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The International Socialist Organization reports
The Burgerville Workers Union (BVWU) in Portland, Oregon, has become the first federally recognized fast-food workers union in the U.S.
With a vote of 18-4 in a National Labor Relations Board election, workers at Store #41 notched an important victory in the drive to organize the 1,500 workers at all 42 Burgerville sites located in Oregon and southwest Washington. BVWU spokesperson Emmett Schlenz says that six of the company's locations now have publicly active unions. Workers at another store have already filed for an NLRB election.
[...] The union has been pressing for a $5 an hour raise, stable scheduling, affordable health care, paid maternity/paternity leave, free childcare and transportation, and an end to the employer's use of e-verify to exclude undocumented immigrant workers.
Using direct action tactics, including mass picketing with community allies, occupations and a three-day strike at four restaurants, the all-volunteer BVWU has drawn the support of dozens of local unions, many community and faith-based organizations, and some elected officials.
The union called a boycott of Burgerville after a number of union activists were fired.
[...] The union's announcement of its victory stated:
In this moment of victory, we want to celebrate, yes, but we also want to turn our attention to the 4.5 million other fast-food workers in the United States. We want to speak to everyone else who works for poverty wages, who are constantly disrespected on the job, who are told they aren't educated enough, aren't experienced enough, aren't good enough for a decent life. To all of those workers, to everyone like us who works rough jobs for terrible pay, we say this:
Don't listen to that bullshit. Burgerville workers didn't, and look at us now.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Grishnakh on Thursday May 03 2018, @01:15PM (5 children)
I'm generally pro-worker, but I also recognize cold, hard economic reality. I'm really curious how things would play out if this "Burgerville" (WTF???) place actually agreed to all the workers' demands.
Some of the demands are actually very reasonable, such as "stable scheduling" (this should be a given in almost any job, unless they're going to pay you a lot more to compensate for odd hours), and "affordable health care" (every decent employer has some kind of healthcare plan for their employees, and it's relatively cheap for the employer because of their large size and negotiating power). "Free transportation" is probably reasonable if they just mean a bus pass; lots of employers in metro areas do that for their employees and it only costs maybe $100/month. But $5/hour more, free childcare, and paid paternity/maternity leave are all rather costly expenses for what's basically a minimum-wage job at a fast-food chain. Unless you can get ALL the fast-food chains to adopt this stuff simultaneously, then this one is going to be forced to raise their prices, which would probably make them immediately uncompetitive and force them out of business. Even if you got all the big chains to adopt this stuff, it would probably raise their prices to be at or more than small, independently-owned eateries, and again make them uncompetitive, though I guess they'd probably stay in business because people are stupid and go for marketing and brand names over quality.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 03 2018, @01:25PM (2 children)
At first I thought it was a mistake but then you repeated it. You are saying that if just one or a few fast food places pay their employees more then those will have to raise prices (to get more money to pay the employees). However, if all of them do it then somehow they no longer need to get more money to pay the employees more.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 03 2018, @06:24PM (1 child)
What he's trying to say (I think) is that if one fast food joint has to raise its prices to cover higher wages, it loses business to its competition and goes away. However, if they all do at the same time, then they all have to raise their prices in parallel, not creating a pricing disadvantage for any given one of the chains.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Thursday May 03 2018, @08:20PM
That's the only interpretation that make sense.
Further this union (22 people strong) only represents workers at this ONE restaurant. (Not all 1300 workers).
There are 42 locations in the chain. They claim they are wage competitive, and provide health care.
So if the Union starts making them non-competitive, the cheapest thing to do is close this one store.
On the other hand, Burgerville is privately held, not a franchise chain, so this could spread to their other locations.
So demanding wages rise by 5 bucks across the board could topple the entire chain. The smart move, if that starts to happen would be for the parent company (The Holland inc) would be so sell the chain to the employees, and move on.
Further, unlike the TFS says (typical unreliable leftist rag Gewg_ posts) this is NOT the first unionizd fast food instance. The Service Employees International Union, (SEIU) [buzzfeed.com]represents a lot of people in this industry.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Thursday May 03 2018, @03:09PM
Not sure what you mean by "relatively cheap". My heath insurance costs (between me and my employer) about $24,000/year. That's for a high-deductible (crappy) plan to cover myself and my wife.
(Score: 2) by dry on Friday May 04 2018, @02:36AM
It's a point to open negotiations at. Hopefully the union is realistic and will give up the childcare, or settle for a subsidy, perhaps settle for a job after they go on UI for their paternity/maternity leave (does America support paternity/maternity leave and allow employees to collect unemployment insurance?) and that $5 raise over a few years.