McDonald’s worker arrested after telling company president she can’t afford shoes

reply to post by goou111


I know this is going to sound crass but it is the information we have to work with regarding this.

Here is the information that I have used to formulate my response:
Blog: Progressive Populist

Blog: Alternet

Blog: Daily Kos

Based on those stories here is what I have come to:
She has worked there for 10-years, never saw a raise, decided that on that pay and her obvious lack of advancement opportunities, decided to have 2-children. She supposedly is just a cashier, in itself is not a bad thing, but after 10-years and no advancement, I am leaning that she has shown no other skills to warrant a larger increase in her hourly wages.

The larger part of the "arrest", I contend with since most reports (blog entries) I have come across has said she was cited for trespassing. Though video is available it is once again a cut n' splice bit that supports the narrative presented, not the actual story itself.

I would only defend this if she was an invited guest as the private event, but if she was somehow suggested to go and disrupt the event, then yes, she was trespassing. Free speech guarantees us the Right to speak freely about our Government without fear of reprisal; not wantonly roaming around and disrupting other speakers.

Now I have a feeling that she doesn't understand business models; though this is speculation because we do not know exactly what McDonald's she is employed at. That said, roughly 80% (60% conventional) of all McDonald's restaurants are franchisees and the president of the McDonald's corporation has little to no oversight in how those local owners actually employ their labor.

I think there is more to this story than what is being presented.

reply to post by Cuervo

I have more respect for the people who work at McDonalds than I do the people who actually eat there.

It's amazing to me when somebody is dumb enough to eat there and then complain that the employees are dumb... what the hell?

WOW!!!! If I could give you 10 stars I would!

For all those whom look down on those whom cook and serve you your food????? NEVER PISS THEM OFF!!! They are just like you! They get up in the morning, put on a pair of pants and struggle to exist just like you do! Just because you make more money than them and you were fortunate to climb out of the sewer you lived in, remember one thing, the only thing that makes them different than you, is your attitude towards your fellow human beings!!!!

PhoenixOD
I thought the the wages of MacDonald's workers were set by the franchise owners?

Shush you! This is a good ol' fashion 'corporate bashing party'!

reply to post by goou111

Think about it when was the last time you went through a McDonald's drive through and they got your order right and gave you fresh food?

Most workers do not have the power to select the food they serve you.

I completely disagree with you, we have had many waitresses who used to work for the fast food places in town...the work at the fast food was harder so why do they get mandatory tips waitressing?

On busy days there are lines of cars full of kids and rude persons who blame the worker for the food or the speed that it is served none of which is in their control.

not everyone is management material, keeping the books and running the workers, that does not mean they should not get raises and get paid a reasonable wage.

goou111
reply to post by VoidHawk

 

What if there aren't any other jobs?

Then get 2.. You can make more money than that mowing peoples lawns

Ifyou don't make enough money work more.. Mcdonalds doesn't owe you S@@t

If I worked there you certainly wouldn't get good service from me!

That's the point you never get good service anyway

edit on 9-10-2013 by goou111 because: (no reason given)

You are talking about a woman who has children who come home from school and I don't know where you live but where i live you would be lucky to find a person who would pay to have their lawn mowed.
90% of the jobs here are restaurants, hotels and fast food you don't know the circumstances so it seems unjustifiable to be so judgemental about this woman.

reply to post by Char-Lee


What if she had five kids? How much more should she be paid than that other cashier who only has two kids?

Is minimum wage still alright for the teenager with no kids but the same position?

DenyObfuscation
reply to post by Char-Lee

 

What if she had five kids? How much more should she be paid than that other cashier who only has two kids?

Is minimum wage still alright for the teenager with no kids but the same position?

What i SAID was she can't very well take a second job having kids relying on her if she is any kind of parent she needs to come home.
Personally I believe labor on a full time basis anywhere should pay enough for a person to live a modest life without going home to Mom or sharing a home.

The fast food jobs in our town are now about 50% seniors, some who can't even hear what you say but they will starve without the job.

Char-Lee
What i SAID was she can't very well take a second job having kids relying on her if she is any kind of parent she needs to come home.

Now, this may be the debater in me, but not more than 10 minutes ago you said this:

...you don't know the circumstances so it seems unjustifiable to be so judgemental about this woman.

Yet you are going to defend, without fault, that you do know her circumstances? And that you are going to not only be judgmental, but also apologetic?

Sorry but you are blindly defending while making stabs in the dark regarding anyone who questions the story or her choices.

