Meet "Smart Restaurant": The Minimum-Wage Crushing, Burger-Flipping Robot - zerohedge.com
Excerpt from this article:
"With a seemingly endless line of talking-heads willing to ignore essentially every study that has been undertaken with regard the effects of raising the minimum-wage...we
thought the following burger-flipping robot was a perfect example of unintended consequences for the fast food industry's workers... [a] machine which is capable of making ~360 'customized'
gourmet burgers per hour without the aid of a human."
----------------------------------------
Recommended reading:
A word of caution to striking fast food workers: You Can Be Replaced!
McDonald's To Workers: Need Cash? Sell Your Stuff!
Companies Lay Off Thousands, Then Demand Immigration Reform to Get More workers
Working Man (And Woman's) Blues
Supposed Mystery at AP: Economy Isn't Growing Despite Increased Employment (Can You Say 'Part-Timers' and 'Temps'?
Showing posts with label Fast Food Strike. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fast Food Strike. Show all posts
Monday, January 13, 2014
Monday, December 2, 2013
Wage Strikes Planned at Fast-Food Outlets
Wage Strikes Planned at Fast-Food Outlets - nytimes.com
Excerpt from this article:
"Seeking to increase pressure on McDonald’s, Wendy’s and other fast-food restaurants, organizers of a movement demanding a $15-an-hour wage for fast-food workers say they will sponsor one-day strikes in 100 cities on Thursday and protest activities in 100 additional cities."
---------------------------------
Recommended reading:
I Work at McDonald's, But I Can't Afford to Eat There
Excerpt from this article:
"Seeking to increase pressure on McDonald’s, Wendy’s and other fast-food restaurants, organizers of a movement demanding a $15-an-hour wage for fast-food workers say they will sponsor one-day strikes in 100 cities on Thursday and protest activities in 100 additional cities."
---------------------------------
Recommended reading:
I Work at McDonald's, But I Can't Afford to Eat There
Thursday, November 28, 2013
"I Work At McDonalds, But I Can't Afford to Eat There!"
"I Work At McDonalds, But I Can't Afford to Eat There!" - zerohedge.com
Excerpt from this article:
"For Shawndraka Mack, a 100% pay rise from her current $7.60 'would do just fine.' While some employees turn to blood plasma donation, and most are on food stamps (and other benefits), the mother of two teenagers (on Medicaid) told Bloomberg Businessweek, 'I love what I do, but I don’t want to work for nothing.' Between the 40 hours a week she works and the benefits, Mack explains, 'I work at McDonald’s and I can’t afford to eat there. It’s crazy'.”
----------------------
If McDonald's raises the wages of all their employees to $15 an hour, none of the rest of us will be able to eat there either. And then McDonald's will go out of business. And then all those workers at McDonald's would be out of work. That's the bad news.
But the good news is this: If McDonald's goes out of business, because they can't afford to pay their employees $15 an hour and still make a profit, that would leave a very big market to be filled by potential entrepreneurs who may want to start their own fast food joint. Of course, these entrepreneurs would want to pay their employees at least $15 an hour to start, so their burgers might be a little pricey!
----------------------
Companies Lay Off Thousands, Then Demand Immigration Reform to Bring in More Workers
McDonalds to Workers: Need Cash? Sell Your Stuff!
Excerpt from this article:
"For Shawndraka Mack, a 100% pay rise from her current $7.60 'would do just fine.' While some employees turn to blood plasma donation, and most are on food stamps (and other benefits), the mother of two teenagers (on Medicaid) told Bloomberg Businessweek, 'I love what I do, but I don’t want to work for nothing.' Between the 40 hours a week she works and the benefits, Mack explains, 'I work at McDonald’s and I can’t afford to eat there. It’s crazy'.”
----------------------
If McDonald's raises the wages of all their employees to $15 an hour, none of the rest of us will be able to eat there either. And then McDonald's will go out of business. And then all those workers at McDonald's would be out of work. That's the bad news.
