FAST FOOD AMERICA: Why do they only hire Mexicans?

 

OPEN BORDERS and AMNESTY… It’s all about keeping wages depressed!

FAST FOOD AMERICA – WHY THEY ONLY HIRE MEXICANS THAT ARE PROBABLY ILLEGALS – LIKE AMNESTY, IT’S ALL ABOUT KEEPING WAGES DEPRESSED!

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO A JACK IN THE BOX OR McDONALDS THAT HIRED ANY WORKERS OTHER THAN MEXICANS? WHY IS THAT?

latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20140411,0,1556558.column

latimes.com

Low-wage workers pay the price of nickel-and-diming by employers

Wage theft, which further impoverishes workers with low pay, thrives in labor-intensive industries in which employees are often from other countries and, in many cases, predominantly female.

Michael Hiltzik

5:00 AM PDT, April 13, 2014

The continuing push for higher minimum wages across the country has much to recommend it, but the campaign shouldn't keep us from recognizing a truly insidious practice that impoverishes low-wage workers all the more. It's known as wage theft.

Wage theft, as documented in surveys, regulatory actions and lawsuits from around the country, takes many forms: Forcing hourly employees off the clock by putting them to work before they can clock in or after they clock out. Manipulating their time cards to cheat them of overtime pay. Preventing them from taking legally mandated breaks or shaving down their lunch hours. Disciplining or firing them for filing lawful complaints.

Nickel-and-diming pays well, for the employer.

A study published in 2010 by a network of employment rights organizations calculated that employment and labor law violations cost low-wage workers in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles alone an estimated $56.4 million a week. In Los Angeles, where the survey was conducted by UCLA's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, the respondents lost an average of 12.5% of their pay — $2,070 annually out of average pay of $16,500.

"Companies can save a great deal of money by cutting labor costs," says Michael Rubin, a San Francisco labor lawyer who last month filed three lawsuits against McDonald's Corp. and its franchisees, alleging a raft of labor law violations at the chain's fast-food restaurants. "When you own a hundred restaurants, even small amounts add up quickly."

The fast-food chain's response to the lawsuits: "McDonald's and our independent owner-operators are each committed to undertaking a comprehensive investigation of the allegations and will take any necessary actions as they apply to our respective organizations." The company didn't respond to a request for an update on its investigation.

The creativity of workplace managers to squeeze dollars from their lowest-paid employees is almost unlimited.

According to a lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart and several of its contractors running its warehouses in Riverside County, the warehouses scrapped their hourly-pay system in 2001 in favor of a piece-rate system in which all the workers on a shift shared a set rate for every trailer they either completely loaded or unloaded.

If they didn't finish the job, they got nothing. For non-loading tasks such as sweeping, they got paid nothing. Their ability to double-check the managers' calculations about how many workers were on each shift was nonexistent. The suit that Rubin filed on behalf of several workers seeks more than $100 million, including more than $60 million in back wages from Wal-Mart and the contractors.

Wal-Mart maintains that it's not the owner of the warehouses and thus isn't responsible, but U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder rejected its motion to dismiss the case in January. A motion to certify the lawsuit as a class action covering 1,800 workers is pending.

One common scam is to classify low-wage workers as "independent contractors" to evade wage and hour rules. In 2009, then-California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown obtained a $14-million judgment against two cleaning companies for cheating 300 janitors out of wages and overtime this way.

"These workers aren't running their own businesses," scoffs Catherine Ruckelshaus, general counsel at the National Employment Law Project. "They're not making capital investments or calling their own shots on when they work. The idea is for them not to be protected by any rules at all."

Most wage theft techniques are less elaborate, if no less demoralizing.

"I've gotten fed up and tired of being treated horribly," says Rhonesha Victor, 24, who has seen it all during her two years working at an Oakland KFC while attending a local community college full time. She's been denied legally required break time, had her hours cut and cheated of overtime.

One week she worked 48 hours without a day off, but her pay stub showed only 38. When she complained to her manager, he applied the missing 10 hours to her check the following week — but without the eight hours of overtime she was due.

Harman Management Corp., which operates KFC's franchises in Oakland, said its policy is to "strictly comply with all federal, state and local wage and hour laws," according to an email from its chief executive, Jim Olson. "Any error in payment brought to our attention is immediately addressed."