Interesting, I really didn't like how you discredited her at the end of your post OP...every time I see someone working an extremely low paying job I just feel bad for them, but it's capitalism. We just sit back and say that, oh they chose that life, if she wanted to she should do better for herself. I watched the video and of course I see a stereotype there, but it's still sad that people have to work so hard for so little.

Sit back and ask yourself how much work you do for the lifestyle you live? I can't speak for everyone, but I have an easy life making high earnings after spending money at school and having my parents help me. I don't work as hard at all as a McDonalds employee, it's not fair if you don't understand the system or are born into poverty.

ownbestenemy

I know this is going to sound crass but it is the information we have to work with regarding this.

Not the word I'd use. I think you ay have stated thing in the most convenient way possible to make this seem like a BIIIIIIG misunderstanding where the target of police influence via a heavily monied individual is actually in the wrong.

ownbestenemy
Based on those stories here is what I have come to:
She has worked there for 10-years, never saw a raise, decided that on that pay and her obvious lack of advancement opportunities, decided to have 2-children. She supposedly is just a cashier, in itself is not a bad thing, but after 10-years and no advancement, I am leaning that she has shown no other skills to warrant a larger increase in her hourly wages.

I would guess you went to school, after high-school, didn't you?

Here's the funny thing about working a rotten job in this day and age. People are being less and less prepared for the world, not being TAUGHT how to assert their rights. Subsequently, they don't know HOW to ask for a raise or how to ask for a position to advance into. Sure, she's clearly ignorant, but she's taking the right steps in asking the bigwig, at a public appearance, why he doesn't pay his workers better. I know people in their late twenties and early thirties who don't have any concept of how to even FIND a good job. They go to places, ask for work, are told to apply online, nothing happens, they shrug and tell me, "I dunno what to do, I guess there's no work out there". WHAT?! When I was raised and went out to find work I had the pleasure of NO internet. I walked into a business, asked to speak to the boss, talked a bit on how amazing I was, shook a hand or two and could (and still can) find a job within a day or three. The young are unaware of how to even do this and you, sir or madame, likely are more informed so don't judge too harshly from a distance.

Try not to blame the poor for being poor. It makes you sound like someone from an F.Scott Fitzgerald or Ayn Rand novel. it may be true in some cases, but you can't say for sure.

ownbestenemy
The larger part of the "arrest", I contend with since most reports (blog entries) I have come across has said she was cited for trespassing. Though video is available it is once again a cut n' splice bit that supports the story, not the story itself.

Some police in Decatur Georgia tried to pin "trespassing" on me too, because they had nothing else on me. I refused to play their games of intimidation when I was waiting in my car, talking on the phone, while my fiance used the toilet inside a supermarket. The police, knowing they had nothing and I CLEARLY knew and was exercising my rights, tried to get me charged with trespassing by asking the manager of the store to say I was, despite having pulled into the parking lot only five minutes earlier on my way to a hotel and having never been there before.

So... could I have been like her? Absolutely. Could it be you some day? Yep... think about it.

ownbestenemy
I would only defend this if she was an invited guest as the private event, but if she was somehow suggested to go and disrupt the event, then yes, she was trespassing. Free speech guarantees us the Right to speak freely about our Government without fear of reprisal; not wantonly roaming around and disrupting other speakers.

Who ARE YOU? You're either playing devil's-advocate (in this case possibly in a literal way) or are hashing out some grudge where that guy one time got into your country club and sat in one of your patio chairs when they CLEARLY were not a member *pinky-out, sniffle* . Freedom of Speech is a lot bigger than what you intimate. How about people who go to political rallies and heckle some of the corrupt scumbags running for office on all the sloppy or luciferian decisions they've made? Should they be grabbed, charged with trespassing because that's a convenient charge to lay on someone when you want them to "just SHUT-UP and GO-AWAY! *mops brow with $400 silk hankie and makes a joke so audience will forget the unpleasantness*"

Sometimes these things need to be said and I'm not exactly rushing to the aide of every ignorant fast food slave out there but arresting her? That's not simply asking her to leave... that's damaging her life because she dared speak to some tycoon.

ownbestenemy
Now I have a feeling that she doesn't understand business models; though this is speculation because we do not know exactly what McDonald's she is employed at.

She worked at McDonalds... and you think she is ignorant of business models? You're kidding right? I'm nto trying to insult you but I have to confront these overly simplified statements. It's a bit like dialogue from Trading Places.

I am not liking this bleeding heart fallacy that poor people should be paid more because...well apparently the reasoning has been given, that they get paid to little.

