to to this country's very slow recovery from the Great Recession. Seventy percent of our economy is driven by consumer spending. The working class is the largest and most active segment of the consumer class. The working class is losing expendable income due to flat wage growth. This is a lose-lose situation for this country's economy and future generations.
But hey, let's continue this trend, then our children will ask this question of their parents; "what were they thinking?"

What's your point?
Did it ever occur to you that wage growth is what it is because fewer people are acquiring the necessary education or skills needed to draw higher wages?
We are pumping out thousands of over educated Baristas every year. People with college degrees that are not marketable in the workplace. They have no real marketable skills. No one is going to hire on a kid right out of college with a degree in English Literature, Women's Studies or Greek Philosophy and pay them $50k per year. To an employer looking for a skilled worker, they don't know anything.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Who won?

Sub shop loses business while they scramble for new employees, employees go get another low paying job

This will be interesting to see play out.

The Union boys could come by with their giant rat. Which would be a pretty bad thing for a food shop.

Yeah yeah yeah..\
Unions no longer have that kind of clout.
Oh, that's why they invented surveillance cameras and recording equipment. To catch union thugs committing crimes.
Quite frankly I would not call the cops. I would go with street justice.
The union thug can stand there wondering how all of his car tires decided to go flat at the same time.
Of why his email has been flooded with spam. Or why his internet goes out all the time.
Or why his lawn died..
DO you really live under the delusion that union thugs still get the last word?
Unions....DEAD....

 

[thereisnospoon]

News flash in a bad economy it would be advised not too go on strike.

I'm sure the company had an HR policy pertaining to missing excessive work days. Most places do. I'm also sure they got the company 'handbook' which spelled out the policy. KUDOS to the employer for even handedly enforcing his policies.

Federal law would have protected these employees had the stated reason for firing them been "missed work to strike". Doesn't matter what the HR policy is, it doesn't trump the law, never.

That said,this owner is obviously a jerk. Choosing to A) close right before Christmas and B) to notify his employees via email.

Federal law?
How so?...
First, there was no strike. A strike can only be carried out by those who are members of a labor collective.
This was a bunch of employees who decided to not show up for work because they thought they could use coercion to get a huge and undeserved increase in pay.
None of these former employees deserved anything more than they got.
Remember, they blew off work for 4 days. They were lucky to have jobs on the fifth day.
The owner did what was best for his business. He kept the workers on the schedule until he had his ducks in a row, then he fired their good for nothing asses.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Who won?

Sub shop loses business while they scramble for new employees, employees go get another low paying job

I think you need to read the article. An excellent time to fire them since the employees put themselves in that position and they were to close anyway for remodeling.

Companies that are closing for remodelling are usually failing to start with.

Now they've got the reputation of being anti-worker in a union town. That ain't gonna fly.

What the fuck do unions have to do with this?
And why the fuck would a union bother with a sandwich shop?
You pro union people live in the 1950's.
Unions are weak. Almost irrelevant.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Unions aren't exactly on the upside now. I hope the new restaurant is automated and doesn't hire anyone.

I really have to wonder what kind of retardation it is on the right to hate people who make less than you do, who are often doing the menial jobs you'd consider beneath you.

It really makes not a lick of sense.

What defies logic is how anyone is still hanging on to the idea that unions can influence anything.
Joey....It's a fast food joint. Unions can't get in to these. Nor would one wish to do so.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Companies that are closing for remodelling are usually failing to start with.

Now they've got the reputation of being anti-worker in a union town. That ain't gonna fly.

It's would be difficult to remodel a food service company while open. As far as his reputation goes, it won't mean squat. If he has good food for good prices people will vote with their wallets.

I'm afraid these kids got caught up in socialist bs and overvalued their worth. What about their reputation and trying to find work when you tried to put your employer out of business?

The problem with liberals is that they believe in a top down economy. Prices can be set (government does it best) and it all falls into place. Reality doesn't work that way. Yes, it's tough now, and it sucks. But if we went back to a more fiscally conservative economy (pro business, small government) it would get better and employers would have to beg good employees to stay, like not long ago.

Actually, the country had its greatest prosperity when we had a mostly unionized workforce, the rich paid high tax rates and the minimum wage had teeth.

Even Republicans saw it that way, hense, "Eisenhower Republican".

