Unionization of restaurant employees

mjhale
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Re: Unionization of restaurant employees

Post by mjhale »

I don't work in the restaurant or service industry so I may be speaking out of turn here. But the news is constantly saying that there are millions of jobs out there just for the taking. If people are upset with their pay, working conditions, etc then why not go somewhere else? American business isn't exactly dedicated to the American worker so one or a few lost here or there isn't going to turn any heads in the corporate suite. Or is it that the majority of jobs in the service industry have the same structural problems. Maybe that is what is motivating people to want to organize and unionize. I also think that recent generations are much more group oriented as opposed to previous generations which were much more individualistic. That characteristic leads itself well to organizing because the thought is that the group will bring better conditions than the individual would alone.
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Re: Unionization of restaurant employees

Post by Alpha8472 »

The unions may be targeting Starbucks at this time, because Starbucks employees tend to be at their jobs for years. Many people make a career out of being baristas. The unions want union members who will be union members at one job for years. McDonald's or Burger King workers usually quit after a few months. Very few of those workers make a career out of it.

It is at this time when restaurants are short of help, when restaurants are willing to pay employees more. The unions want to take advantage and get employees to unionize and demand higher wages. The companies might actually increase pay and benefits just to retain employees. The unions are hoping that the companies will also tolerate employees joining unions since restaurants are so shorthanded now.
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Re: Unionization of restaurant employees

Post by storewanderer »

With Howard Schultz back at Starbucks maybe this issue will resolve itself. It seems like Howard Schultz has to keep returning to Starbucks after various other management teams screw the place up royally. I respect his wishes to go engage in other interests/retire but it seems like he really needs to stick around at the company...
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Re: Unionization of restaurant employees

Post by Alpha8472 »

Howard said that he wants to stop the stock buybacks and invest the company's money in the employees and stores. He was a strong advocate for giving employees healthcare even though it cost money. If the employees have good benefits and wages then there will be much less need for a union. He was always very enthusiastic about getting employees excited about coffee and delivering the best customer service possible.
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Re: Unionization of restaurant employees

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: April 5th, 2022, 10:07 pm Howard said that he wants to stop the stock buybacks and invest the company's money in the employees and stores. He was a strong advocate for giving employees healthcare even though it cost money. If the employees have good benefits and wages then there will be much less need for a union. He was always very enthusiastic about getting employees excited about coffee and delivering the best customer service possible.
Howard Schultz is the reason why Starbucks employees have the wage and benefit package they have. He built the company on getting the best employees to help build the business by connecting with customers, having lower turnover than the industry, and executing better than the industry (no other chain has been able to build up as large of a chain of corporate operated quick serve restaurants as Starbucks has). This formula worked. It was hugely successful.
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Re: Unionization of restaurant employees

Post by pseudo3d »

So apparently the company announced a wage hike for employees...but unionized employees are exempt from this.

https://archive.ph/KWDW9
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Re: Unionization of restaurant employees

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: May 4th, 2022, 8:13 pm So apparently the company announced a wage hike for employees...but unionized employees are exempt from this.

https://archive.ph/KWDW9
Yes, the union has to negotiate this separately. Starbucks cannot just give a wage increase to union employees. That is against the terms of the union contract.

Another example- one retailer I know of, has one department in the store unionized: the meat department. The flu shot comes out every year and every year every employee in the building is eligible to go to the pharmacy and receive a free flu shot (supposedly without going through insurance), with one exception: the meat department. Because the meat department's union did not negotiate that "benefit" for its employees, its employees do not get that benefit. I posed the question isn't it covered by your medical insurance, but the person I talked to wasn't sure.
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Re: Unionization of restaurant employees