I guess when you have 2 kids. your range of what to little is, is more strict. so she deserves a raise because she has 2 kids? the woman herself sold her point on the fact that she has children, so she certainly believes it.

people do not deserve more simply because they raised their needs. how fair is that to more competent workers who make better decisions and work harder? do they miss out on advancements because they aren't this weeks charity case?

my life is bearable on a small income, because I didnt let my needs ever outreach my means. I am working toward a future that may have more income so that I can upgrade a few points in my life.
my secret, is that I will reach my means, BEFORE my wants and needs can move up. don't tell america, this trick apparently is to much to grasp.

reply to post by Char-Lee

Personally I believe labor on a full time basis anywhere should pay enough for a person to live a modest life without going home to Mom or sharing a home.

Your idea sounds nice but unfeasible. Care to explain how yours might be possible without destroying what's left of our economy? Or is that the idea, to go left, as in Socialism or full blown Communism?

ownbestenemy

Char-Lee
What i SAID was she can't very well take a second job having kids relying on her if she is any kind of parent she needs to come home.

Now, this may be the debater in me, but not more than 10 minutes ago you said this:

...you don't know the circumstances so it seems unjustifiable to be so judgemental about this woman.

Yet you are going to defend, without fault, that you do know her circumstances? And that you are going to not only be judgmental, but also apologetic?

Sorry but you are blindly defending while making stabs in the dark regarding anyone who questions the story or her choices.

We do know she has kids, what woman with kids can afford the time to work a second job after her full day?
I am not blindly defending anything except the right of a laborer to make a living wage. When did we start to think we can live with no one cleaning toilets and digging the ditches, every person is needed and as valuable as any other.

People talk of "rising out of the sewer", and such, our world should respect each worker and stop looking at them as in any way lower than a suited banker or a MD.

Sometimes people can't take a promotion either when they pay babysitters or have other responsibilities (like my niece with a disabled child) because often it comes with increased hours, like our assistant managers at our restaurant who now have to close up and supervise things that may not let them leave at the time they used to before the promotion.

Even if you simply are not suited to more responsibilities then a basic job should you not be able to live off the work you do?

Here's an interesting tidbit. 25% of all McDonald's franchise owners started out working for McDonalds, at the bottom, for $8.25 an hour (equivalent.) Yet SOMEHOW they managed to work hard, get themselves promoted, and do well enough to BUY a franchise that costs over a MILLION dollars apiece. And I'll just bet they could feed their kids and buy a pair of shoes along with it. And every single one of these people said,

"I don't have to accept this!"

But the difference is one group of people concluded, "You owe me." where the other group of people concluded, "If I work hard and smart, I can get out of this."

Like John Wayne said, "Life is hard. It's harder if you're stupid."

schuyler

Like John Wayne said, "Life is hard. It's harder if you're stupid."

It's ALSO harder if you dare to SPEAK out and are ARRESTED for it. I'm not one to support entitlement but arresting her for having any thought is asinine and quickly becoming the amerikan way.

I see you're in Iceland. Good choice.

aptrgangr
Not the word I'd use. I think you ay have stated thing in the most convenient way possible to make this seem like a BIIIIIIG misunderstanding where the target of police influence via a heavily monied individual is actually in the wrong.

What would the word you would use then? To many here, that are posting, I already know that it will sound crass. Insensitive? Uncaring? Disjointed?

I stated what I have read and formulated a speculative conclusion; that being we don't have the 'rest of the story' /hat-tip to the late Paul Harvey.

I would guess you went to school, after high-school, didn't you?

You would guess wrong...

People are being less and less prepared for the world, not being TAUGHT how to assert their rights.

Nor are they even taught the basics of economics, business, math, finances, etc, etc...as is being shown by this woman's declaration that she deserves more money. Do you not find it interesting that she went here to speak her voice, passionately at that, but how does she present herself in the workplace? Is she showing that she wants to be more than a cashier? She wants to move up?

Those questions we have no answers to but given all that I have read and her interview on the internet, I would guess no.

Subsequently, they don't know HOW to ask for a raise or how to ask for a position to advance into.

Wait...but she has the gall and stones (excuse that) to confront the one person who most likely has no say in her employment contract? You are suggesting that she doesn't have the know how to ask for a raise but she just demanded one from the president of the McDonald's corporation?

Sure, she's clearly ignorant, but she's taking the right steps in asking the bigwig, at a public appearance, why he doesn't pay his workers better.

Ignorant is quite correct because my guess is that where she works there is a local owner whom she was employed under. That owner is the one she needs to be confronting. It seems her ignorance is aligned with your own in this matter.

Try not to blame the poor for being poor. It makes you sound like someone from an F.Scott Fitzgerald or Ayn Rand novel. it may be true in some cases, but you can't say for sure.

