Strike! Strike! Strike! Fast food workers again demand $15/hr

[child of wonder]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-fast-food-workers-plan-walk-off-jobs-110848851--sector.html

Tammy Castellanos, 35, was among about 200 people who demonstrated Thursday in a cold rain at the Rock & Roll McDonald's near downtown Chicago, which is known for its pop memorabilia.

"I have done so much for Burger King and I don't make enough to pay the rent," said Castellanos, a single mother with FIVE children ranging in age from 21 months to 18 years old. She said she makes $10 an hour after a decade working at Burger King.

How about not having 5 children with no ability to care for them outside of working for Burger King?

My wife graduated from tech school 18 months ago and is now an LPN. To hear people say "I kept throwing my legs up in the air, did nothing with my life, now I should get paid as a fast food worker nearly as much as an LPN" is disgusting. Grown adults thinking they should earn more than they're worth.

They're free to strike to their heart's content. Hopefully they're replaced with machines soon so the few times I do go to a fast food establishment I can simply put in my own order.

 

[TmBlackFlag]

The costs will just get passed onto the consumer at which point I might finally stop eating out so much. Especially that fast food junk!

 

[Hugo Drax]

I doubt people would stop eating supersized meals if it cost an extra 3 dollars.

People still smoke cigarettes and look at how much a pack costs today.

 

[feralkid]

The costs will just get passed onto the consumer at which point I might finally stop eating out so much. Especially that fast food junk!

In other words, a win/win situation.

:thumbsup:

 

[BoberFett]

I have done so much for Burger King

Seriously?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

The costs will just get passed onto the consumer at which point I might finally stop eating out so much. Especially that fast food junk!

At the McD's of the world it won't be that much of an increase. Assuming McDonald's passes the entire cost to its customers I believe the average McDonald's serves around 1200 meals per day if there are 20 people staffing that McDonald's for 15 hours it would be about $1.25 per meal. Now $15 is the upper limit of what people who work there want. reality is the pay increase would be more like $2.00 per hour that would mean about $.50 per meal.

 

[lotus503]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-fast-food-workers-plan-walk-off-jobs-110848851--sector.html



How about not having 5 children with no ability to care for them outside of working for Burger King?

My wife graduated from tech school 18 months ago and is now an LPN. To hear people say "I kept throwing my legs up in the air, did nothing with my life, now I should get paid as a fast food worker nearly as much as an LPN" is disgusting. Grown adults thinking they should earn more than they're worth.

They're free to strike to their heart's content. Hopefully they're replaced with machines soon so the few times I do go to a fast food establishment I can simply put in my own order.

Sooner or later machines are going to replace a lot of jobs. I'd be careful cheering that on if I were you. What one May find value in another doesn't, it may be you or your wife next.

 

[Hugo Drax]

If Hitler was president we would never have this issue.

 

[feralkid]

My wife graduated from tech school 18 months ago and is now an LPN. To hear people say "I kept throwing my legs up in the air, did nothing with my life, now I should get paid as a fast food worker nearly as much as an LPN" is disgusting. Grown adults thinking they should earn more than they're worth.

There is currently a bill making its way through Congress that aims to peg the National Minimum Wage to somewhere between your personal sense of moral outrage and your wife's current salary.

 

[master_shake_]

Sooner or later machines are going to replace a lot of jobs. I'd be careful cheering that on if I were you. What one May findsvalue in another doesn't, it may be you or your wife next.

at mcdonalds they already pour the drinks and sort the change...

only a matter of time until they start flipping burgers.

 

[Zaap]

Among the Miami demonstrators was Selmira Wilson, who said through a translator that it was nearly impossible to care for her three children with the low wages she earned from McDonald's.

I seriously wonder- when it comes time to go through the interviews and pick sympathetic examples, do the news editors think "ahhh! People will really indentify with this!" Or are they aware that many times they seem to pick just the opposite examples?