These practices can happen anywhere employers think they can get away with them — at the cash register of a fast-food restaurant or the corridors of an office building at night or under the lights of a National Football League stadium, as a number of Oakland Raiders cheerleaders have alleged in a lawsuit being followed by my colleague Robin Abcarian.

But they're concentrated in labor-intensive industries in which employees are low-paid, often from other countries and, in many cases, predominantly female. Trouble spots are agriculture, retail, fast food, hotel housekeeping, janitorial services and construction.

Are the authorities up to the task of policing these violations? For the most part, no. Auditing tens of thousands of contractors and businesses would be a superhuman task even for well-funded regulators, much less our chronically underfunded labor agencies.

That's unfortunate, because in many states, including California, the penalties for violating labor laws are high enough to be a deterrent — if the violators are caught.

After California raised the penalties for willfully misclassifying workers as independent contractors in 2011 to a maximum of $25,000 per violation, one prominent law firm warned businesses that the possible assessments could reach millions of dollars and advised them to take a very close look at their cadres of independent contractors.

The alternative is the civil lawsuit, like the ones brought by Rubin against McDonald's and Wal-Mart.

Under California's private attorney general act, individual workers can sue employers for labor law violations on behalf of themselves and other workers; if they prevail, their attorney fees are paid by the employer and they split the penalties with the state, which gets 75%.

Like government enforcement, these cases depend on complaints from workers themselves. That's always an obstacle, especially during economic slumps when low-wage workers are especially worried about their jobs.

"When they're vulnerable, no enforcement is going on," Ruckelshaus says. But as the economy has slowly improved, Rubin says, workers are becoming more willing to step forward.

Despite that, some employers and managers still try to make their numbers by squeezing their lowest-paid workers for a few extra cents. Big companies like Wal-Mart continue to hide behind webs of contractors and subcontractors to pretend they're not responsible, but there can hardly be any doubt that it's their relentless demand for cost-cutting and high productivity that drives this behavior.

Until they're penalized for demands that result in cheating the workers on the shop floor, it will continue. And workers like Victor will continue to be correct in observing, "It's not right to work hard and be treated this way."

Michael Hiltzik's column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Read his blog, the Economy Hub, at latimes.com/business/hiltzik, reach him at mhiltzik@latimes.com, check out facebook.com/hiltzik and follow @hiltzikm on Twitter.

McDonalds, Burger King and Jack in the Box HELP MEXICO LOOT AMERICA… ever been to one of these places that hired ANY ONE but HISPANICS that can barely speak English?

NOW THEY’RE SENDING THEM TO THE WELFARE LINES TO MAKE UP FOR MISERABLE WAGES…. the amnesty hoax… IT’S ALL ABOUT KEEPING WAGES DEPRESSED!!!

http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/10/mcdonalds-burger-king-and-jack-in-box.html

THERE ARE ONLY EIGHT (8)STATES WITH A POPULATION GREATER THAN LOS ANGELES COUNTY WHERE 90% OF ALL SERVICE AND CONSTRUCTION SECTOR JOBS ARE HELD BY HISPANICS, OVERWHELMINGLY ILLEGALS USING STOLEN SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS.

YOU CAN’T GO INTO ANY FOOD SERVICE AND FIND A NON-HISPANIC WITH A JOB! DITTO ROSS STORES, TARGET, 99CENT ONLY STORES, ETC.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY PAYS OUT $600 MILLION PER YEAR IN WELFARE TO ILLEGALS (source: JUDICIAL WATCH). IT HAS A TAX-FREE MEXICAN UNDERGROUND ECONOMY CALCULATED TO BE IN EXCESS OF $2 BILLION, AND IS THE MEXICAN GANG CAPITAL OF AMERICA.

THE LA RAZA (ILLEGALS) CONTROLLED STATE LEGISLATURE JUST PASSED A LAW MAKING IT ILLEGAL FOR EMPLOYERS TO USE E-VERIFY!

VIVA LA RAZA? IT’S HOW THESE CORPORATIONS KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED!

 

SEC Probing Chipotle Over Claims The Burrito Chain Hired Undocumented Workers

By Lisa Baertlein

May 18 (Reuters) - Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as part of an expanding investigation into its alleged hiring of undocumented workers.

