Fast food workers plan Thursday strike f

[javacontour]

And if they have good management, they are given opportunities to advance. Or they get fed up and move to a better employer.

It's a very complex problem because as others have said, many of the jobs we once could count on are either outsourced or automated away.

Then there are the numbers of folks who make personal choices to ensure they are not the most desirable employees. They drop out, get addicted, have multiple kids with multiple partners, get busted for drugs or other crimes. Then they complain when no one wants to hire them.

Others get degrees and still have a hard time. I still believe this will change, somewhat as more and more baby boomers begin to retire. That was delayed with the economic crash in 2007-2008. Folks expecting to retire found they had to work longer to recoup their losses.

Not all employers will backfill all the jobs. But all the jobs held by retiring baby boomers will not be cut.

I look at my team. There are 6 of us, plus two account managers. I'm the youngest at 49. There are two engineers with under three years to retirement. I expect at least one of those vacancies to be filled. More if we start installing and maintaining more new computer gear.

I have to wonder how many of these fast food workers were up to 10pm working on honors geometry homework like my daughter? You can't blow off school and then expect to get a high paying job. I will say she has an advantage in having a dad who can help with honors geometry homework. But then I managed to do it coming from a single parent home, so I don't really buy the broken family excuse.

I worked my tail off, was accepted to a top 25 university, full tuition and books Army ROTC scholarship and earned two engineering degrees in 9 semesters.

It can be done, even if you are poor, disadvantaged, etc.

You simply need to have the drive to do it.



Originally Posted By: antiqueshell
Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Originally Posted By: JHZR2

I have been taught to be the best no matter what your job/ pay is. The fact that an employee doesn't care because they aren't making enough ($7.25) tells me they have a terrible work ethic.


The fact that the ones who do care draw the same $/hr as the ones who don't says a lot about American business.


Well said!
And so true, at least in my experience, what I have always found across ALL my jobs is that the best and most diligent employees that do the lion's share of the work and get the
SAME exact pay!

!

Disgusting and true.

 

[Trav]

This is what happens when you outsource the countries manufacturing base and workers are trying to live on jobs that were filled with part time workers, students and housewives.
Its not possible, so now we are on the road to the $5 hamburger.

This was inevitable but the over educated running this circus had this all figured out, the USA was going to be a country of high paid, high tech workers. They forgot that not everyone is capable of this level of employment.
Flipping hamburgers and handing food out of a drive up window does not command a $600 a week paycheck.

 

[jeepman3071]

Originally Posted By: dlundblad
I have been taught to be the best no matter what your job/ pay is. The fact that an employee doesn't care because they aren't making enough ($7.25) tells me they have a terrible work ethic.


This. I worked fast food in high school, and can easily say that although I made minimum wage, I worked to the best of my ability. Many of my co-workers were the opposite though.

 

[Thermo1223]

I don't even make 15/hr working in a loose IT position. I didn't go to college but I did acquire the knowledge through the years because I had the drive too.

There is nothing to drive people to want to work for the fast food industry. They work there out of necessity and honestly it is not that hard. I found my tenor at Staples to be more demanding on a customer service level.

So fast food workers will get paid more than me now...sweet.

 

[babbittd]

Originally Posted By: Thermo1223
So fast food workers will get paid more than me now...sweet.


I don't understand why so many respondents to this thread think that this demand from a small segment of people, for an increase to $15, has more than .001% chance of occurring on a national (US) basis within even say, the next ten years.

I do not think, in this instance, that the passage of a law in one city (Seattle), is evidence of some kind of a tidal wave of legislative change is about to roll over the country.

 

[Thermo1223]

I guess the sarcasm doesn't come out in my internet typings but it was mostly that. I, like you know this has a snowball's chance in HE\\ of succeeding on a national level.

We would hope that anyone with a political future in mind wouldn't look twice at this.

 

[Hokiefyd]

It's not entirely clear to me if they're demanding a higher government-set minimum wage, or if they're demanding from their employers a $15 starting pay. Their fight for 15 website isn't very clear, at least to me, what they're actually fighting for.

But, hey, let 'em have it! Now that Big Macs will cost $6 to make, a "#1" at McDonald's will cost $11 instead of whatever it costs now. They'll find out one of two things. They'll either find that the market finds value in an $11 meal at McDonald's and they'll be able to sustain that wage, or they'll find that the market doesn't value a meal at McDonald's at $11 and they'll lose their jobs.

A free market, at least in theory, will find its own equal. A #1 meal at McDonald's is worth exactly what it costs right now. If it were worth more, people would be lined up out the door wanting to buy one and the price would necessarily go up due to demand; if it were worth less, they'd have to lower the price in order to sell them due to demand.

The old saying, "it's worth what someone will pay for it," doesn't apply only to used cars.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: babbittd

I don't understand why so many respondents to this thread think that this demand from a small segment of people, for an increase to $15, has more than .001% chance of occurring on a national (US) basis within even say, the next ten years.

I do not think, in this instance, that the passage of a law in one city (Seattle), is evidence of some kind of a tidal wave of legislative change is about to roll over the country.


But if the peasants are even potentially uprising, it's worthy of nine thread pages.

Who do you think is pitting the middle class against the slightly-less-middle-class?

 

[Tempest]

Originally Posted By: eljefino

Who do you think is pitting the middle class against the slightly-less-middle-class?