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: April 5th, 2022, 11:58 pm
Alpha8472 wrote: April 5th, 2022, 10:07 pm Howard said that he wants to stop the stock buybacks and invest the company's money in the employees and stores. He was a strong advocate for giving employees healthcare even though it cost money. If the employees have good benefits and wages then there will be much less need for a union. He was always very enthusiastic about getting employees excited about coffee and delivering the best customer service possible.
Howard Schultz is the reason why Starbucks employees have the wage and benefit package they have. He built the company on getting the best employees to help build the business by connecting with customers, having lower turnover than the industry, and executing better than the industry (no other chain has been able to build up as large of a chain of corporate operated quick serve restaurants as Starbucks has). This formula worked. It was hugely successful.
It was hugely successful... Until Kevin Johnson and the more recent Starbucks leadership team focused the company on lowering payroll levels significantly to fund stock buybacks. They hired the same analysts who create engineered work plans for fast food chains like McDonald's and established the same kind of regulations. Their intent was to achieve less labor dollars spent vs sales dollars than McDonald's without spending money on the kinds of automated machinery McDonald's has (for example McDonald's fryers automatically eject the fry basket when the timer goes off to reduce necessary footsteps of someone running across the kitchen just because a timer went off - so they can dump the fries into the holding bin at the same time they fill the next fry order - little mechanized details like that are how they are so efficient). If there were 7 workers on the morning shift before that was reduced to 3 and each stands on this assigned square, not one tile to the left or right, etc. to increase productivity to inhuman levels. Wall Street loved it, of course. But it made the jobs miserable for the employees. I have a friend who was a Supervisor for a decade with Starbucks and left about six months ago because the changes made the job literally painful and unsafe as she was forced to bend and flex and reach further because they were told taking two steps to reach for the whipped cream for example wastes two seconds, and if you multiply that by X drinks per hour and so on you're personally wasting the company millions of dollars by not following your labor optimization orders. So reach further and if your arm hurts go to CVS and buy a brace or something. That new mindset broke the company and wiped out the focus on guest experience. Product training and coffee expertise programs were eliminated to reduce costs and replaced by labor optimization training. No wonder they're organizing!
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Re: Unionization of restaurant employees

Post by ClownLoach »

ClownLoach wrote: May 6th, 2022, 8:55 am
storewanderer wrote: April 5th, 2022, 11:58 pm
Alpha8472 wrote: April 5th, 2022, 10:07 pm Howard said that he wants to stop the stock buybacks and invest the company's money in the employees and stores. He was a strong advocate for giving employees healthcare even though it cost money. If the employees have good benefits and wages then there will be much less need for a union. He was always very enthusiastic about getting employees excited about coffee and delivering the best customer service possible.
Howard Schultz is the reason why Starbucks employees have the wage and benefit package they have. He built the company on getting the best employees to help build the business by connecting with customers, having lower turnover than the industry, and executing better than the industry (no other chain has been able to build up as large of a chain of corporate operated quick serve restaurants as Starbucks has). This formula worked. It was hugely successful.
It was hugely successful... Until Kevin Johnson and the more recent Starbucks leadership team focused the company on lowering payroll levels significantly to fund stock buybacks. They hired the same analysts who create engineered work plans for fast food chains like McDonald's and established the same kind of regulations. Their intent was to achieve less labor dollars spent vs sales dollars than McDonald's without spending money on the kinds of automated machinery McDonald's has (for example McDonald's fryers automatically eject the fry basket when the timer goes off to reduce necessary footsteps of someone running across the kitchen just because a timer went off - so they can dump the fries into the holding bin at the same time they fill the next fry order - little mechanized details like that are how they are so efficient). If there were 7 workers on the morning shift before that was reduced to 3 and each stands on this assigned square, not one tile to the left or right, etc. to increase productivity to inhuman levels. Wall Street loved it, of course. But it made the jobs miserable for the employees. I have a friend who was a Supervisor for a decade with Starbucks and left about six months ago because the changes made the job literally painful and unsafe as she was forced to bend and flex and reach further because they were told taking two steps to reach for the whipped cream for example wastes two seconds, and if you multiply that by X drinks per hour and so on you're personally wasting the company millions of dollars by not following your labor optimization orders. So reach further and if your arm hurts go to CVS and buy a brace or something. That new mindset broke the company and wiped out the focus on guest experience. Product training and coffee expertise programs were eliminated to reduce costs and replaced by labor optimization training. No wonder they're organizing!
I forgot to mention that Starbucks absolutely will deny it publicly but they were also implementing disciplinary action if baristas were found to be talking to customers too much. As if the barista has any control over whether or not the customer asks questions or initiates the conversation. They were not to initiate conversations even if the store is slow because now if it is slow they have to do more side work than in the past due to labor reduction. Field management would watch camera footage of each store remotely at least once weekly and "coach" the Manager about what they could do to improve their productivity - creating the feeling amongst the workers that they are always being watched and someone is always ready to crack the whip. Sometimes the field manager would actually call the store and speak to the employee directly to intimidate the team - "HI Sally, did you just spend 2 minutes standing by the Mastrena machine without making drinks? You could have been wiping the area, emptying the hopper, or doing other work. Do I have your commitment that you're going to do better now?". How would you feel if you were a lowly part time worker and the big bad boss sitting on his butt at home is calling you to criticize what they are watching you do on a camera?