The Denver-based company fired about 500 employees more than a year ago following audits by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arm.

Chipotle said on Friday that it received the subpoena May 17 and that it intends to fully cooperate with the SEC's investigation.

Homeland Security and the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's office for Washington, D.C., already are conducting probes into the company's compliance with immigration laws.

The SEC subpoena requested "information regarding our compliance with employee work authorization requirements, our related public statements and other disclosures, and related information," Chipotle said in a filing.

Michael Wildes, an immigration attorney and a former federal prosecutor who is not involved in the case, said it is "not common at all" for the SEC to get involved in immigration matters.

"It's often a ping-pong between the Justice Department and immigration authorities" with the Department of Labor at times stepping in, said Wildes.

Chipotle attorney Robert Luskin said in an email "it is not at all unusual for the SEC to join an investigation under these circumstances to determine whether the company has been forthcoming in its public statements."

Luskin, a top Washington lawyer, said he is "very confident that the SEC will find that the company fulfilled all of its obligations."

A spokeswoman for the SEC declined comment.

The popular chain is the highest profile U.S. company to come under the scrutiny of ICE since it shifted enforcement to employers rather than workers in 2009.

Unlike many rivals, Chipotle owns and operates its more than 1,000 U.S. restaurants and is ultimately responsible for hiring.

The company is known for its ability to control costs, particularly labor related expenses, while expanding rapidly.

Chipotle shares closed at $392.13 on Friday, almost 18 times higher than their $22 debut in 2006.

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OBAMA HAS SABOTAGED E-VERIFY AND PUT HILDA SOLIS, A LA RAZA SUPREMACIST IN AS SEC of (illegal) LABOR!

The economy, like everything else adverse, is someone else's fault. But if only we borrowed and spent a trillion dollars, unemployment would stay beneath 8%, Obama promised. It soared far above. It's still above. No apology. No acknowledgment. Now, he hails any dip as proof of progress when, in fact, it comes because so many just give up seeking work.

THE ENTIRE REASON THE BORDERS ARE LEFT OPEN IS TO CUT WAGES!

 

“We could cut unemployment in half simply by reclaiming the jobs taken by illegal workers,” said Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, co-chairman of the Reclaim American Jobs Caucus. “President Obama is on the wrong side of the American people on immigration. The president should support policies that help citizens and legal immigrants find the jobs they need and deserve rather than fail to enforce immigration laws.”

 

ACCORDING TO SENATOR LAMAR SMITH OF TEXAS, WHEN CHALLENGING SO- CALLED “HOMELAND SECURITY = PATHWAY TO CITIZENSHIPS” LA RAZA JANET NAPOLITANO, AS TO WHY OUR BORDERS ARE WIDE OPEN TO NARCOMEX, OBAMA HAS CUT ENFORCEMENT BY MORE THAN 60% IN ALL AREAS.

 

 

OBAMA HAS PROMISED HIS CRIMINAL BANKSTER DONORS THEIR JOBS WILL BE PROTECTED AND THEY WILL NEVER BE PROSECUTED FOR THEIR CRIMES…

 

OTHER THAN HIS OWN JOB, OBAMA HAS PROMISED ILLEGALS OUR JOBS, NO E-VERIFY, OPEN & UNDEFENDED BORDERS TO EXPAND THE MEX OCCUPATION, GRINGO-PAID DREAM ACTS, NO ID MAY BE REQUIRED OF ILLEGALS VOTING, LAWSUITS AGAINST AMERICAN STATES ON BEHALF OF HIS LA RAZA PARTY BASE OF MEXICAN FASCIST.

 

CAN WE AFFORD 49 MORE MEXIFORNIA’S? THAT STATE IS A MEX GANG INFESTED DUMPSTER! THE STATE HAS THE LARGEST AND MOST EXPENSIVE  PRISON SYSTEM IN THE NATION. HALF THE INMATES ARE MEXICANS! THE CA ATTORNEY GEN KAMALA HARRIS DECLARES THAT HALF THE MURDERS IN CA ARE BY MEX GANGS! THE STATE PAYS OUT $20 BILLION PER YEAR IN WELFARE TO ILLEGALS! ON TOP OF THAT COUNTIES HAND THEM MORE TO BREED ANCHOR BABIES. L.A. COUNTY PAYS OUT $600 MILLION PER YEAR IN WELFARE TO ILLEGALS…. NEXT TO DRUGS AND CRIMINALS, MEXICO’S BIGGEST EXPORT IS PREGNANT WOMEN!

