Workers at Wisconsin Wendy’s
restaurant walk out, demand living wage
By
Jacob Crosse
8 June 2018
On May 31, eight workers shut down and locked out a Wendy’s
restaurant in the village of Weston just outside Wausau, Wisconsin.
Collectively the workers decided they could no longer tolerate unsafe working
conditions, low wages and excessive hours.
The workers left a letter behind for management explaining why
they walked off the job. “Due to this corporation’s refusal to pay a living
wage and deal with problems before it's too late, the employees you would have
dealt with today have all walked off the job. We wish you all the best.” The
note was signed, “The Wendy’s crew.”
The Wendy’s Company, which franchises the international fast food
restaurant chain, pulled in $1.4 billion in revenue 2017. Compensaton for
Wendy’s President and CEO Todd A. Penegor topiped $5 million in 2016. It would
take a Weston “crew-member” at Wendy’s, paid $8 an hour, approximately 308
years to earn the same amount. More than 77 percent of Wendy’s restaurants are
not directly owned by the company but as is common in the hyper exploitative
fast food industry are franchise owned.
The Wendy’s restaurant in Weston, Wisconsin is owned by Starboard
Group Management, located in Coral Springs, Florida. The Starboard Group
operates 180 restaurants across the United States with 5 restaurants in Brazil,
and proudly boasts of $260 million dollars in annual sales on their website.
Neither the Starboard Group management, nor its CEO Andrew Levy, has formally
replied to workers’ demands or to media requests to comment on the workers
defiant action.
The fast food industry in the United States currently numbers 3.65
million workers, some of the most exploited in the country. Many of these
workers are forced to work part time, irregular and long hours, and have few if
any benefits.
Isis Hunter, 19, one of the eight Weston Wendy’s workers who
walked out, explained to the press the struggle she had going to school and
working excessive hours. While attending Wausau High School, Hunter often
worked at Wendy’s till midnight and struggled to secure transportation back
home at the end of her shift. “And toward the end of the semester,” she
told USA Today,
“it got to the point where I chose sleep instead of going to school."
Unable to fill employee vacancies, Assistant Manager Kimberly
Manteuffel was forced to schedule employees and herself to work 12 hours a day
and up to 14 days in a row. Joining her daughter Isis in the walkout,
Manteuffel explained the company’s indifference to modest worker demands, such
as hiring enough employees. Manteuffel stated that over 30 employees had quit
in the last six months, citing unlivable wages and unsafe working conditions as
their primary motivation for leaving.
Eighteen-year-old Nathan Brown, a former employee, showed
reporters oil burn marks on his arms from a faulty chicken fryer. Other
workers, forced to stand for twelve to fourteen hours a day, had to seek
medical treatment for back and chest pains.
Manteuffel’s struggle to run the restaurant finally reached a
breaking point this past week. Her repeated appeals to management, asking them
for employee raises even at the expense of her own, were left unanswered. After
employees walked out, Manteuffel told USA
Today that she received text messages from the district
manager imploring her to return to the “Wendy’s family,” and offering the
employees an insulting one dollar raise. Manteuffel did not trust management
offers, noting in the past that promised raises took months to materialize, if
ever.
While workers are forced to sacrifice their health and labor for a
company indifferent to their lives, the industry is “booming.” Fast food sales
are estimated to exceed $200 billion dollars in the United States and $570
billion worldwide in 2018. While workers generate massive revenue for these
restaurants their pay is staggeringly low.
According to a Statista report,
average compensation for a full-time fast food worker is just $13,501. The
revenue generated per fast food employee meanwhile is $55,650, more than four
times their compensation. This meager compensation requires workers to seek
government assistance to meet basic needs. It is estimated that over 50 percent
of fast food employees, nearly 2 million people, make use of public assistance
programs.
The courageous stand by the Wendy’s workers in Wisconsin
highlights the growing opposition of broad sections of workers who have seen
their living standards decline for decades. As among teachers and autoworkers,
these workers are determined to stand up and fight for better working
conditions, fair compensation and benefits. Support for the Wendy’s workers
actions was visible across social media, with comments left by readers
expressing support and agreement with their demands.
Meanwhile, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has
sought to channel the rebellion in Weston behind the fraudulent “Fight for
Fifteen” campaign and back into the dead end of the Democratic Party.
While fast food workers increasingly want to fight back against
their conditions of hyper-exploitation, the SEIU has no intention of fighting
for a greater expansion of living standards for these workers. Like every other
trade union today, the SEIU seeks to increase its dues base while operating as
a junior partner to management in the exploitation of these workers.
Low wage jobs have proliferated across the United States in the
wake of the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent bank bailout that brought
about a gigantic transfer of wealth from the working class to the financial
aristocracy. The Obama administration and the Democratic Party played a leading
role in this process working closely with the trade unions, which have
artificially suppressed strikes.
Despite the efforts by the unions and the Democratic Party to
subvert and contain the class struggle, workers are increasingly coming into
conflict with these organizations. Workers in the fast food industry, just as
much as teachers, autoworkers, transit workers and others, confront the same
assault on their living standards. What is required is the unification of all
these struggles, in opposition to the trade unions and the parties of big
business, in the fight for the interests of the entire working class.
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