But the good news is this: If McDonald's goes out of business, because they can't afford to pay their employees $15 an hour and still make a profit, that would leave a very big market to be filled by potential entrepreneurs who may want to start their own fast food joint. Of course, these entrepreneurs would want to pay their employees at least $15 an hour to start, so their burgers might be a little pricey!
----------------------
Companies Lay Off Thousands, Then Demand Immigration Reform to Bring in More Workers
McDonalds to Workers: Need Cash? Sell Your Stuff!
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Low Fast Food Wages Supplemented by Billions in Gov't Welfare - Report
Low Fast Food Wages Supplemented by Billions in Gov't Welfare - Report - rt.com
"Over half of US workers employed by fast food restaurants rely on public assistance because their meager paychecks do not cover basic needs. The aid costs American taxpayers billions of dollars each year, according to a new report. The average American fast food worker earns $8.69 an hour and regularly works less than 40 hours a week, qualifying them for a variety of government benefits. Fifty-two percent of families that include a fast food worker receive food stamps, Medicaid, or are eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Compare that sum with the 25 percent of families eligible for those assistance programs from the overall workforce.
Recommended reading (my post):
How Much Money Would You Pay for a Big Mac?
"Over half of US workers employed by fast food restaurants rely on public assistance because their meager paychecks do not cover basic needs. The aid costs American taxpayers billions of dollars each year, according to a new report. The average American fast food worker earns $8.69 an hour and regularly works less than 40 hours a week, qualifying them for a variety of government benefits. Fifty-two percent of families that include a fast food worker receive food stamps, Medicaid, or are eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Compare that sum with the 25 percent of families eligible for those assistance programs from the overall workforce.
Recommended reading (my post):
How Much Money Would You Pay for a Big Mac?
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Companies Lay Off Thousands, Then Demand Immigration Reform for New Labor
Companies lay off thousands, then demand immigration reform for new labor | WashingtonExaminer.com:
"On Tuesday, the chief human resources officers of more than 100 large corporations sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urging quick passage of a comprehensive immigration reform bill. The officials represent companies with a vast array of business interests: General Electric, The Walt Disney Company, Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, McDonald's Corporation, The Wendy's Company, Coca-Cola, The Cheesecake Factory, Johnson & Johnson, Verizon Communications, Hewlett-Packard, General Mills, and many more. All want to see increases in immigration levels for low-skill as well as high-skill workers, in addition to a path to citizenship for the millions of immigrants currently in the U.S. illegally."
It's all about the money, isn't it?
Recommended reading:
The Great Betrayal: How American Sovereignty and Social Justice Are Being Sacrificed to the Gods of the Global Economy, by Patrick Buchanan
Here is an excerpt from this great book:
"No site better captures yesterday's America than Detroit, forge and furnace of America's democracy. Detroit is the burned out case of American cities. The Empire of the Sun has its revenge. Japanese imports helped kill the city that built the weapons that destroyed the empire. Now grandsons of the soldiers of the imperial army work at high paying manufacturing jobs once held by the fathers of ten-dollar-an-hour retail clerks in Macomb County.
"But why blame the Japanese? We did it to ourselves. We Americans created a post war trading regime, in which, over 25 years, Japan bought 400,000 American cars while selling us 40 million Japanese cars, a ratio of 100:1. One president after another sat still while a third of America's greatest industry was shipped off to Japan...
"Americans no longer make their own cameras, shoes, radios, TVs, toys. A fifth of our steal, a third of our autos, half our machine tools, and two-thirds of our textiles are made abroad...
"The decline and fall of Middle America was neither preordained nor inevitable. It was engineered in Washington D.C. Wages have fallen and the standard of living of American families has stagnated because of a basic law: the law of supply and demand. The price of labor has been dropping because the supply of labor has exploded...