I think the worst thing is that it is obvious that cleanliness of the restaurant is no longer the priority it once was. They removed carpet from all locations and replaced with tile or just polished concrete. If you look at the walls, lights, under the tables etc. the stores are very dirty. And if you look in the work area behind the counter where your drinks are being made by late afternoon it is a slurry of milk, syrup, and coffee grounds on every surface which is completely disgusting and unhealthy. Starbucks used to have exceptional cleaning standards. Now I have found myself creeping into McDonald's more than I ever have in the last 20 years and although you have to order on a kiosk and there are no personnel visible outside of the person who drops your bag on the counter when your order is up the restaurants are sparkling clean and sanitary.

If the experience is robotic and the product quality is no better than anywhere else then there is no reason to drive past a Dunkin or any other coffee place to visit a Starbucks. They don't have the best product. They don't have the best service. They don't have the best price. They don't have the nicest, cleanest restaurant. Kevin Johnson and team worked faster than the previous team that Schultz had to come back and replace to destroy the company. I think they just sat in the office and kept listening to the same Wall Street "experts" who are destroying everything else and drank their Kool-aid about drastically improving profits over all else and customers won't notice... They're noticing now when they are bombarded with news stories about unionizing restaurants and organizers who are happily pointing out all these same flaws about declining service, cleanliness, safety etc.
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Re: Unionization of restaurant employees

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: May 6th, 2022, 9:15 am

If the experience is robotic and the product quality is no better than anywhere else then there is no reason to drive past a Dunkin or any other coffee place to visit a Starbucks. They don't have the best product. They don't have the best service. They don't have the best price. They don't have the nicest, cleanest restaurant. Kevin Johnson and team worked faster than the previous team that Schultz had to come back and replace to destroy the company. I think they just sat in the office and kept listening to the same Wall Street "experts" who are destroying everything else and drank their Kool-aid about drastically improving profits over all else and customers won't notice... They're noticing now when they are bombarded with news stories about unionizing restaurants and organizers who are happily pointing out all these same flaws about declining service, cleanliness, safety etc.
I have noticed the decline in Starbucks in cleanliness but in my view the locations are busier than ever. I am very surprised people keep going back to these locations, especially with their prices. Local coffee chains, Dutch Bros., seem to also be doing very very well in my area. Those customers came from somewhere. Starbucks is so slow and inefficient I am wondering if the reason the locations appear busy is simply because they take 3-4 minutes to produce a single drink.

McDonalds- last couple times I've gotten very bitter drinks from them. At least the McCafe machines actually work, unlike their ice cream machine which is often broken (especially the day of the week that the free McFlurry with any purchase offer pops up on the app, odd coincidence). McDonalds has some pretty serious problems in Reno/Sparks (go read Google and Yelp for some fun, especially Reno), this is long term, and the corporation does not seem to crack down on franchisees that are doing a terrible job in this region for some reason.

Dunkin has a good product when you go on the coffee or espresso based drinks. Anything else from donuts to "fruit" based drinks- horrible.
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