primitive's wife gets fired

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5787699

Yeah, yeah, I know it says "wife's friend," but we know how the primitives are.

groundloop (219 posts)     Thu Jun-04-09 11:17 PM
Original message
 
My wife's friend got fired today

My wife's friend works for a county school system in Georgia. Like most all governments, our school system is feeling the pinch of this recession, and I believe looking for any excuse to get rid of some employees.

Wife's friend works in a school cafeteria, and it's sad how much perfectly good food goes in the dumpster at the end of the day. Most of the cafeteria employees have taken home a few slices of pizza, a few chicken nuggets, or a couple of burgers from time to time instead of throwing it away, even though technically it's against school board policy. My wife's friend took home a paper plate of frozen chicken nuggets yesterday that would otherwise have found it's way to the dumpster, and today the director of the nutrition department marched in and fired her for it, no warnings or anything.

Besides stuff like this they've been getting pressure to work off the clock lately also. They get paid for a fixed number of hours per day, yet are expected to get all their cleanup etc. done even if they have to work through an unpaid break or stay late (after they clock out). A cafeteria manager was fired because she was letting her group take unofficial comp-time by leaving early on the days when they get done early to make up for the other days when they stayed late.

Most of these women know that it's illegal for them to be coerced into working off the clock, but they're all too afraid for their jobs to do anything about it. I'm thinking this is a perfect example of what unions are for.

SO... how do they go about the first steps of becoming associated with a union? Which unions should they be looking at? Contact info?

masuki bance (506 posts)      Thu Jun-04-09 11:25 PM
Response to Original message

1. Will a union help you take home food for free?

1 (1000+ posts)      Thu Jun-04-09 11:56 PM
Response to Reply #4
 
11. so... you break the rules and non-union, fired!

you break the rules and union...

harumph, harumph, harumph, all is well.

really? is that what a union is?

Fozzledick (959 posts)        Fri Jun-05-09 12:08 AM
Response to Reply #11
 
14. My experience as a manager in union shops is that employees are treated with more respect when there's a union, and grievances get formally addressed - not necessarily resolved, but at least acknowledged and documented rather than just ignored.

1 (1000+ posts)      Fri Jun-05-09 01:14 AM
Response to Reply #14
 
21. and my experience is that my brother has been a union steward for most of his employment...and there is as much bad as there is good.

but that's just how we do things here in michigan.

i don't subscribe to any "label"...

ok?

northernlights  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jun-05-09 06:12 AM
Response to Reply #11
 
30. try reading for comprehension

the proposed union is about not forcing people to work without pay, i.e. forcing them to work after they've clocked out for their set number of hours. Something that used to be called slavery.

It's not about allowing people to take home throwaway food for free. That simply was why the friend was fired.

The throwaway food is a separate issue and, frankly, is something that needs to be looked at legally. Businesses should be allowed to donate leftover food to shelters and food pantries without being penalized. As it stands now, at least in my state, they can't do that and are forced to throw away perfectly good food, while people go hungry. It's a disusting waste.

tavalon  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jun-05-09 06:54 AM
Response to Reply #11
 
32. The food would go in the garbage otherwise

It's a dumb ass rule as are many in the public sector. This was stupid and just an excuse to drop employees. That is what a union protects from.

KittyWampus  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jun-05-09 09:37 AM
Response to Reply #32
 
46. McDonalds also fires people for taking food home/out of trash.

rwheeler31  (1000+ posts)      Thu Jun-04-09 11:32 PM
Response to Reply #1
 
6. Food in trash is better for who?

This is something franksolich has never had occasion to think about, but now one wonders.  Perhaps the rule exists because it's a slippery slope from simply taking discarded food home to taking inventory home.  Not the half-eaten burgers, but the whole sirloin steaks and blocks of cheese.

masuki bance (506 posts)      Fri Jun-05-09 12:26 AM
Response to Reply #6

15. The basic food rule that is universal across restaurants, cafeterias supermarkets, fast food locations, pizzerias, 711's, etc, etc on infinitum. is that food does not get taken home for free unless approved by owners or management. Any other policy encourages waste. Pizza delivery guys get friends to order extra pizza's for pickup near closing, never planning on getting them. Extra pizza? Take it home. Same concept works on all levels, take out 2 frozen packages of chicken instead of the 1 that is actually needed, "..oops I should take this home or it will go to waste".

This type of activity is stealing, stealing from the school budgets and ultimately from the students in the case described above. Accountability for waste is the responsibility of supervisors, management and owners. Purchasing, storage, inventory controls, proper planning, spoilage and the rest all have proven ways of being controlled. Any food business that runs with the attitude that the employees should just take home "extra" food without permission will be out of business in very, very short order.

Wow.  I hadn't even read the above comment, when I made my comment above it.

I read bonfires as I go along copying-and-pasting.

conscious evolution  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jun-05-09 09:33 AM
Response to Reply #15
 
44. I agree

I have seen it happen many times in the food/bev industry.

Hell,I've seen similar stuff happen in construction.Guys ordering twice the wire needed so they can sell the excess as scrap.

The dysmenopausal Kansas school teacher:

proud2BlibKansan  (1000+ posts)        Thu Jun-04-09 11:32 PM
Response to Original message
 
7. Yes they need a union but she still shouldn't be stealing food

If it's against the rules, it's against the rules. A union can't help in that situation.

