New reports tally multimillion dollar cost of poverty-wage fast food jobs in our state

Huge national chains profit from low-wage economy by shifting costs to the rest of us

TUESDAY, 10/15 - Fast food workers & supporters will unveil new reports by researchers from UC Berkeley and the National Employment Law Project which calculate the multimillion dollar cost of poverty wages at major fast food chains, both nationally and here in Washington State. The reports to be released Tuesday will show how the giant fast-food chains shift costs to the rest of us by paying such low wages that many fast food workers need assistance from food stamps and other anti-poverty programs to fill the gap between what they’re paid, and what it takes to survive.

WHO: Fast food workers, joined by State Representative Zach Hudgins and other supporters

WHAT: Unveil new reports which detail the extent to which the giant national fast food chains pad their profits by shifting the costs of poverty wages to the rest of us.

WHEN: Tuesday, October 15, 10:00 am

WHERE: Burger King, 3301 4th Ave S, Seattle, WA. (This is located in Rep. Hudgins’s district.)

The minimum wage of $9.19/hour is simply not enough to meet basic needs, so many fast food workers need public benefits to close the gap between what their jobs pay, and what they need to survive. The reports will show that:

  • Even though they serve food for a living, more than a quarter of fast food workers need food stamps to ensure they have enough to eat.
  • Fast food chains pay so little that more than 2 in 5 fast food workers need support from a major publicly-funded safety net program to get by.
  • The national chains bank billions in profits, while leaving fast food workers in poverty and shifting millions of costs to the rest of us.

Sparked by this summer's fast food & coffee strikes, Good Jobs Seattle is a growing movement which seeks to build a sustainable future for Seattle's economy from the middle out — by turning poverty-wage jobs in fast food and other industries into good jobs that offer opportunities for a better future and pay enough for workers to afford basic necessities like food, clothing and rent. Good Jobs Seattle is supported by organizations including Washington Community Action Network, Working Washington, OneAmerica, SEIU Healthcare 775NW and hundreds of workers and grassroots supporters.

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They blamed it on a cookie?

Subway fired Carlos Hernandez after he helped lead a citywide fast food strike. Then they tried to blame it on a 66 cent cookie. Retaliation is wrong and we’re not going to let them get away with it: if Subway won’t give Carlos his job back, they won’t get our business. nosandwich

Send an email directly to the Subway franchise owner who fired Carlos, and tell him you will boycott Subway until he stops retaliating and gives Carlos his job back.

Carlos and his coworkers know he wasn’t fired over a cookie. Just days before he was fired, a manager told him to stop “rabble rousing.” Other workers were told they shouldn’t talk to Carlos anymore. It’s pretty obvious that this was retaliation, and the 66 cent cookie was just a convenient excuse.

Click here to send an email to the Subway franchise owner who fired Carlos — and to Subway Corporate. Tell them you are going to boycott Subway until Carlos gets his job back.

Subway is already feeling the pressure.

We’ve picketed outside of numerous Subway locations owned by the same major franchise owner who retaliated against Carlos, essentially shutting down the lunch rush. We filed federal charges against both the franchise owner and Subway Corporate. We even took our pickets to the pages of Yelp.

And now we are calling for a boycott of Subway until Carlos gets his job back.

Click here to join the boycott — and tell Subway why.

Don't you buy that Footlong!

“I heard about this Subway thing from my local paper in Bremerton,” said Cory, who had come to Seattle for the picket line near Pike Place Market. “I had to come out here. My granddaughter works at Subway and I’d hate for her to have to put up with this mistreatment. Subway needs to respect its workers and give Carlos his job back.” gallerycarlos2

Subway fired a striking worker, Carlos, a week after he helped lead a city wide fast food worker strike.  In response, the community has created an online petition, given one star reviews on Yelp and taken our message to the streets — six different Subway stores in less than a week.

