Starbucks, KFC and Pizza Hut, 3500 workers say Union Yes, Mickey D's next, BK and Wendy's negotiations later this year

Holy Crap! 3,500 workers in Starbucks, KFC and Pizza Hut nationwide said "Union Yes!"

Restaurant Brands (Starbucks, KFC and Pizza Hut) Get A Collective Voice


I didn't even know they were being organized, but the fact remains, all these workers across the nation decided their lives would be better if they joined as a collective body, according to NZ Herald (4/12/08) :

...Union membership has more than doubled to nearly two thousand in Restaurant Brands stores after a union employment agreement was reached last week covering 3500 workers in Starbucks, KFC and Pizza Hut nationwide.

How did this all come about? How has life changed for the new union members at the collective "Restaurant Brands", parent of the 3 chain stores above?

"We have now reached between 50 per cent and 100 per cent membership density in most fast food stores, which is an extraordinary result considering four years ago membership in the sector was less than a paltry one per cent and the union is still growing."

Wage rates moved for Restaurant Brands workers by 75 cents and $2.25 per hour (6.75 per cent - 21.37 per cent), meaning 90 per cent of members wages increased by more than a $1 an hour.

Restaurant Brands says it now pays between 50 cents and $3.00 more an hour for their long-serving and experienced employees than their competitors.

McDonald's is next, Burger King and Wendy's negotiations take place later this year.



From: Unite - Union Of Workers (4/7/08)

However, Unite and McDonalds are currently in negotiations and Burger King and Wendys negotiations take place later in the year.

“Unite is pleased that Restaurant Brands is leading the way in moving wage rates and by recognising the importance of these kinds of union agreements to workers.

“The entire fast food industry is made up of casual workers. Restaurant Brands has recognised this and has agreed to provisions that work towards more secure hours for their employees, including the formation of a joint union-employer working party to oversee this.

“Youth rates have also been completely removed, which will have a huge effect as over half of the workforce is under the age of 20 years.

“Three years ago Unite launched the Supersizemypay.com (*now defunct URL-Joe) campaign to achieve $12 an hour, end youth wages and win more secure hours. We are proud to announce that this has been achieved.” McCarten concluded.

Achieving $12 an hour, ending youth wages and winning more secure hours!

How did this news miss the Main Stream? Because it's not in the United States, it's in New Zealand.

Four years ago, there were less than 1% of workers in the fast food industry, in NZ., who were in a union, today there are 50% with more on the way, workers immediately got a 6.75-21.3% raise.

Burger King Still The Worst Of The Lot



As with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers campaign here in the states, which is trying to end the slave like conditions of tomato workers here in Florida, Burger King is remaining the leader of anti-worker practices, even in New Zealand, where according to the Socialist Party Of Australia (12/06/07) :

“Burger King, whose employees are largely young workers, has agreed to shift the youth rate next year from $8.35 to $9.00 - an increase of 7.8 per cent. Adult crew workers will receive a 7.3 per cent increase.

“Burger King’s wage proposal is well below Restaurant Brands ($9.23) and McDonald’s ($9.50 after six months) and is not an offer Unite is willing to accept. We will continue to negotiate with Burger King to improve this offer and settle the last remaining issues so we can sign a collective agreement. Hopefully this will occur before Christmas.

“In the meantime we will be conducting a public campaign to put pressure on Burger King to join the other fast food companies in settling a collective agreement.

As Omaha Steve, who posted this story at Democratic Underground, expressed:

If New Zealand can do this, so can the US!

I couldn't agree more, unfortunately here in the States you can't even get Burger King to pay 1 cents a lb. more for tomatoes, to give the slave farmers in Florida a better living. Which would bring up an entire new story, something along the lines of: "40 Years After Death Of MLK, Multi-National Corporations like their slave class", but slavery has been abolished, there's no slaves in the United States!

Sphere: Related Content

Part 1: Labor in the year 2008, support immigrant farmworkers.

Labor in the year 2008 is a concept that has been on my mind for some time now, I am trying to get to the bottom of the manner in which we as Americans have driven wedges between ourselves, with the help of the main stream media, encouragement of the government and most importantly our own damn selfish and ignorant mannerisms. We stand as a country divided into small separate pieces of what was once a united force of working class families. Here is the first part of a new collection of thoughts on what has changed in the world around us. How we have helped the war against the American worker and what we can do to change the tide before it is too late.

How did we get here?

The year is 2008 and in my life experiences I have seen some changes, but lets go back to what we came from before I was conceived.

I come from an Italian, Irish, Scottish and German background. My grandparents on both side were either union members or in the case of my fathers mother, married to one.

All had a fair slew of children, and while times were hard, with the help of being union members and being part of tight knit communities, they were able to provide for their families.

I can go on about that much more, but heres the main point, one year after Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace Prize, and 2 after the greatest speech ever told, with a little help from WikiPedia

In 1965, Filipino American farm workers initiated the Delano grape strike on September 8, 1965, to protest in favor of higher wages. Six months later, Chávez and the NFWA led a strike of California grape pickers on the historic farmworkers march from Delano to the California state capitol in Sacramento for similar goals. In addition to the strike, the UFW encouraged all Americans to boycott table grapes as a show of support. The strike lasted five years and attracted national attention.