Doug's ex-wife:

EFerrari  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jun-05-09 12:50 AM
Response to Reply #7
 
19. If these people are being forced to work off the clock it's an indication of the manual being thrown out the window, though.

Stealing is wrong and, in a workplace where the management doesn't follow the rules, the attitude spreads to the workers. It's inevitable.

proud2BlibKansan  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jun-05-09 01:15 AM
Response to Reply #19
 
22. Unfortunately the boss gets to break the rules whenever he wants

A sad reality.

Hmmm.  One suspects the dysmenopausal Kansas school teacher's had some, uh, disagreements,with her own boss trying to enforce the rules.

After which the grouchy old primitive, the "NNN0LH1" primitive argues with some other primitives, about how the grouchy old primitive supports union labor.

[DumbAss Tanker]

1 (1000+ posts)      Thu Jun-04-09 11:56 PM
Response to Reply #4
 
11. so... you break the rules and non-union, fired!

you break the rules and union...

harumph, harumph, harumph, all is well.

really? is that what a union is?

That has been my experience, yes.

[Freeper]

1 (1000+ posts)      Thu Jun-04-09 11:56 PM
Response to Reply #4
 
11. so... you break the rules and non-union, fired!

you break the rules and union...

harumph, harumph, harumph, all is well.

really? is that what a union is?

Hey, a primitive finally gets it. 

[Airwolf]

That has been my experience, yes.

I'm sure that the UAW has millions of examples of how this works too. They just stole GM and Chrysler from their owners.

[BadCat]

I'm sure that the UAW has millions of examples of how this works too. They just stole GM and Chrysler from their owners.

Well, the Obumble administration stole them, they just GAVE them to the unions.

[AprilRazz]

So the DUmmy got fired for stealing? What is the problem? If they were frozen then they could have just stayed in the freezer for next time. The primitive never mentioned that said chicken nuggets were cooked. Cooked nuggets that were not eaten could be considered waist but ones that are still frozen still had the potential to be cooked and served to the kids. I bet a kid that is on the free lunch program could have eaten those nuggets the the DUmmy so callously stole. Since most kids that are on the free/reduced price lunch programs are minorities then the primitive just stole food out of the mouth of a poor minority child.

[DixieBelle]

Frank you hit it on the head: taking home discarded food quickly blurs into taking home food period. Not to mention the liability issue. My MIL volunteers at a food pantry and some of the grocery stores refuse to donate and instead dispose of perfectly good food for this reason.

[Wineslob]

My wife's friend took home a paper plate of frozen chicken nuggets

What a DUmbass 

[Karin]

The waste is terrible, yes.  Throwing perfectly good food in a dumpster goes against everything our mothers told us.  But you just have to picture a down-on-his-luck bum, hearing that his soup kitchen dinner was donated by the X Corporation, suddenly coming down with stomach cramps and permanent disability.  That's why nobody does it.  Shame, isn't it? 

[JohnnyReb]

Well, I see she got another job in the school system........

Just wondering if DUmmies friend used to work here. At least she's down to stealing it by the paper plate full. When she worked here it was by the box and van load.

[VelvetElvis]

I'm sure that the UAW has millions of examples of how this works too. They just stole GM and Chrysler from their owners.

Guess they weren't satisfied with just swiping a few burgers or a crescent wrench then, huh?  Maybe the DUmmy's "wife's friend" should have joined the UAW.

[delilahmused]

Don't most states have laws about not making employees work off the clock? Here in OR one can even make an anonymous call. Is food service contracted out or is it part of the government school district? Government employees tend to have better safeguards than those in the private sector.

But then, now that they've gotten rid of the lazy food stealer (someone MUST have reported her because how else would the powers that be know) maybe they can hire someone who pulls their weight and no one will have to work off the clock anymore.

Cindie

[DumbAss Tanker]

Don't most states have laws about not making employees work off the clock? Here in OR one can even make an anonymous call. Is food service contracted out or is it part of the government school district? Government employees tend to have better safeguards than those in the private sector.

But then, now that they've gotten rid of the lazy food stealer (someone MUST have reported her because how else would the powers that be know) maybe they can hire someone who pulls their weight and no one will have to work off the clock anymore.

Cindie

Federal law, actually, the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) which applies to most hourly workers.  There's almost certainly a counterpart State law as well. 

[Karin]

Of course, nobody is working off the clock!  It's a bald faced bouncy.  Ever manage hourly workers?  There is no way they're lifting a finger after they punch the out clock.  If you tried to make them, they'd be the phone so fast it'd make your head spin.  Then people would come snooping around.  Not buying it, nope. 

Remember the restaurant bouncy from a while ago where they claimed someone was forced to work off the clock with third degree burns?  This was a funny one.  They were also locked in the walk in freezer.  Then, they had to endure the indignity of putting recyclable bags in with the non-recyclables.  Oh Noez!

[The Village Idiot]

I used to work at a grocery store. I was the guy who would sweep, mop, sweep, buff, sweep the whole floor every night. Sometimes I would also stick around after I clocked out to chat with the stockers, sometimes I even lent a hand, although not much. The managers would never have let me work off the clock, even though sometimes I would try to help out just from habit.