> I think a better approach would be to seek the franchise owner's
> balance sheet, and push much harder for open communication. Get the entire
> crew together, and try to seek the best wage the owner can pay, and still
> remain solvent. Oh boy, how naive can you get. Can you imagine McD "communicating" their fiancial documents to franchise owners and crew when they fought toot & nail against disclosing documents even to the court of law? In any case even if they did that, who is going to decide what the profit share should be? Share holders and financial institutions are the most important factor in determining the profit levels which in turn determins the wages and franchisees' share. Whithout a worekrs' organisation (call it what you will) to represent and defend the workers' interests, the McD staff won't be able to force a change of attitude and more decent pay and working conditions on the company. This is exactly why McD is so vehemantly against any collective action by it's staff.
:If the rap sessions aren't working, make them work.
: Say your piece together, not individually.
Ok, let's say we have a request; we want the managers to call in specialists when the toilets are blocked instead of sending the crew who have no experience or suitable equipment and clothing to retrieve the sanitary towels which are stuck half way down the toilet. We get together, talk to the managers. The managers happen to be very kind and listen to our request (instead of telling us off for being unreasonable and working collectively) and at the end of the meeting the tell us the costs of hiring specialised firms for the purpose are too high. Now imagin they give you the same answer to any request eg. testing electrical equipment regularly, having more than the absolute minimum number of crew on shifts, not sending the crew home before the end of their shift against their whish, providing transport for the crew in dangerous circumstances and late nights, paying the crew a fair wage, closing the store when the sewerage is covering the floor of the store etc. etc. What should we do then? Grin and bear? No a workers organisation is an absolute must to fight the crew's corner!
:Who's gonna take care of the customers if all of you are shit-canned? The managers may be assholes, but they're not stupid!
: But again before I go, even a common person like me knows that the fast food
: industry ain't no place to pursue for a permanent career. You guys seem to be
: good with the computer. Maybe something in data processing would be better
: suited to you (and more rewarding). For what it's worth, that's my 2 cents.