So... this person doesn't even speak the main language of the country she lives in, yet can't support the 3 kids she chose to have? (Or wait, is CHOICE only aborting, not actually having? I forget since the leftists love to have that one both ways.)
I should stress, I have empathy on a human level for people... but why this constant drumbeat of people's own bad choices never being their own fault, and the main impetus never being on them to improve things for themselves before expecting some external force to improve their lot for them?

I know, I know were now fully in the "Age of Helplessness" and the more helpless you can be is a great badge of honor... but I mean in the context of someday returning to an age where adults are expected to carry themselves like adults and be able to do for self and be held accountable for their own bad decisions. In that context... probably not a good idea to have 3, 4, 5 kids if you can't do much else but work fast food.

And by the way, before the usual kneejerk dumbasses spout- according to people studying world population closely, all over the unindustrialized world the message of having fewer kids when you can't afford more has already become a norm. The averages have been falling to 2 kids all over the world, even though the average dipshit doesn't know this and thinks its 5 and 6 all over the world. Poor people in the industrial world pumping out 3+ kids on a McD's salary: newsflash, you're actually way out of line with most of the rest of the world.

 

[lotus503]

I seriously wonder- when it comes time to go through the interviews and pick sympathetic examples, do the news editors think "ahhh! People will really indentify with this!" Or are they aware that many times they seem to pick just the opposite examples?

So... this person doesn't even speak the main language of the country she lives in, yet can't support the 3 kids she chose to have? (Or wait, is CHOICE only aborting, not actually having? I forget since the leftists love to have that one both ways.)
I should stress, I have empathy on a human level for people... but why this constant drumbeat of people's own bad choices never being their own fault, and the main impetus never being on them to improve things for themselves before expecting some external force to improve their lot for them?

I know, I know were now fully in the "Age of Helplessness" and the more helpless you can be is a great badge of honor... but I mean in the context of someday returning to an age where adults are expected to carry themselves like adults and be able to do for self and be held accountable for their own bad decisions. In that context... probably not a good idea to have 3, 4, 5 kids if you can't do much else but work fast food.

And by the way, before the usual kneejerk dumbasses spout- according to people studying world population closely, all over the unindustrialized world the message of having fewer kids when you can't afford more has already become a norm. The averages have been falling to 2 kids all over the world, even though the average dipshit doesn't know this and thinks its 5 and 6 all over the world. Poor people in the industrial world pumping out 3+ kids on a McD's salary: newsflash, you're actually way out of line with most of the rest of the world.

Great points about population, since you know that you likely know that the poorer the country or person the more kids they tend to have, the more wealth the less children its linked intrinsically.

People have to accept that with 7 billion people in the world there are going to be some that make shitty choices in life.

When those shitty choices lead to poverty and lack of education we as a populace have to decide what to do about it if anything at all.

 

[michal1980]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-fast-food-workers-plan-walk-off-jobs-110848851--sector.html



How about not having 5 children with no ability to care for them outside of working for Burger King?

My wife graduated from tech school 18 months ago and is now an LPN. To hear people say "I kept throwing my legs up in the air, did nothing with my life, now I should get paid as a fast food worker nearly as much as an LPN" is disgusting. Grown adults thinking they should earn more than they're worth.

They're free to strike to their heart's content. Hopefully they're replaced with machines soon so the few times I do go to a fast food establishment I can simply put in my own order.

She's a liberals' hero.

 

[Zaap]

Great points about population, since you know that you likely know that the poorer the country or person the more kids they tend to have, the more wealth the less children its linked intrinsically.

In the poorest parts of the world (I mean *truly poor* not the bullshit we buy here as poverty) people have 5 kids because they realistically expect 3 of them to die before adulthood.

In industrialized countries, the reality is much different....if you have 5 kids, you have to plan to raise and support 5 kids-they're all likely to survive to adulthood.