When did I blame the poor for "being poor"? Never mind...

Who ARE YOU? You're either playing devil's-advocate (in this case possibly in a literal way) or are hashing out some grudge where that guy one time got into your country club and sat in one of your patio chairs when they CLEARLY were not a member *pinky-out, sniffle* .

I am me; who are you? The First Amendment doesn't protect someone from crashing a party or speaking whenever they want to because they feel entitled or obligated to. I commend her efforts, but it is begining to look like she was actually trespassing in this instance.

Freedom of Speech is a lot bigger than what you intimate. How about people who go to political rallies and heckle some of the corrupt scumbags running for office on all the sloppy or luciferian decisions they've made? Should they be grabbed, charged with trespassing because that's a convenient charge to lay on someone when you want them to "just SHUT-UP and GO-AWAY! *mops brow with $400 silk hankie and makes a joke so audience will forget the unpleasantness*"

That is called comparing apples to oranges. The act of speaking is not what is being persecuted. It was the willful act of disrupting an obviously private event. One where we are still not sure if she was invited or if she "crashed it".

Sometimes these things need to be said and I'm not exactly rushing to the aide of every ignorant fast food slave out there but arresting her? That's not simply asking her to leave... that's damaging her life because she dared speak to some tycoon.

She worked at McDonalds... and you think she is ignorant of business models? You're kidding right? I'm nto trying to insult you but I have to confront these overly simplified statements. It's a bit like dialogue from Trading Places.

No I am not kidding. Here is some homework. Go down to your local McDonald's and ask them if the president of McDonald's should give them a raise. Then ask them if they are a franchised location. After that, ask them who is it that employs them.

No insult taken, but I believe you have oversimplified it.

DenyObfuscation
reply to post by Char-Lee

 

Personally I believe labor on a full time basis anywhere should pay enough for a person to live a modest life without going home to Mom or sharing a home.

Your idea sounds nice but unfeasible. Care to explain how yours might be possible without destroying what's left of our economy? Or is that the idea, to go left, as in Socialism or full blown Communism?

It used to work in our country it was not that long ago. If you worked full time you could move out get a cheep car and live on your own.
people who were not good at book learning left school and still made a living.
The first step I would take is stop using all the citizens money to bribe leaders all over the world and let people keep more of their hard earned pay.

You do remember not that far back when the country had a surplus and was not in debt at all.

Is it asking too much do you think that every hard working person make a living.
en.wikipedia.org...

ownbestenemy
No insult taken, but I believe you have oversimplified it.

Without picking it all apart, my statements come down to one thing:

I believe it is fully likely that the police used trespassing as a charge to arrest her, the impetus being that she spoke out to the big-shot and that's not allowed. I base this on past personal experiences. I honestly don't give a damn if she's paid more, she doesn't actually exist as a human being to me, more as a thought and I'll forget about this by the time I get up for a beverage, but rather, I am TRYING to point out how the law is becoming easier and easier to use upon anyone who speaks out which was shown to be the case during the last several rounds of political elections where the audience had some dissenters who spoke out of turn and loudly, but it was called a "TOWN HALL" and one thing that we have to be in this age, is effectively disobedient and the forces in power know this will lead others to see that it's a possibility and they can't have that that so, they use force on us for speech.

SO... are you saying: she deserved to be locked up because she spoke out? Try not to ignore the possibility that the charges were the most convenient since they don't have a law against talk (yet) or even making foolish statements out loud (yet), and they used that and her inability to defend against being jailed to removed one of the proles from their shindig.

schuyler
Here's an interesting tidbit. 25% of all McDonald's franchise owners started out working for McDonalds, at the bottom, for $8.25 an hour (equivalent.) Yet SOMEHOW they managed to work hard, get themselves promoted, and do well enough to BUY a franchise that costs over a MILLION dollars apiece. And I'll just bet they could feed their kids and buy a pair of shoes along with it. And every single one of these people said,

"I don't have to accept this!"

But the difference is one group of people concluded, "You owe me." where the other group of people concluded, "If I work hard and smart, I can get out of this."

Like John Wayne said, "Life is hard. It's harder if you're stupid."

Some people will be able to work their way up, clearly not most people. They are paid what before taxes 1400 a month? Rent here starts at 850 for an apartment. There will always have to be someone working UNDER the people who own and run the business, should they make a living wage if they work full time?

These places will not go away until we STOP FEEDING THEM our TIME and our DOLLARS!! Just STOP eating there... it isn't even food anymore!! Stop working there, they do not have any interest in fairness to their hired "slaves"..... just STOP already!!