Fast food workers seize the means of production, renounce their "Burger King"
The charbroiled flames of revolution are spreading from its origin at a Lincoln, Nebraska, BK franchise locale
Aux Features Fast food
The revolution has finally begun, comrades: Nine employees at a Burger King in Lincoln, Nebraska, recently unshackled themselves from their charcoal chains and walked off the job, citing godawful working conditions. On their way out the doors, The BK Nine also left a message for their petty bourgeoise district managers on the fast food locale’s marquee reading, “WE ALL QUIT SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.”
“I didn’t think anybody was going to notice it, because we did just one sign, and then it went pretty crazy on Facebook. I got a call from my upper management and they told me I needed to take it down,” former general manager, Rachael Flores, told a local news outlet—not that it matters what her petty bourgeoise masters thought, given the genuine abuse they allegedly heaped on her and her fellow workers.
According to Flores, the perpetually understaffed branch resulted in 50-60 hour work weeks, uninterested district management, and 90-degree kitchen temperatures that resulted in Flores being admitted to a local hospital for dehydration. Upon hearing the news, the GM recounts her boss called her a “baby.”
In a show of solidarity, fellow comrade, Kylee Johnson, stuck with Flores through the tribulations. “I just stayed to help Rachael out. She’s my best friend. She’s been with me through a lot. I just want to help her as much as I can.” Flores and her eight supporters have already handed in their keys to the Lincoln location, but notes that while the branch remains open, it is still understaffed with new hires lasting only days. “They believe other locations may have similar experiences,” reports the local news outlet. It certainly tracks with the Burger King regime’s recent socio-political rumblings…
You hear that, tyrants? The charbroiled flames of revolution are spreading.
[via BoingBoing]
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52 Comments
Yikes—-I remember people threatening revolution in my office when the A/C broke and it got to a whole 80 degrees inside. These people have to be on their feet all day AND in front of a grill at times.Forget about getting to the point of dehydration. I would have walked out long before that. Tough workers.
agree. Interesting what happens when you NEED the paycheck.
And, lo, that’s why governments stopped pursuing full employment loooong ago. You got 5% of the populace out of a job, you can hold it like a sword of Damocles over the heads of the other 95%.
My business was a non-ferrous foundry for a long time (I’ve since moved production elsewhere) and you hand poured 175 lb crucibles (two guys per crucible) of 2100 degree metal all day while wearing an aluminized suit and cotton or wool underneath that. Didn’t matter if was 100 degrees out and humid. Two minutes after you started your shift you were soaked through with sweat even in winter. Some work is just hard. Particularly in construction and manufacturing. My guys got paid more than your average worker at BK though. We did make sure nobody dropped from dehydration though, as that’s a real risk obviously. Someone passing out and dropping a full crucible of molten metal would be disastrous. The aluminized suit is only there to reflect the radiant heat so your skin and clothes wouldn’t burn just from being that close to 2100 degrees. The natural fiber undergarments were there because little pops of metal are unavoidable and they diffuse the heat of small droplets quickly. There’s no protective gear that could protect you if a guy drops his side of the bale and molten metal splashed onto someone.To deal with dehydration every worker in the foundry was assigned a Nalgene bottle and part of the floor supervisors job was making sure everyone on the floor drank a full bottle at recommended intervals, then he’d take them, refill them and redistribute them. During the summer that was, at minimum, 32 ounces per hour.
His Highness, the benevolent and generous King Wilfred Burger has ordered these violent, radical, separatist, traitorous serfs , their families and any known associates to be rounded up and be publicly flame broiled.
“As a show of mercy, you are allowed one final request: you may ask for fries with that.”
Why is this AVClub and not The Takeout?
Because it’s the middle of the afternoon and we all need to give someone a thumbs-up.
Why is this black and not white?
Why is this life and not death?
Why is this waking life and not a dream?
Why is this Tylenol and not meth?
The Takeout still exists?
Where is the Salty Waitress????
somebody finally tipped her the obligatory 35% so she could retire.
She got tired of answering questions like, “I know servers literally need tips to have enough money to live, but is it okay to not tip if I’m feeling kind of meh that day?”
Meh, she also tended to error on the side of a high tip. “I went out with friends, but didn’t order anything as I was not hungry, should I tip the server anyway?” “Absolutely, you should tip at least 35% of your friends bill because by you being there the server had to talk to you every now and then and that is work.”
Because, this news must be reported across the land in any and every news outlet! The Burger King must know that proletariat have had it with his decadent ways! Flame broiled Whoppers for all! Down with the King! And down with Ronald McDonald! Big Macs are the opium of the masses!