Quote:
"There has to be civil disobedience because workers don't see any other way to get $15 an hour and a union," says Kendall Fells, organizing director of the organizing group Fast Food Forward, which is financially backed by the Service Employees International Union.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/busi...-bell/15058943/

 

[SlipperyPete]

I think the larger lesson here is that you're going to have a hard time in life if your career preparation extends only as far as a job that anyone off the street can master in ten minutes.

 

[Mr Nice]

Originally Posted By: Thermo1223
I don't even make 15/hr working in a loose IT position. I didn't go to college but I did acquire the knowledge through the years because I had the drive too.


Is not having a college degree holding you back (salary wise) ?

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: SlipperyPete
I think the larger lesson here is that you're going to have a hard time in life if your career preparation extends only as far as a job that anyone off the street can master in ten minutes.


Dead on the spot. Simply not worth much more.

These poor kids (and adults, sadly) will lose a LOT of jobs if they push this through. All the major retailers and food giants have full automation waiting in the wings. The SEIU does not care about them, this is purely a political football...

 

[Clubber_Lang]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: Clubber_Lang


Fun Fact: 1/3 of the US population is on some type of welfare. That does NOT include social security.

Work Hard. Millions on welfare depend on you!


Does it include the Earned Income Tax Credit? 401(k) tax deferrals? We all get some sort of subsidy if you look hard enough.


Negative Ghost Rider. I'm not talking about our overly complicated tax code. I'm referring to specific social welfare programs, mainly food stampts or "EBT" -----No embarrassment required anymore, just swipe your EBT card and nobody is any the wiser! It used to be that Americans were ashamed to be on these gooberment "programs" Not anymore. Now it is a commonly accepted "way of life"

My new sigline, which contrasts an unnamed members sigline on capitalism:

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

Winston Churchill

 

[Merkava_4]

Well, did any of the workers strike today? What's the word?

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: Clubber_Lang
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: Clubber_Lang


Fun Fact: 1/3 of the US population is on some type of welfare. That does NOT include social security.

Work Hard. Millions on welfare depend on you!


Does it include the Earned Income Tax Credit? 401(k) tax deferrals? We all get some sort of subsidy if you look hard enough.


Negative Ghost Rider. I'm not talking about our overly complicated tax code. I'm referring to specific social welfare programs, mainly food stampts or "EBT" -----No embarrassment required anymore, just swipe your EBT card and nobody is any the wiser! It used to be that Americans were ashamed to be on these gooberment "programs" Not anymore. Now it is a commonly accepted "way of life"



From http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2012Characteristics.pdf

Quote:

Seventy-five percent of SNAP households included a child, an elderly person, or a disabled person, and these households received 82 percent of all benefits.



Well, jeez, let's hate on kids who can't pick their parents.

SNAP provided benefits to 46 million people, out of 309 million Americans. I'm not buying this "1/3".

Maybe if one adds the millions of SNAP recipients to those getting unemployment benefits, subsidized housing, VA benefits, Post Office Pensions, then assumes zero overlap, they might get 100 million or a third of the population. But a single person could qualify for several of these programs.

Again, clarify this "1/3" please.

 

[Clubber_Lang]

Ok, want clarification? A cnn article pasted below:
http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2012/0...-get-welfare-2/

" Immigrants from some countries rely on welfare more than others: more than half of those coming from Mexico, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic get welfare."

 

[02SE]

I did my part. Like most days, I avoided patronizing any Fast Food establishments.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: Clubber_Lang
Ok, want clarification? A cnn article pasted below:
http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2012/0...-get-welfare-2/

" Immigrants from some countries rely on welfare more than others: more than half of those coming from Mexico, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic get welfare."


Well, you said above more than 100 million were on food stamps or EBT, but it takes about 83 programs to get to that number:

http://mediamatters.org/research/2012/10/20/fox-news-echoes-gops-misleading-definition-of-w/190792

And since the working poor (and non working childred/disabled/elderly) qualify for food stamps, isn't this the point of discussing the minimum wage?

 

[Clubber_Lang]

This is what i said " I'm referring to specific social welfare programs, mainly food stampts or "EBT"

Among other welfare programs or freebies the sucker taxpayer is on the hook for. (For 1/3 of the population)

It is a persons responsibility to better themselves. Being a burger flipper is fine for an after school job. If that is your career ambition, then prepare to be dirt poor. Lack of motivation shouldnt be the taxpayers burden.

Business doesnt exist to enrich an employees life. Business exists to make money. If the paycheck isnt large enough, get motivated, trained and educated and go find a better job.

You want burger flippers to make $15 an hour? Nobodys paying $12 for a happy meal, but thats what it would take to sustain those Mcjobs. Guess what, that business is going under quickly and all those Mcjobs are going to cease to exist.

I made $ 5.15 in my part time high school job. If i had stayed there id be dirt poor and on the govnt dole. I chose to pursue a degree.

Many of these single moms who freeload for govnt assistance know exactly what they are doing. They couldnt deal with baby daddy after she slept around, cause marriage is tough. so they found sugar daddy....aka Uncle Sam

 

[dlundblad]

+1 CL. I work in a grocery store and I see a lot of EBT users. It's pretty easy to pick them out actually. Occasionally I'll see a young single mom with 3 polite well behaved kids (my kind of woman!) but it is rare.. It's usually the extreme opposite.

Usually they have the latest and greatest smartphones too.. And since the government is paying for their food, they have more money for alcohol and tobacco. The $30 bottle of Vodka isn't too pricey now. Don't even get me on started on illegals living with "single" moms who are on welfare only to collect the free food at the tax payers expense. I live in a hick town and can only think of a few instances, but I imagine that is more of an issue in the big cities.