Jimmy John's Workers Hold Labor Day Rally

Jimmy John's Workers Hold Labor Day Rally

www.myfoxtwincities.com

MINNEAPOLIS - Restaurant and service workers will join newly-unionized Jimmy John’s employees in Minneapolis for a Labor Day rally Monday.

Jimmy John’s workers at all nine Minneapolis franchise locations announced the formation of a union last Thursday and demanded talks with owners Mike and Rob Mulligan over labor conditions at the sandwich chain.

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Looks like they're takin' it to the streets. I hope their attempts at organizing against management are successful. The social cost of a sub sandwich appears to exceed its price. It really burns my britches that its Jimmy John's. They project themselves as a 'cool' or 'rock star' fast-food alternative to bigger chains. Yet it makes them all the more phony that they exploit their workers just as badly. Shame on you Jimmy John's and your wage slavery. In this economy, I'm sure there'll be plenty of scabs. I'm broke anyways but will consciously avoid the sandwich chain until this blows over.

What are your thoughts?
Is the cause just?
Possible outcomes?
How will current economic issues affect the strike?

EDIT: It looks like this will be the best newsfeed on the issue-
www.jimmyjohnsworkers.org...

www.myfoxtwincities.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 6-9-2010 by Moonsouljah]

what in the heck are you talking about!!!!?????
Its a sandwich place not a nuclear power plant lol.
I meen come on any thing over minum wage is a bonis at thous kind of places as they are really not for making a life from just a few bucks for beer money .
union lol give me a brake hope they shut them all down in taht state unemployment is 9.5 (really 15% ) and thye demand more money?
kids theres a 100 guys that want taht job

Originally posted by Moonsouljah
What are your thoughts?
Is the cause just?
Possible outcomes?
How will current economic issues affect the strike?

As a former Chief Steward in a supposedly enlightened work environment, I can attest to the fact that NO employer gets his workforce unionised that doesn't deserve it. Organising is a fundamental right. Folks also forget that a collective agreement is a mutually agreed-upon set of rules for the workplace. Both parties sign, and if both play by the rules, it works.

Unions rise the bar for others. Good for the folks at Jimmy John's...I hope they get a square deal.

reply to post by xxcalbier

I understand your perspective and somewhat agree. Take for example this quote:
"These are our lives. We're tired of being ignored and degraded at job after low wage job. We're tired of being expendable.”
My advice would be to add value to your labor by acquiring and advancing skills.
I realize alot of these strikers are lazy hipsters that already get by alright. But I applaud their taking a stand against the decreasing quality of life in this country.
You have to have a little sympathy for people wanting to improve unlivable wages.


[edit on 6-9-2010 by Moonsouljah]

reply to post by JohnnyCanuck

Here, Here.
Resist the race to the bottom and raise the bar for others indeed.
Well said.

dude i am at the bottom so cute the bull.
wile I agree minum wage should be 10$ an hour to even start to live on it .If taht happened tommrow first thing is another 2 million people on unemployment.
second thing is prices go up to reflect the wage incress .
if a fast food joint now has to pay there employees 12 $ an hour plus health plus vacation plus well there is no more plus because the place just shut down.
man they are making sandwiches this is a UNSKILLED job .
up untill now no one had to try and live off these jobs .
service jobs cant run a country nore can dot com or housing bubbles or .
man we want this country back on its feet we need to find a way to get factory's back here . from 1942 to the 1970ds America had the world by the tail.
we were the largest exporter of all most ALL goods tvs radios cars washers dryers almost every thing on the planet was stamped made in America.EVEN the world largest exporter of OIL
the poor were almost entirly goin almost every one had 2 cars and a home taht was payed for by the late 60ds .
. taht was the time to be living here even with the vitnam war and rights movment this country was a fine place to live.
a young man at 18 got out of high school and was just about granted a good union job makeing what ever cars radios .
Now you realy think we can do that WITH A PLACE THAT FLIPS BURGERS?
or a guy who cutes grass? or washes cars>
heck lets unies it all i want health to and 15$ an hour and and and.
Of corse ill have even less work but hey

[edit on 6-9-2010 by xxcalbier]

The fact is America has LARGE deposits of oil still .
why back in the carter years they started caping the wells taht were still producing .
If you wonder why same reasion they started making radios in china.
it is cheeper to pump oil out in china or were ever then here . they can pay thous workers less just like every thing else.
evry one here is always yelling NWO thing is for America to com-peat again we need a WORLD currency A world minum wage A world monetary stander-ed that is the SAME in china mexico Japan every ware
then and only then would we be on the same footing as a guy in china who will do your job for 10 cents an hour American .

Well that will probably be the end of Jimmy Johns in that city. They are already overpriced and won't be able to compete. Unions score a victory at the cost of employee jobs.......... We will see if the marketplace can deal with unionized fast food.

reply to post by Moonsouljah


well it seems other delivery fast food places are doing the same tactics like Jimmy JOhns. I heard Papa Johns send their drivers with two different hourly pay. I believe in store they get 7.25 and on the road they get 4.50. That is some total BS if you ask me. You get more danger on the road than anything and yet they seem to get away with it. I am surprised they even have people wanting to drive for them.

Originally posted by pavil
Unions score a victory at the cost of employee jobs.......... We will see if the marketplace can deal with unionized fast food.

Does it not enter your reality that if the workers saw any other options they would not have gone the union route? Who goes out of their way to give away a chunk of their already scant income for union dues?

And the owners may well find that they are going to get more business simply because they have a unionised workforce. Solidarity works that way, too.

Originally posted by xxcalbier

up untill now no one had to try and live off these jobs .


[edit on 6-9-2010 by xxcalbier]

What palace do you live in? Millions of people live off of those jobs. Do you think they are only for high school kids? Splash some water on your face and wake up to the real world. In 1975 I had to live off one of those jobs. Five guys with girlfriends in a 3 bedroom apartment.

So, does this mean that Jimmy John's sandwich artists in Minnesota will now be making $20 an hour?

In my local franchise I see mostly High School kids who would see no benefit from a union. Oh, wait,, I get it. Just more union dues for the union bosses.

When I was in High School, I worked part time as a bagger in my local grocery making $3.25/hr. Out of that meager wage, I had to pay $40/month in union dues to the local UFCW. Trust me, I never a saw a single benefit from that union but they gladly took my money.

Now, when I travel to Minnesota, I better not see a tip jar in Jimmy Johns. Better yet, I'll just buy a sandwich from Jersey Mikes...

reply to post by JohnnyCanuck

Let me give you the perspective of someone who actually employs people:

As a small business owner who employs people at minimum wage, I can assure you that if I had to put more of MY hard earned money into my Labor, I would be cutting down on the number of people employed. It's MY money, I risk the capital and the loss, I get to decide what pay and benefits I am willing to pay. Before you think I'm a scrooge, I do pay more than minimum wage for my key people, but I'll be dammed if I would have to pay that for my average or below average employee. if You think the average Jimmy John's is swimming in money, then think again.

I'm just explaining to you the reality of business in this current economic climate. You think a Jimmy Johns that has higher prices, food and Labor costs will compete well against a Subway for example? They will get killed.