After peaking earlier this summer, unionizing efforts at Starbucks stores across the country have seemed to slow down over the past few months, but the broader effort to organize within the QSR industry continues. Most recently, two locations of California-based Peets Coffee filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for union representation elections. The…
Read More »It’s been months since there was any movement on the FAST Recovery Act in California, but that doesn’t necessarily mean all’s well. In fact, this week fast food restaurant workers in California walked off the job for one day to protest wages, hours and working conditions and also advocate for passage of AB 257, the…
Read More »SEIU-backed Fight for $15 is again organizing a strike amongst QSR workers – mostly McDonald’s employees – in 15 selected cities around the country for next Wednesday, timed to coincide with the company’s annual shareholder meeting. Again, SEIU is seeking to generate sufficient pressure on the Golden Arches to get the company to pay a…
Read More »We tend to focus much of our efforts on the ‘bigger-ticket’ items that can most significantly impact our members, but we can’t lose sight of some lesser known, but equally impactful ideas as they percolate in different cities and states. A perfect example is currently being deliberated in New York City, where the City Council…
Read More »Workers at a Long Island, New York location of the retail giant Target rejected unionizing a couple of weeks ago by an overwhelming vote of 118 – 39! The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Union has tried on a number of occasions to unionize Target workers, but has failed in each instance. New York…
Read More »Advocates, who have been pushing for years now to try and unionize fast food workers, have finally succeeded, although it may be on a small scale for the time being. Workers at a Portland Burgerville restaurant voted to unionize this past Monday in an election sanctioned by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The final…
Read More »Last week, the New York City Council Committee on Civil Service and Labor held a public hearing on a package of bills geared toward restricting the flexibility that employers have in dealing with their own employees. The council is entertaining a “Fair Workweek” package of 6 bills, which include a ban on “clopenings” (an employee…
Read More »In the wake of Governor Cuomo mandating a wage windfall for fast food workers with his $15 per hour requirement, New York health care groups and organizations are concerned that the out-of-whack wage scale for fast food workers will drain the labor pool for entry level health care jobs. The concerns were expressed by representatives…
Read More »A week ago, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo set the table for increased labor costs in the fast food industry with his edict (published as a NY Times Op-ED) instructing a state Wage Board to make recommendations on increasing the state minimum wage for fast food workers. This week, we were served the first course…
Read More »Although it shouldn’t be much of a surprise to anyone, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) recently released a poll they commissioned through their National Council for Occupational Safety and Health that purported to show that some 79% of fast food kitchen workers had been burned on the job! Certainly headline-grabbing to this point, but…
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