I was brought up into a family that forever told the story of how absolutely no one would buy California grapes. Not your friends, not your butcher and not your landlord.

We were Americans, be it from Ireland, Italy or the Philippines, we had community and although there were great racial tensions, ignorance and fear. Working people stuck together. Communities of working class people stuck together.

America was healing from the racial divide, labor was on the rise and the American family could eek it bye on one salary.

What happened?

We now have a new slave class. New immigrants who are encouraged by their own governments to enter the country illegally. Why not? The US dollars wind up into the originating countries economy. From the meatpacking industry, construction, farming to service work, illegal immigration is a highly lucrative business. It lets companies get away with having the tax-paying citizens subsidize their own tax burden. It has also thrown back the labor standards into that of a third world country. It is the force that could potentially break the back of organized labor here in the US.

Slavery and/or slave like conditions are getting more widespread in the USA, more than 100 years after it was abolished.

While most of my readers have read about sweatshop construction practices, most recently the 400 or so pipefitters from India who came here for the price of $20,000 a head, were lied to and told that the investment would provide them an eventual Green Card, when all they actually got was an 11 month H2B Visa. The conditions in which they work were deplorable to say the least. Never mind the fact that the Visa's which were issued are for workers when there isn't a qualified American to do the job. I for one know matter of factly that there are quite a few Americans ready, willing and able to do that work. It's a blatant display of outright fucking of the American worker, and the by-product of which is that these Indian workers got screwed in the process.

What have we become?

Why are corporations so monstrous in their methods of totally screwing working people?

When is the beating of the working man and woman in the United States going to end?

Is it going to end?

Well heres a campaign which brings us to the original topic at hand, todays new immigrants on the farms are no longer from the Philippines, but the conditions have not gotten better. In fact according to the AFL-CIO's WebBlog, the tomato fields in South Florida are among the most deplorable slave like working conditions here in the US:

More than 100 years after our nation ended slavery, the mostly immigrant workers who today pick tomatoes for the fast-food industry still are being treated like slaves. They are among the most exploited workers in the country, sometimes held against their will, beaten and forced to work for little or no pay. Thousands more are trying to survive on poverty wages with no sick leave and no freedom to join unions for a better life.

They are fighting back, demanding to be treated fairly, and they need your help. The workers are reaching out to 1 million people to sign a petition demanding that Burger King and food industry leaders work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to improve the wages and conditions for the workers who pick tomatoes.

You can act now to urge Burger King to do the right thing and treat these workers with common human decency and respect. Click here to sign the petition to eliminate modern-day servitude in America’s produce fields and join an industry wide effort to eliminate slavery and human rights abuses from Florida’s fields.

We can make a difference, Get E-Active, sign the petition, we owe it to our forefathers who 40 years ago would have boycotted, signing a petition is the least we can do. Here in America we have workers who are enduring...

• poverty wages, rooted in an antiquated piece-rate pay system that hasn’t changed significantly in nearly 30 years;

• long hours without overtime pay when work is available, unemployment and transience when it is not;

• physical abuse and wage fraud by crewleaders, supervisors, and growers;

• damage to body and soul from back-breaking labor, with no employment benefits such as sick days, paid leave, health insurance, or pensions;

• retaliation against workers who protest or organize to alleviate these inhuman conditions;

• and, most shamefully, modern-day slavery, with six successful federal prosecutions of farm labor operations for servitude in Florida over the past decade, and a seventh just initiated, involving well over 1,000 workers and more than a dozen farm employers;

The so-called greatest country in the world, we supposedly go after evil doers. Maybe we should look in the mirror. Our forefathers would have fought for a way for these workers to enter our country legally, would have fought for them to earn an honest living and held them to learn English as the standard language. It suits the big corps well that the division of the working class is widening.

They encourage it with their bipartisan donations and lobbying efforts.

Sphere: Related Content

Recent Labor headlines you may have missed

Chicago - Sweatshop construction devastating for undocumented Latino's

• Throwaway Workers - Uncertain safety for Latino workers 3-2-08
  

Hundreds of Latino workers across the U.S. die annually in construction accidents, a toll that has mounted steadily. Two years ago 354 Latinos were killed in construction accidents, a 34 percent increase over 2003, the most recent government statistics show. More than one out of three Latinos killed on the job in 2006 lost their lives doing construction work, a far higher proportion than for white or black workers.

Vermont - Push for paid sick days

• Workplace flu causes push for paid sick days 3-02-08
  

With this year's flu epidemic in full swing, nearly half of all U.S. workers who fall ill or have sick kids must decide whether to stay home and lose wages or go to work sick and expose others, a choice many say no one should have to make.

