Taco Bell joins Wendy’s in gutting blue-collar employee hours allegedly to avoid Obamacare

[warrior1]

http://americablog.com/2013/01/taco-bell-franchise-cut-hours-obamacare.html

Yo no quiero Taco Bell.

Funny thing about Taco Bell’s franchise in Oklahoma claiming it’s gutting blue collar employee hours in order to avoid Obamacare’s requirement that employees working an average of 30 hours a week or more must be provided health insurance. I called around, and the requirement doesn’t kick in until 2014. So why is Taco Ball cutting employee hours now, a year early? Same question for Wendy’s.

But it gets even odder. The company that owns the local Taco Bells seems to be saying that they still don’t fully know what Obamacare (aka the Affordable Care Act) requires of them.

Treadwell Enterprises released the following statement Monday to News 9:

“Treadwell Enterprises, like most businesses, is still researching what the Affordable Care Act means to our operations. Regardless of the conclusion of our analysis, we will comply with this law, as we do all laws.”

If the company is still analyzing how Obamacare affects their business, then why is the franchise owned by this company already cutting back employee hours in order to save money on something that not only reportedly hasn’t even been implemented yet, but about which they haven’t even reaching any “conclusions” yet?

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[brucefan]

1. I'd boycott them

But I don't eat shit

[Dawson Leery]

2. +1

[RebelOne]

7. Me neither. In fact, I never eat fast food. n/t

[FarCenter]

9. Only when traveling because of cheap, predictable menu and OK bathroom.

[Cirque du So-What]

11. Especially the bathroom

That's important, seeing that Taco Bell gives a whole 'nother meaning to the term 'fast food.'

[Incitatus]

18. ditto

Wendy's is edible but I don't go there. Taco Bell is just fucking disgusting

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. Ignorance? Check Hostility to workers? Check Greed? Check

Lack of concern for the health and well being of their fellow human beings? Check.

[tanyev]

13. Spite.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

14. Check

[Contrary1]

4. The big bonuses for upper management have to come from somewhere...

doncha know?

Just an excuse for more profit.

[FarCenter]

5. Most fast-food stores are owned by franchisees -- they are not owned by the branding company

And the employees are employees of the franchisees.

Fast-Food Franchisees Bulking Up

Chains Like Burger King Adopt Leaner Business Models, Unloading Many Company-Owned Outlets

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304587704577333443052487330.html

Since 2007, McDonald's has reduced its share of company-run restaurants to 19% from 23%, today operating 6,435 of its 33,510 restaurants world-wide, according to company data.

Roughly 92% of Burger King's units already are franchised, a figure that takes into account one large refranchising deal completed last month

In doing so, it reduced its ownership of U.S. restaurants to 13% from 15% in 2010. It plans to further shed its ownership of KFC and Pizza Hut outlets to just 5% by the end of the year, and Taco Bell to 16% within two years, she said.

[zbdent]

8. So, if they were so good at a "business" ...

then why did they have to latch onto a BRAND NAME to be successful?

[FarCenter]

10. The franchiser provides advertizing, promotion, supplies, equipment, building designs, etc.

You can certainly start your own hamburger restaurant, but not with a menu priced as low as McDonald, Burger King, or Wendy's.

[JI7]

15. why are they usually owned by right wingers, i find liberals tend to do their own thing

create their own pizza, mexican, burger etc place .

[dairydog91]

20. Because it's a successful business model.

The franchisee has control over the actual business, including who they hire and the hours they hire them for. The franchisor provides a massive name. More people will go to "Taco Bell" than would go to "Matt's Mexican Food," even if both businesses are owned by Matt. The franchisor often gets a slice of the profits, while insulating itself from most liability/debts that the franchisees accrue. It's a smart way for both franchisors and franchisees to make money, hence the reasons businessmen run such operations.

Owning your own monster franchise will make you more money than you'd make just operating franchise restaurants, but the latter is a safer and more surefire way to make some money.

