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How unions won a 30% raise for every fast food worker in California

pluralistic.net

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Re: How unions won a 30% raise for every fast food worker in California

#31

Post by fragmede »

gdulli wrote: post #22
fragmede wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it just a general fear of technology as to why or is there some other reason why you don't want to install an app?

I don't want to maintain an account and surveillance footprint on my phone for every brand or restaurant I deal with. I don't ever get delivery and prefer to eat on site rather than get takeout so I don't have a need to order ahead anyway. But I'm happy to order from an in-store kiosk once I get there.

Fair. To each their own. I didn't make an account to use , and the convenience of putting in my order before I walk over there means it's ready when I get there so I have more time to enjoy eating it at the park nearby.

Re: How unions won a 30% raise for every fast food worker in California

#32

Post by tschwimmer »

reaperman wrote: post #29
acdha wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder whether their subsidizing the app orders to push users over: not just because they can presumably mine other data but because they can hire fewer cashiers and maybe keep their kitchen utilization up if there’s never a delay due to someone slow ahead of you in line. It would not be surprising to see a logical endpoint here treating the cash register like banks treated ATMs where there’s eventually a charge to…

I suspect its more about market segmentation. Its a slight hassle to use the app and if you want those great deals you dont get much choice in what you can order at a discount - the discounted menu items rotate frequently. So people who have more disposable income wont make a habit of using the steep in-app discounts and just order whatever they feel like eating at MSRP.

I agree with you - they aren't putting enough pressure on users to migrate to make me feel they actually want everyone to use the app.

Re: How unions won a 30% raise for every fast food worker in California

#33

Post by jdechko »

It’s the worst of all possible outcomes. Minimum wage stagnated and employees demanded better pay. Covid hit and forced fast food restaurants to adjust operations. Prices increased due to “inflation”, but really it’s just massive corporate profits. Front-of-house employees have been replaced by kiosks and self-service.

For the first time in many years, I had Steak N Shake. Had to order from a kiosk, get my own drink, and pick up my own food (it had previously been a full-service restaurant). That by itself wasn’t a big deal, but the kiosk had the nerve to ask for a tip! We didn’t all the work, so no thanks.

So the 30% raise is for fewer workers, and the costs (and work) will be passed on to the customers.

Re: How unions won a 30% raise for every fast food worker in California

#34

Post by hermannj314 »

acdha wrote: post #18
tschwimmer wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I've noticed is there there is a huge "app subsidy" (drive through tax?) for many fast food chains. For example, Taco Bell has a $6 online-only combo that's probably 40-60% discount over the drive-thru menu equivalent. I've noticed similar things with other chains as well. As a business strategy, this makes some minor amount of sense since the app orders are transparently more efficient than drive through orders…

I wonder whether their subsidizing the app orders to push users over: not just because they can presumably mine other data but because they can hire fewer cashiers and maybe keep their kitchen utilization up if there’s never a delay due to someone slow ahead of you in line. It would not be surprising to see a logical endpoint here treating the cash register like banks treated ATMs where there’s eventually a charge to…

Another angle is moving money overseas. A few developers in Ireland subsidiary managing a mobile app which is licensed back to the parent American company and now every $1.00 in profit they siphon into licensing fees is taxed at 12.5% and not 35%.

Every decade or so they bribe US politicians to have a repatriation tax holiday to bring those dollars back home.

Sounds complicated but another likely reason they want you to use their app.

Re: How unions won a 30% raise for every fast food worker in California

#35

Post by photonbeam »

fragmede wrote: post #17
gdulli wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will absolutely not install an app to order food. But if it means Taco Bell is no longer part of my diet I'll take it as a win.

Is it just a general fear of technology as to why or is there some other reason why you don't want to install an app?