Obama soft on illegals enforcement

 

Arrests of illegal immigrant workers have dropped precipitously under President Obama, according to figures released Wednesday. Criminal arrests, administrative arrests, indictments and convictions of illegal immigrants at work sites all fell by more than 50 percent from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2009.

The figures show that Mr. Obama has made good on his pledge to shift enforcement away from going after illegal immigrant workers themselves - but at the expense of Americans' jobs, said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the Republican who compiled the numbers from the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). Mr. Smith, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said a period of economic turmoil is the wrong time to be cutting enforcement and letting illegal immigrants take jobs that Americans otherwise would hold.

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MOST OF THE FORTUNE 500 ARE GENEROUS DONORS TO LA RAZA – THE MEXICAN FASCIST POLITICAL PARTY. THESE FIGURES ARE DATED. CNN CALCULATES THAT WAGES ARE DEPRESSED $300 - $400 BILLION PER YEAR!

“The principal beneficiaries of our current immigration policy are affluent Americans who hire immigrants at substandard wages for low-end work. Harvard economist George Borjas estimates that American workers lose $190 billion annually in depressed wages caused by the constant flooding of the labor market at the low-wage end.” Christian Science Monitor

THE ENTIRE REASON THE BORDERS ARE LEFT OPEN IS TO CUT WAGES!

"We could cut unemployment in half simply by reclaiming the jobs taken by illegal workers," said Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, co-chairman of the Reclaim American Jobs Caucus. "President Obama is on the wrong side of the American people on immigration. The president should support policies that help citizens and legal immigrants find the jobs they need and deserve rather than fail to enforce immigration laws."

 

FROM JUDICIAL WATCH org

Illegal Immigration

Today, between eight and fourteen million illegal aliens reside in the United States, draining our nation’s economy, while presenting a security threat to the people of the United States. Public officials have not only repeatedly failed to protect our borders from this illegal alien invasion, but they have also been complicit in the effort to undermine our nation’s immigration laws.

Judicial Watch has an active investigation into the Obama administration’s policies and actions on immigration. For instance, Judicial Watch had uncovered documents indicating collusion between the Department of Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union with respect to legal challenges of Arizona’s SB 1070. Recently, Judicial Watch obtained documents revealing that administration officials misled Congress regarding the scope of deportation dismissals in Houston, Texas. Additional documents were obtained that detail a behind-the-scenes effort by the administration to suspend deportation proceedings against “DREAM” Act aliens and other illegal immigrants. Judicial Watch also routinely obtains smuggling statistics and has revealed details of a shocking sex slave trafficking operation in Houston, Texas.

ACROSS THE COUNTRY, EVEN DESPITE THE STAGGERING UNEMPLOYMENT, LA RAZA OBAMA HAS SABOTAGED E-VERIFY TO HELP EMPLOYERS PUT ILLEGALS IN OUR JOBS.

THIS BUYS THE ILLEGALS’ VOTES FOR OBAMA, AND KEEPS HIS CORPORATE PAYMASTERS, BENT ON PAYING MISERABLE WAGES, HAPPY AND GENEROU$$$$.

THERE IS A REASON WHY THE U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE DEMANDS AMNESTY, OPEN BORDERS, NO E-VERIFY!

THERE IS A REASON WHY OBAMA PUT A LA RAZA SUPREMACIST, MEXICAN HILDA SOLIS IN AS SECRETARY OF DEPT. OF LABOR!

 

First Audited, Now Investigated: Chipotle Faces Criminal Investigation ( ICE in California? )

 

 

First Audited, Now Investigated: Chipotle Faces Criminal Investigation over Illegal Hiring Practices
Thursday, April 21, 2011, 12:47 PM EDT - posted on NumbersUSA


First the federal government audited Chipotle outlets in Minnesota and found hundreds of employees were illegal aliens. Next, the process was repeated in the Washington, D.C.-area with the same result: Chipotle was found to have hired illegal aliens. Now the feds have launched a criminal investigation into the chain's hiring practices.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., has sought documents from Chipotle regarding their employment practices. The U.S. Attorney's office does not comment on specific cases, but a spokesperson did say the office works with ICE and other federal agencies to investigate suspected criminal offenses.