It’s time for regicide
Maybe a Whopper with a regicide of fries…
Oh, bravo, Jizbam. Bravo.
Is a blank reply the Internet equivalent of taking a bow?
Either way, that’s how I’m going to take your reply.
It’s me failing to post an animated gif of the Burger King himself. I suck.
Hey, it’s the thought that counts!
god dammit
we’re 230 years behind the French
can’t they find the name of the franchisee?
It was reported that the lack of involvement by a district manager/frequent replacement of same was a key to this decision, suggesting it is corporate operated; this fits with the corporation firing the manager.
I walked out on Burger King when I was a young worker. I think it must be a right of passage.
Rite on!
I walked out on a pizza place where I worked along with several of my coworkers, and they had to close for a few days. They reopened after they got a bunch of the owner’s wife’s relatives to agree to help out for a while. It was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done.
Coming soon: Burger Party Chairman
Do you have your copy of Mao’s Little Red Cookbook?
“Mr Gorbachov, tear down this drive-thru!”
I got a call from my upper management and they told me I needed to take it down,” former general manager, Rachael Flores, told a local news outletWhat? Everyone quit already. They have no reason to put up with your nonsense anymore.
Yeah, their district managers suck so bad that they don’t understand how quitting works.
The most surprising part of that story, is that they were allowing the employees to work more than 40 hours a week. No low paying jobs in my area of the country would even think of allowing overtime even if they were understaffed. A common thing companies do is scheduling people at 7 hours a day, to ensure that they dont get even one minute of overtime.
Or qualify for insurance! That’s been Wal-Mart’s mo for decades.
It was probably only Flores that worked the long hours as manager and as such she was on salary not hourly. So yea, they’ll make sure the hourly workers don’t earn overtime but they’ll work the managers like dogs.
I made comment above about the Papa Johns franchise I was at. This is spot on. Our managers were salary and their “base” hours were 50+ if I recall. It wasn’t uncommon for them to be pushing 60 hours. Granted some of that was sit around time (2PM on a weekday tends to be pretty dang slow compared to a Saturday night), but still.
It’s been nearly 20 years but I recall that as a driver at Papa Johns (local franchise that ran about 7-8 stores in our area), managers would get dinged on their metrics (and therefore bonus) if anybody went over 40. At 35 hours the computer would let them know somebody was approaching and to get them to wrap it up. In ~4 years of delivering through college I only went over 40 twice. Both times were in that week or so of August when all the summer drivers left to go to school but we hadn’t yet recruited drivers from the local colleges of arriving students. So those of us who lived in the area cleaned up!
Maybe it’ll end up like this place.
There used to be a pharmacy chain in the DC area named “People’s Drug”. It was eventually purchased up and absorbed into CVS in the 1990s. I always assumed it was some counter-cultural thing from the 1960s, but it actually dates back to 1905!https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peoples_Drug
I really wanted it to have just been founded by a guy named “Douglas Peoples” or somethingIt’s a real last name
When I was growing up we wanted to get a new refrigerator. My father had heard that a local store called Main Appliance had good prices. Rather than spend the 30 seconds needed to look up the address in the Yellow Pages, my father thought “It can’t be that hard to find; it’s on Main Street as per the name”. So we drove around and around and couldn’t find it. Eventually we went to a phone booth and looked up the address. Turns out it wasn’t on Main Street at all, but owned by a family named Main.
I just assumed it was a Soylent Green type situation.
“I got a call from my upper management and they told me I needed to take it down”Ahem, FORMER upper management. Hope she told them to take it down themselves. Still giving orders, even after you quit…
“I tell you, if you don’t take it down, you’ll never work in fast food again! I have connections! That means not just Burger King! McDonald’s and Wendy’s too!”
“Admittedly, I have no influence over Denny’s. Those people are a law unto themselves.”
“Ooh, is the baby dehydrated? Are you a widdle dehydrated baby? Are your kidneys starting to fail due to the long-term effects of your body lacking life-sustaining liquids? Okay, now I hear how it sounds.”
Apparently their last order was “to go”.
Sure, an absolute monarchy is probably one of the most inequitable, lopsided systems of government around but, hey, check out those cheerleaders!It’s good to be the king!
The mob demanded justice, and at the apex of the Reign of Terror the now disgraced Burger King was placed in the machine named for Monsieur Guillotin…but in a devastating blow to the future of the revolution, the machine broke upon the King’s creepy giant-ass head.
Absolutely minging burgers and dissatisfied staff?