"Having declared free trade and open borders to be American policy, why are we surprised that corporate executives padlocked their plants in the Rust Belt and moved over seas? Why keep your plants here when you can manufacture at a fraction of the cost abroad, ship your goods back, and pocket the windfall profits that come from firing $20 an hour Americans and hiring fifty-cent-an-hour Asians? A pair of Nikes that sells for $150 in the United States costs $5 in wages to make in Indonesia. Any wonder that Nike president Philip Knight is the fifth richest man in America, with $5.2 billion, while his Indonesian workers make 31 cents an hour?" (Emphasis mine)
More recommended reading:
Recovery Woes: America's Second Largest Employer is a Temp Agency
Only 47% of Americans Have Full Time Jobs
"On Tuesday, the chief human resources officers of more than 100 large corporations sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urging quick passage of a comprehensive immigration reform bill. The officials represent companies with a vast array of business interests: General Electric, The Walt Disney Company, Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, McDonald's Corporation, The Wendy's Company, Coca-Cola, The Cheesecake Factory, Johnson & Johnson, Verizon Communications, Hewlett-Packard, General Mills, and many more. All want to see increases in immigration levels for low-skill as well as high-skill workers, in addition to a path to citizenship for the millions of immigrants currently in the U.S. illegally."
It's all about the money, isn't it?
Recommended reading:
The Great Betrayal: How American Sovereignty and Social Justice Are Being Sacrificed to the Gods of the Global Economy, by Patrick Buchanan
Here is an excerpt from this great book:
"No site better captures yesterday's America than Detroit, forge and furnace of America's democracy. Detroit is the burned out case of American cities. The Empire of the Sun has its revenge. Japanese imports helped kill the city that built the weapons that destroyed the empire. Now grandsons of the soldiers of the imperial army work at high paying manufacturing jobs once held by the fathers of ten-dollar-an-hour retail clerks in Macomb County.
"But why blame the Japanese? We did it to ourselves. We Americans created a post war trading regime, in which, over 25 years, Japan bought 400,000 American cars while selling us 40 million Japanese cars, a ratio of 100:1. One president after another sat still while a third of America's greatest industry was shipped off to Japan...
"Americans no longer make their own cameras, shoes, radios, TVs, toys. A fifth of our steal, a third of our autos, half our machine tools, and two-thirds of our textiles are made abroad...
"The decline and fall of Middle America was neither preordained nor inevitable. It was engineered in Washington D.C. Wages have fallen and the standard of living of American families has stagnated because of a basic law: the law of supply and demand. The price of labor has been dropping because the supply of labor has exploded...
"Having declared free trade and open borders to be American policy, why are we surprised that corporate executives padlocked their plants in the Rust Belt and moved over seas? Why keep your plants here when you can manufacture at a fraction of the cost abroad, ship your goods back, and pocket the windfall profits that come from firing $20 an hour Americans and hiring fifty-cent-an-hour Asians? A pair of Nikes that sells for $150 in the United States costs $5 in wages to make in Indonesia. Any wonder that Nike president Philip Knight is the fifth richest man in America, with $5.2 billion, while his Indonesian workers make 31 cents an hour?" (Emphasis mine)
More recommended reading:
Recovery Woes: America's Second Largest Employer is a Temp Agency
Only 47% of Americans Have Full Time Jobs
Friday, August 30, 2013
A Word of Caution to Striking Fast Food Workers - You Can Be Replaced!
A word of caution to striking fast food workers:
"You can be replaced: McDonalds recently went on a hiring binge in the U.S., adding 62,000 employees to its roster. The hiring picture doesn’t look quite so rosy for Europe, where the fast food chain is drafting 7,000 touch-screen kiosks to handle cashiering duties. The move is designed to boost efficiency and make ordering more convenient for customers...Automation becomes more and more of an option as our technology advances continue to expand exponentially. And automation usually is used to replace low-end, low-skilled workers – like those in fast food restaurants. That’s an unfortunate truth."
I went to a grocery store recently, and when I got up to the check out stand, there was no checkers there. I looked around for a minute, and then a friendly man - all smiles - pointed me over to the 'self check out' stand and asked me if I needed assistance using it.
Isn't technology a wonderful thing? I know companies - like grocery stores and banks - say that these 'self checkout stands (or ATM's, in the case of banks) are for 'our customer's convenience. I don't believe that for one minute! Businessmen (and businesswomen) know that to stay competitive they have to cut costs to the bone - and one of the biggest costs to a business is labor.