Monty Moran, the co-CEO of Chipotle, said the company is "not fully aware of the specific details about how these agencies do their work [and] will continue to work closely with government officials to answer their questions." According to the Journal, Chipotle is "installing various new procedures for verifying employees' immigration status" and Moran "believes [Chipotle's] plan will address (ICE's) concerns [and] we are working now to roll out those enhancements."

Since the Minnesota and D.C.-area audits, Chipotle has required all outlets to use the E-Verify system to verify new hires.

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FAIRUS.org

steinreport.com

The study finds that employers favor immigrant workers - particularly illegal aliens - because they work for lower wages, do not demand health care and other benefits, and because businesses can avoid paying payroll taxes.

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January 21, 2011

   

New Report Draws Direct Link Between Immigration and Unemployment for American Workers

 

by Ira Mehlman

While unemployment in the United States remains stubbornly high (officially 9.4%, but actually closer to 17% when discouraged workers and people relegated to part-time work are factored in), the picture for immigrants is much brighter. According to a forthcoming report from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, some 1.1 million legal and illegal immigrants entered the U.S. labor force between 2008 and 2010. Over the same period, employment for American workers declined by 6.26 million jobs.

In an interview with Reuters, the author of the study, Andrew Sum, makes it clear that the hiring boom for new immigrants - about 35% of whom are in the country illegally - has come directly at the expense of American workers. "Employers have chosen to use new immigrants over native-born workers and have continued to displace large numbers of blue-collar workers and young adults without college degrees," states Sum.

The study finds that employers favor immigrant workers - particularly illegal aliens - because they work for lower wages, do not demand health care and other benefits, and because businesses can avoid paying payroll taxes.

The majority of immigrant workers who entered the U.S. labor force between 2008 and 2010 took jobs that could be done by unemployed American workers. These include jobs in construction, hotels and food services, retail trade, sanitation and cleaning.

The report amounts to a devastating indictment of America's political leadership that has allowed millions of American workers and their families to suffer by maintaining immigration policies that prevent them from gaining access to jobs in their own country.

Obama Administration Challenges Arizona E-Verify Law

The Obama administration has asked the Supreme Court to strike down a 2007 Arizona law that punishes employers who hire illegal aliens, a law enacted by then-Governor Janet Napolitano.  (Solicitor General's Amicus Curiae Brief).  Called the “Legal Arizona Workers Act,” the law requires all employers in Arizona to use E-Verify and provides that the business licenses of those who hire illegal workers shall be repealed.  From the date of enactment, the Chamber of Commerce and other special interest groups have been trying to undo it, attacking it through a failed ballot initiative and also through a lawsuit. Now the Chamber is asking the United States Supreme Court to hear the case (Chamber of Commerce v. Candelaria), and the Obama Administration is weighing in against the law.

To date, Arizona’s E-Verify law has been upheld by all lower courts, including the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Ninth Circuit, in particular, viewed it as an exercise of a state’s traditional power to regulate businesses.  (San Francisco Chronicle, June 2, 2010).  Obama’s Justice Department, however, disagrees. Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal said in his filing with the Supreme Court that the lower courts were wrong to uphold the statute because federal immigration law expressly preempts any state law imposing sanctions on employers hiring illegal immigrants.  Mr. Katyal argues that this is not a licensing law, but “a statute that prohibits the hiring of unauthorized aliens and uses suspension and revocation of all state-issued licenses as its ultimate sanction.”  (Solicitor General's Amicus Curiae Brief, p. 10).  This is the administration’s first court challenge to a state’s authority to act against illegal immigration, and could be a preview of the battle brewing over Arizona’s recent illegal immigration crackdown through SB 1070. 

Napolitano has made no comment on the Department of Justice’s decision to challenge the 2007 law, but federal officials said that she has taken an active part in the debate over whether to do so. (Politico, May 28, 2010).   As Governor of Arizona, Napolitano said she believed the state law was valid and became a defendant in the many lawsuits against it. (Id.).

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