Even fairly well off people often don't elect to have so many kids. So I just don't get this attitude of bucking common sense and having a large number of kids with full life expectancies while not being able to support yourself with a decent job. That's insanity and it's out of step with the rest of the world.

 

[Kadarin]

The real answer is that we shouldn't be eating fast food anyway.

 

[Ns1]

@15 an hour I replace all workers with machines and hire a guy who repairs the machines @ 15/hour.

 

[Matt1970]

At the McD's of the world it won't be that much of an increase. Assuming McDonald's passes the entire cost to its customers I believe the average McDonald's serves around 1200 meals per day if there are 20 people staffing that McDonald's for 15 hours it would be about $1.25 per meal. Now $15 is the upper limit of what people who work there want. reality is the pay increase would be more like $2.00 per hour that would mean about $.50 per meal.

Don't forget the other people that will need to have raises as well like shift managers.

 

[Ns1]

it's also not just $15/hr

it's $15/hr + SS + MC + Benefits, so easily ~$20/hr after all is said and done.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

@15 an hour I replace all workers with machines and hire a guy who repairs the machines @ 15/hour.

That is pretty much the future for these types of jobs in the end. Hence why these people trying to turn these jobs and the wages for them into "career" style wages is the epitome cutting off your nose to spite your face.

 

[MongGrel]

Cya.

 

[boomerang]

Sooner or later machines are going to replace a lot of jobs.

Panera bread will be able to eliminate all counter jobs by 2016.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/05/13/panera-bread-fast-food-restaurants/9036545/

I read another article today saying that the technology is already available to eliminate virtually all jobs in fast food. I'll post it if I can find it.

 

[Ns1]

Panera bread will be able to eliminate all counter jobs by 2016.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/05/13/panera-bread-fast-food-restaurants/9036545/

I read another article today saying that the technology is already available to eliminate virtually all jobs in fast food. I'll post it if I can find it.

the only "low skill" job I can't imagine being eliminated is that of the Janitor. You'll either need to keep a janitor on staff to handle the restroom, or contract out to another company.

 

[Hugo Drax]

Panera bread will be able to eliminate all counter jobs by 2016.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/05/13/panera-bread-fast-food-restaurants/9036545/

I read another article today saying that the technology is already available to eliminate virtually all jobs in fast food. I'll post it if I can find it.

But I will guarantee the cost of the product will not decrease.

 

[Oldgamer]

They said 150 US cities and this is even taking place in other countries. I say, good for them. They are exercising their rights to strike and protest. OP is just trying to minimize this and make these folks seem like some obscure incident, which it is not. This is going to get more intense, mark my words. People are getting fed up with being paid next to nothing and being worked extremely hard.

 

[Joepublic2]

While they may be worth more than they're getting paid in terms of how much raw value their job generates for the company, I seriously doubt the work they're doing is worth 15$ hour, outside of maybe the store GM (opens, closes, bookkeeping, deposits, hiring, firing, making sure they don't make people sick and get closed down by the health dpt., etc.). I've worked a few of these jobs and managed a store before so I've seen both sides and fast food is really a cut throat race to the bottom in every sense of the word. Gross sales would be impacted month to month when say we had to raise prices 5% on certain items because of an increase in the cost of beef or chicken, and the largest cost involved was in fact labor (rent/food being tied for second place and electricity a close third most months), and this was back when the minimum wage was was 5.25$ and we were paying 6$. Our monthly profit margins varied between 3-5% depending on food/energy prices, which is actually a bit better than many places in this industry the last time I was in it.

The moral arguments are dumb, though; complaining about people being paid "more than their worth". This isn't feudal England where your lords are debating the terms of an exchange of lands and peasants (although I'm sure some of you would prefer a society like that). If you're being employed by somebody that actually is stacking cash and you strike for a 50% raise and they give it to you and are able to absorb the costs it's really your imperative to do so, otherwise you're just a chump leaving money on the table.