Its a hassle. We’re just trying to eat

Re: How unions won a 30% raise for every fast food worker in California

#36

Post by credit_guy »

lancesells wrote: post #28
garciasn wrote: post #2

Most of the McDs around me are already paying $17-20 (in Minnesota, including rural areas) and the menu prices reflect it. We recently have begun to pay >$50 for a family of four. For context: the two cheeseburger meal is now just under $11. Subway is the same thing, with most sandwiches topping $10/ea and totals coming out around $50 for four of us. What is interesting, however, is that we're not witnessing this wit…

> Most of the McDs around me are already paying $17-20 (in Minnesota, including rural areas) and the menu prices reflect it McDonalds had $1.9B in profit in 2022. $1.6B in 2021. Starbucks had $3.3B in profit in 2022. $3.6B in 2021. Subway announced they had beaten sales plans by $1.4B in 2021. It's not the wages that are the issue making the prices go up. These companies aren't hurting for profit.

> McDonalds had $1.9B in profit in 2022

Out of curiosity, what does that mean? It appears to me the main business of McDonald's is to collect franchising fees. Most McDonald's fast food joints (93%) are owned and operated by independent local business owners, who have to pay McDonald's-the-company the frinchising fees, which are about $45k/year [1].

So, I can see how McDonald's, the company, can be highly profitable, while individual stores could be barely surviving.

[1] https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/072516/cost-b...

Re: How unions won a 30% raise for every fast food worker in California

#37

Post by fallingfrog »

The Drew Barrymore thing is as pretty amazing to me. 20 years ago nobody would have supported the striking writers- they would have complained and called them lazy. Now there was such an outcry that Drew had to back down. It’s a sea change for sure. I’m pretty sure the era of solipsistic politics is coming to a close, at last.

Re: How unions won a 30% raise for every fast food worker in California

#38

Post by ETH_start »

lancesells wrote: post #28
garciasn wrote: post #2

Most of the McDs around me are already paying $17-20 (in Minnesota, including rural areas) and the menu prices reflect it. We recently have begun to pay >$50 for a family of four. For context: the two cheeseburger meal is now just under $11. Subway is the same thing, with most sandwiches topping $10/ea and totals coming out around $50 for four of us. What is interesting, however, is that we're not witnessing this wit…

> Most of the McDs around me are already paying $17-20 (in Minnesota, including rural areas) and the menu prices reflect it McDonalds had $1.9B in profit in 2022. $1.6B in 2021. Starbucks had $3.3B in profit in 2022. $3.6B in 2021. Subway announced they had beaten sales plans by $1.4B in 2021. It's not the wages that are the issue making the prices go up. These companies aren't hurting for profit.

Profit is the compensation paid to investors. Without it, there is no investment, and thus no increases in productivity.

Re: How unions won a 30% raise for every fast food worker in California

#39

Post by c420 »

fragmede wrote: post #17
gdulli wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will absolutely not install an app to order food. But if it means Taco Bell is no longer part of my diet I'll take it as a win.

Is it just a general fear of technology as to why or is there some other reason why you don't want to install an app?

Check out the permissions and trackers that the Wendy's app requires. They'd ask for root if it was possible.

Re: How unions won a 30% raise for every fast food worker in California

#40

Post by ETH_start »

This is written from the perspective of rent-seeking unions who benefit from laws that suppress people's right to freely contract in labor negotiations, and must vilify the principles of a free society through conspiracy theories about "neoliberalism" and "corporate greed" to maintain public support for the legal arrangement.

The last 50 years of wage growth stagnation comes solely down to a declining rate of productivity growth, which in turn is caused by a marked decrease in market liberalism, most pronouncedly in the housing market:

https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/mac.20170388

>We quantify the amount of spatial misallocation of labor across US cities and its aggregate costs. Misallocation arises because high productivity cities like New York and the San Francisco Bay Area have adopted stringent restrictions to new housing supply, effectively limiting the number of workers who have access to such high productivity. Using a spatial equilibrium model and data from 220 metropolitan areas we find that these constraints lowered aggregate US growth by 36 percent from 1964 to 2009.

Most people rarely hear alternative narratives like the above to the one presented by unions for the cause of economic stagnation because the news media we depend on to inform us about the world is also fully unionized, e.g. all New York Times journalists are members of the NY Times Guild [1], with its writers and journalists benefiting from the exploitive arrangement of market restrictions granting their union a negotiating monopoly.

[1] https://nytimesguild.org/

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