At unionism's peak, just under 35% if the workforce was unionized. That was the mid 60's...Eisenhower was long gone by then.
When 35% becomes 'mostly', meaning a majority, let me know.

 

[thereisnospoon]

When that shop reopens the owner will have to "scramble" for all of 10 minutes to hire a new staff.

And he'll be just as bad as managing them as he was the last bunch.

You do realize you have to be a grade A douchebag to get people working for minimum wage to strike against you, right? Especially since they have no promise of keeping their jobs if they do.

I can't see this guy being a better manager because he gets other employees.

You have no idea how that shop operated. Stop making up shit.
I'd like to know where you get the balls to comment on a subject about which you know nothing. Based on your posts it is apparent you've never owned a business. So you have no right to make these accusations.
You hate capitalism. You despise business. You'd like to criminalize profit. We get it.
Shut your stupid pie hole. Pull your bottom lip over your head and swallow.
It is my sincere hope that you get the shit kicked out of you. By a girl.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Actually, the country had its greatest prosperity when we had a mostly unionized workforce, the rich paid high tax rates and the minimum wage had teeth.

Even Republicans saw it that way, hense, "Eisenhower Republican".

Actually you have tunnel vision. Back then there was little competition for those American goods, Europe and Japan were rebuilding. And there were so many loopholes that no rich person payed those high tax rates. Minimum wage has teeth wherever it is applied, and those teeth often bite those that need jobs the most.

Europe and Japan were largely rebuilt by 1955, that doesn't cut it.

And today, Europe and Japan have prosperity because they kept their unions, strong minimum wage laws and high taxes on the rich.

Bullshit...
Japan's economy went into a tailspin 20 years ago and is just now recovering to 1990's levels...
The JPY has never gotten back to its highs vs the USD.
20 years ago 80 JPY could buy one USD..Now it takes at last trading day 104 JPY to buy one USD.
Also. In Japan, kids went to school. The select few went to university to learn JOB skills. Those people got the best jobs. The ones that could not cut it got menial employment.
The Japanese way was you went to work for a company and you stayed there for your career. Those days are over. Now the "tap on the shoulder" ( kata tataki) comes much more frequently. Jobs are not nearly as secure as they once were. That's no longer practical.
Western Europe's unemployment problem is well documented.
You can keep making up shit to make yourself feel better. It doesn't change the facts.

 

[thereisnospoon]

[

With fewer in the work place, wages increase on there own. Simple economic truth. Unions had little to do with that prosperity. Consumerism with new products appearing daily, with fewer in the workforce was the driving force of that prosperity. Unions were a small part of the larger picture.

What escapes you is that the reason why Unions maintained prosperity is that they prevented recessions from becoming firing sprees.

There were three recessions in the Eisenhower years. but because the Minimum wage was strong and the unions were strong, what you didn't have is what we had going on in 2008-2009, companies fall all over themselves to lighten payrolls. Therefore, the recessions were short and history barely remembers they happened.

Hey genius. If there is no market for a product made by a particular business due to a recession, that business closes up shop. The workers lose their source of income.
So do you want to explain how a labor collective can stop a business from failing?

 

[thereisnospoon]

Actions have consequences. A sub shop in Chicago was the target of a recent protest of workers wanting $15.00 an hour. The shop fired everyone, three days before Christmas, en masse, everyone got the can.

That's the way to deal with these kinds of protests.

Chicago sandwich shop fires all its staff in an EMAIL just days before Christmas | Mail Online

A Chicago sandwich shop has fired all its employees over email just days before Christmas.
Staff at Snarf's Sub Shop in River North received the bad news on Sunday night in a group email notifying them that the drastic action was effective immediately.
The company blamed 'increased competition and losses' for the firings.
Director of operations Doug Besant said in the email the restaurant will likely close for a month as they remodel and reconcept the business into a burger joint.

The River North Snarf's shop was closed for four days, from December 5 until December 8, as employees went on striking for higher wages and better benefits.
They joined workers of fast-food chains like McDonald's, Subway, Potbelly and others in a broader strike orchestrated by the Worker's Organizing Committee of Chicago.

The owner is a scumbag to do that right before Xmas.

oh...Shut up...
You don't know the story....Look, just mind your Australian business..