From the Broadway Subway up on Capitol Hill, the Subway across from the Olive 8 hotel, the Subway at Pike Place Market, to the local headquarters of this chain of Subways at the corner of Denny and Fairview, the pickets have brought the lunch rush at the sandwich maker to a screeching halt.

Customers saw our picket, read the information and turned away – siding with the workers instead of the corporate footlong maker.

A worker wearing a traffic caution vest refused to cross the picket line. “I ain’t eating no scab sandwiches!”

A trio entered the Subway after grabbing a leaflet, read it and then all walked out of the store shaking their heads and giving thumbs up to the crowd.

A man wearing a Sounders knit cap with the Subway logo emblazoned on it, took a flier explaining the situation, stopped and talked with us, pulled out a camera and then refused to eat at Subway.

A crew of construction workers walking up from a job a few blocks away saw the picket line, read the information and turned away, seeking lunch elsewhere.

The community support has been overwhelming and the local media has taken notice as well.

TV cameras from KIRO, KOMO and KING 5 showed up at the various pickets talking to the workers and community members who came out in support of Carlos and his fellow workers.  News articles flew off the pages in The Stranger, The Puget Sound Business Journal, KPLU, The Stand, Salon and The Capitol Hill Blog.

“I’m just so grateful for all this support,” said Carlos into a TV camera. “I’m out here because Subway thinks they can keep me quiet and keep its workers down. They can’t. They won’t. We are going to keep fighting for better pay and the right to organize without retaliation. I’ll keep talking to my co-workers, the bosses and anyone who will listen.”

ON STRIKE AGAINST SUBWAY: fast food workers deserve respect

Carlos Hernandez is a Subway worker who helped lead the fast food strikes this summer to demand that the huge, profitable fast food industry treat their workers with respect. Now Subway has fired him — supposedly over a 66¢ cookie.

Federal charges have been filed alleging that Carlos was actually fired in retaliation for his role as a leader in the fast food workers movement.

Everyone should have the right to speak out for a better life — that's why workers have a legal right to strike. It's unacceptable that instead of listening to workers and considering their concerns, Subway fired a leader in the fast food workers movement and is trying to intimidate other workers from speaking out.

Support Carlos & the fast food workers movement: BOYCOTT SUBWAY until he gets his job back.*

Thousands of fast-food workers have joined a nationwide wave of strikes for better pay and the right to organize. Almost every one of these workers went back to work without incident. Why? Because it's illegal to fire someone for striking — and because the law has been backed up by overwhelming community support.

Carlos is a true leader who helped organize the May 30th and August 29th strikes.

He spread the word to his co-workers, and successfully encouraged many to join him on strike, forcing several stores to close. He joined strikelines outside the store where he works, and even spoke out at the rallies which culminated both Seattle fast food strikes.

His managers repeatedly tried to intimidate him into quieting down, but Carlos continued to stand up for what he believed in: better pay & working conditions for fast food workers like him.

Carlos knew that speaking out could be a risk, but spoke out anyway because he thought it was important to be there for his coworkers and for his community.

Now it's time for all of use — workers, customers, and community — to be there for Carlos too.

Everyone should have the right to speak out for a better life. It's unacceptable that instead of listening to workers and considering their concerns, Subway has chosen to fire Carlos.

Don't shop at Subway until they commit to respect the law and give Carlos his job back.

*Our dispute is with Subway. We are not asking anyone to boycott a neutral employer.

SeaTac Voters Celebrate Good Jobs Initiative Moving On To Fall Ballot

Alaska Airlines, WA Restaurant Association failed to stop SeaTac City Council from sending living wage, paid sick leave to voters

SeaTac  – July 23, 2013: More than 250 SeaTac voters, airport workers, and supporters celebrated the City Council’s unanimous vote to send the Good Jobs Initiative to voters later this fall.  Earlier in the evening supporters had joyfully paraded from a nearby park to the SeaTac City Hall, where council members then took public testimony and performed a procedural vote to send the initiative to the fall ballot.