I've worked most of my life in the food industry (and I never made $15 an hour!). For many years I worked on dairy farms. I remember years ago when dairy farmers were just starting to implement automation in their milking parlors. I was the lead milker, and I had a full time helper. I knew that once this automation was complete my helper's job was going to dry up. He was going to be fired. And I was going to do the job by myself - with a little help from the automatic take off machines!
The Bible says: "If a man will not work, neither should he eat." 2 Thessalonians 3:10. But there is a difference between someone telling the government: "I will not work: you take care of me!" and someone who really wants to work and can't find a job. Or, in the case of the striking fast food workers, someone who is trying to support a family on a very low paying job, and has to work a second full time job just to make ends meet.
This is a real opportunity for Christians to put their faith into practice. And maybe those with gifts and talents in business and industry could forgo the trend to replace human workers with machines, and trust God to take care of their bottom line!
Recommended reading (my post):
How Much Money Would You Pay for a Big Mac?
"You can be replaced: McDonalds recently went on a hiring binge in the U.S., adding 62,000 employees to its roster. The hiring picture doesn’t look quite so rosy for Europe, where the fast food chain is drafting 7,000 touch-screen kiosks to handle cashiering duties. The move is designed to boost efficiency and make ordering more convenient for customers...Automation becomes more and more of an option as our technology advances continue to expand exponentially. And automation usually is used to replace low-end, low-skilled workers – like those in fast food restaurants. That’s an unfortunate truth."
I went to a grocery store recently, and when I got up to the check out stand, there was no checkers there. I looked around for a minute, and then a friendly man - all smiles - pointed me over to the 'self check out' stand and asked me if I needed assistance using it.
Isn't technology a wonderful thing? I know companies - like grocery stores and banks - say that these 'self checkout stands (or ATM's, in the case of banks) are for 'our customer's convenience. I don't believe that for one minute! Businessmen (and businesswomen) know that to stay competitive they have to cut costs to the bone - and one of the biggest costs to a business is labor.
I've worked most of my life in the food industry (and I never made $15 an hour!). For many years I worked on dairy farms. I remember years ago when dairy farmers were just starting to implement automation in their milking parlors. I was the lead milker, and I had a full time helper. I knew that once this automation was complete my helper's job was going to dry up. He was going to be fired. And I was going to do the job by myself - with a little help from the automatic take off machines!
The Bible says: "If a man will not work, neither should he eat." 2 Thessalonians 3:10. But there is a difference between someone telling the government: "I will not work: you take care of me!" and someone who really wants to work and can't find a job. Or, in the case of the striking fast food workers, someone who is trying to support a family on a very low paying job, and has to work a second full time job just to make ends meet.
This is a real opportunity for Christians to put their faith into practice. And maybe those with gifts and talents in business and industry could forgo the trend to replace human workers with machines, and trust God to take care of their bottom line!
Recommended reading (my post):
How Much Money Would You Pay for a Big Mac?
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Fast-Food Strikes Set for Cities Nationwide
Fast-food strikes set for cities nationwide - Yahoo! Finance:
"Fast-food customers in search of burgers and fries on Thursday might run into striking workers instead.
Organizers say thousands of fast-food workers are set to stage walkouts in dozens of cities around the country, part of a push to get chains such as McDonald's, Taco Bell and Wendy's to pay workers higher wages."
Recommended reading:
How Much Money Would You Pay for A Big Mack?
Robots Taking Over Fast Food Jobs: What's to Become of the "Useless Eaters?"
Should We Blame the UAW for Detroit?
"Fast-food customers in search of burgers and fries on Thursday might run into striking workers instead.
Organizers say thousands of fast-food workers are set to stage walkouts in dozens of cities around the country, part of a push to get chains such as McDonald's, Taco Bell and Wendy's to pay workers higher wages."
Recommended reading:
How Much Money Would You Pay for A Big Mack?
Robots Taking Over Fast Food Jobs: What's to Become of the "Useless Eaters?"
Should We Blame the UAW for Detroit?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)