Utah - 40 years of community activism

• Labor leader a 'role model' for women 3-02-08
  

"We thought she was a fantastic role model of a woman who is not just running for government per se but who is making change at a more grass-roots level," University of Utah spokeswoman Taunya Dressler said. The U. invited Huerta, 77, to be the keynote speaker during its 2008 Women's Week Celebration because she embodies passion for change that affects people's lives.

Idaho - A new form of protest

• Carpenters Union Targets Construction Company 2-29-08
  

"Under federal labor law, we have the right to tail him. Ambulatory picket is what it's called and we can follow him to find out where his job sites are," said The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters Representative Ron Robbins. Robbins claims they have a labor dispute with CCI, even though the company is not part of the union. Robbins says wherever Packard goes, so do protesters and the labor dispute.

Florida - Burger King is a lousy corporate neighbor

• Tomato Troubles 2-18-08

Are they really willing to pay an exorbitantly higher transportation cost to bring in tomatoes from overseas or Mexico and pass that on to their customers rather than pay a penny more per pound?

Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine - Labor activists help fix Fairpoint/Verizon deal

• Final settlements in landline sale to FairPoint yield $362 million in new commitments from Verizon 2-27-08

"Those who united to raise their voices in opposition to the sale acted in the finest New England tradition of citizen participation," said Glenn Brackett, business manager of IBEW Local 2320 based in Manchester, NH. "We can take comfort in knowing that because of our involvement, FairPoint will be stronger financially than it would have been under the original deal. Verizon now has to put $362 million more into the deal and FairPoint has to cut its dividends by at least $200 million in order to reduce its debt."

Ohio - NAFTA hurts

• Ohio’s Economy Shows Disastrous Impact of NAFTA 2-28-08
  

Nowhere is the damage caused by this disastrous trade deal more evident than in Ohio, the site of next week’s Democratic presidential primary. The Buckeye State has lost more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs over the past seven years. Click here to see where all the presidential candidates stand on trade and manufacturing.

West Virginia - Worker 's one step closer to ability to walk away from anti-union meetings

• Worker Freedom Bill Passes West Virginia House 2-27-08

Captive-audience meetings are just one of many tactics employers use to suppress workers’ freedom to form or join a union. Cornell University scholar Kate Bronfenbrenner studied hundreds of organizing campaigns and found that 92 percent of private-sector employers, when faced with employees who want to join together in a union, force employees to attend closed-door meetings to hear anti-union propaganda. She also found that 80 percent of employers require supervisors to attend training sessions on attacking unions and that 78 percent require supervisors to deliver anti-union messages to workers they oversee.

Wisconsin and Maryland - Legislation to allow Academic workers collective bargaining

• Higher Education Collective Bargaining Bills Move in Two States 2-21-08

On Feb. 19, the Wisconsin State Senate voted 21 to 12 for legislation that would allow faculty and academic staff employed across the University of Wisconsin system to form unions... ...the companion legislation in the Wisconsin Assembly faces a tough battle from the Republican majority in that chamber.

In Maryland, graduate employees from the University of Maryland system, joined by AFT and AFL-CIO allies, presented an impassioned case for why they should have the right to bargain.

Washington DC - UFCW Vs. ICE Misconduct hearings begin

• National Commission on ICE Misconduct Holds First Hearing 2-26008

New Jersey - 110 more unemployed, GAF materials roofing plant to close

• Union at Richland roofing plant accepts severance offer 2-01-08

''There isn't much out there, especially in the range of the wages we were earning,'' Snyder said. ''I see a lot of $10-an-hour jobs out there that won't pay my bills.''

Counting nonunion workers, 110 people are eventually expected to be laid off at the plant, which is expected to run through mid-March with a skeleton crew of about 25.

Ohio - 1500 hospital workers to get union election on March 12th

• Mercy Memorial and Springfield hospital employees vote 'yea' or 'nay'... 2-29-08

...if a majority in any one of the 11 groups votes for unionization, that group will become a bargaining unit and negotiations between the unit and Community Mercy Health Partners will proceed. If negotiations fail to result in an agreement favored by most union members, those members can vote to strike, according to information provided by CMHP and the union.

New York - Tell Lazard's CEO that Atria should respect workers rights

• Take Action Link - Fight back against Wall Street unionbusting

Workers at Atria Senior Living are being threatened and intimidated for trying to form a union. Caring for our nation's elderly is an important job, and workers at Atria deserve a living wage, affordable healthcare, and the training and support they need to do their jobs well. They also have the right to a free and fair process to decide on forming a union.

Tell the Wall Street execs at Atria and Lazard to stop unionbusting and play fair. Write your message now!

USA - ALPA gearing to fight over seniority in event of Delta/Northwest merge

• United pilots' union sees senority fight 2-29-08

The Air Line Pilots Association has asked its United members to approve a dues increase to help pay for a potential dispute over seniority in the event of a merger, Crain's Chicago Business reported.

Seniority is said to be the major issue of contention in talks on a merger between Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp., the newspaper said. Negotiations stalled last week as pilots, who had given preliminary approval to a merger, dug in their heels over seniority issues.

Sphere: Related Content