Corporate lawyers for Alaska Airlines and the Washington Restaurant Association failed to block today’s SeaTac City Council vote, despite filing a last second lawsuit in King County Superior Court and a challenge to the petition signatures. Alaska Airlines lost both attempts.

Residents, airport workers and service providers provided compelling testimony that Good Jobs will make SeaTac a better place to work and to do business (full testimony available upon request):

“A lot of my clients work at the airport for companies that contract to the big airlines, like Menzies, DGS, Airserve, and FSS.  They all live in the SeaTac, Tukwila, Burien area. Most of them work for minimum wage. Some have been there for 2, 3 years still making $10 or so. Most of the people who come in from the airport instantly qualify for public assistance because they are supporting at least one other person – a child, spouse, elderly parent,” testified Taffy Maene, Board President of the United Territories of Pacific Islands Alliance, who also works as a public assistance provider.

“My students are part of families who are working local jobs… Without well-paying jobs they leave.  The housing situation is particularly vital in establishing stability for these families.  You are less likely to move away if you have a solid paying job in your own community,” testified Luis Escamillia, a local high school teacher and resident of SeaTac.

“I don’t have paid sick leave.  If I have an emergency I have to take unpaid time off. If I take too much time off I’ll get fired. My husband works cleaning rooms at the downtown Westin Hotel even though he is old enough to retire.  He keeps working so we can have health care. If my husband retires or if something happens, I won’t get my pills for my thyroid condition,” testified Evelyn Orlano, an airport worker who works two part-time jobs at the airport for minimum wage.

“When the Good Jobs Initiative passes, I won’t have to work so much overtime to make rent and I’ll have more time to spend with my daughter. I’ll be able to be a better dad,” testified Socrates Bravo, an airport worker who lives in a SeaTac apartment with another airport worker.

“A few years ago I worked as a short order cook at the Denny’s across the street. I’d work at Denny’s 7am – 2:45pm, take a quick sponge bath in the bathroom, brush my teeth, apply deodorant, then put on my bellman uniform and work from 3 – 11pm. If I have to get a second job to make ends meet on my minimum wage and tips, I wonder how employees at other hotels survive when those corporations are keeping their service charges and tips?” testified Tim Doherty, who has worked for 25 years as bellman at the Hilton Doubletree in SeaTac and is currently applying for a second, part-time job.

“I think the Good Jobs Initiative will make the City of SeaTac a better place to do business. That’s because more of the people shopping and living here will have more money to spend here in our shops,” testified SeaTac small business owner, Abdifatah Haashin.

“My hope is that with a livable wage our communities could be stabilized. Families could be under less stress. Parents would have time and the emotional availability to sit with their children, read to them, play with them, even attend school events with them – those things are missing in times of stress. My hope is that instead of a cup of noodles for breakfast or chips and soda for dinner - families could enjoy balanced meals that even contain vegetables,” testified Minister Jan Bolerjack, who runs the food pantry at the Riverton Park United Methodist Church.

The Good Jobs initiative, signed by more than 2,500 petitioners in SeaTac, provides targeted solutions for well-documented unfair working conditions at Sea-Tac Airport and in some of the larger airport-related businesses. (Alaska Airlines was recently punished withthousands in fines from the State Labor & Industries inspectors for allowing dangerous working conditions).

The SeaTac Good Jobs Initiative would bring Sea-Tac Airport in line with workforce standards already in effect at other west coast airports, as documented in the report Below the Radar issued in March 2013 by Puget Sound Sage.

The SeaTac Good Jobs Initiative would set basic employment standards for workers employed in the transportation, tourism and hospitality industries in SeaTac, including paid sick leave, full-time work for those who need it, a living wage of at least $15/hour, job security for employees when companies change contractors, and assurances that tips and service charges go to the workers who perform the service.

The measure would cover businesses in and around the airport, including airport baggage handling, passenger services, cabin cleaning, aircraft fueling, security, and retail stores, along with hotels, rental car and parking lot facilities. Small businesses and non-airport related businesses are specifically exempt.

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