[zbdent]

22. and yet ...

we're constantly told that the RWers are the innovators, the smart guys who come up with the "new" stuff ...

[cbrer]

6. Fuck all this Fast Food fucking shit.

It's cheap poison. It's economic slavery for the purposes of marketing a turd on a tortilla.

Unless we impact them in the only fashion they pay attention to, we can yap all day.

[slackmaster]

12. That's two places I vow to never patronize again

Even though I already committed to do that many years ago and have stuck with it.

[Yo_Mama]

16. Because the way you figure out who is a full-time employee is retroactive.

You can use different periods, but if you don't cut hours this year, even if the employee were working 25 hours a week next year they would be considered full-time if they had racked up enough hours over some period of this year.

You can use a shorter period than the full year, but you do have to make the changes this year or pay the fines next year.

[dairydog91]

21. +1 (I agree, this is why franchises are starting to cut hours now, as opposed to next year).

That was my understanding too. The calculation of full-time worker hours will be done using the numbers from this year, at least in the first year of the program.

[SoCalDem]

17. I'm surprised that anyone is surprised at this tactic.

Fast food places "pride" themselves for having cheap food...anything that could lower their profit margin and/or cause them to have to raise prices (cutting into their market-share) is something they avoid like a chicken kidney in the bucket.

The underlying problem than people refuse to concentrate on is this..

THESE JOBS WERE NEVER INTENDED TO BE FAMILY-SUPPORTING/CAREER JOBS.

This type of work was intended to be entry level teenage job type of work..or for "bored Moms who wanted some extra money".

Go all the way back to when fast food places first started up.. Most of the employees were kids, since most of them did not serve "breakfasts"..they were busy after school and into the dating hours...and then they closed for the day.

Restaurants were ,mostly family operations where many in the family did not even draw a salary..

Chain/franchise restaurants were created for the OWNER to make money...not the employees (who were supposed to be the same low-paid kids & women) who did not "need" benefits..

[davidn3600]

19. Didnt Obama give a waiver to McDonalds?

That's probably why these other fast food companies are doing this. They dont think it's fair.

[R_Flagg_77]

23. I'm not suprised by this...

The only surprise I'll have is if there are any full time jobs by the end of the decade as a result of this Obama-Care crap. We need better healthcare in this country, but we have approached it in entirely the wrong way, and employees cutting everybody back to part time positions only is part of the fallout.

For the life of me, I can't fault the business owners. They started a business to make them money, it's their livelihood whether its a mom and pop store, fast food joint, or international corporations; it was started to provide the owner with the means to live. If a business can't afford healthcare for all their employees, then it can't afford it; you can't squeeze a ten dollar bill out of a nickel.

Healthcare in the United States needs a major overhaul, but mandating employees to provide healthcare for employees isn't the right way to do it. If they provide it as a benefit, that's wonderful, but it not a practical concept in theory. A better way of doing it needs to be found.

[DainBramaged]

25. "as a result of this Obama-Care crap"

I smell pizza.........................


Hello Rice Krispies....






Here comes the marshmallows

[R_Flagg_77]

26. I'm just not a fan...

of the bill that's known as Obama Care. I think it was poorly designed, and that it'll have unintended negative effects. Say what you will.

[liberalmuse]

28. Yeah, well...

The post count says it all.

[DainBramaged]

33. I picked right up on it.

Obamacare evil oooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[R_Flagg_77]

34. Well yeah, I am new here.

I'll level with you or anybody else, I'm not really that much of a liberal nor a strict Democrat. I think the Dem's and GOP are both full of crap. I started posting here at the start of the week, while I'm also a regular poster at several conservative forums.

Liberalism and Conservatism both have strong points and weak points. Nothing wrong with either of them, you just have to pick and choose the best of both; which, requires talking to people on both sides of the spectrum. My purpose here and at conservative forums is to learn which viewpoint I agree with most, and to educate myself a little bit.

[DainBramaged]

35. I've been a Democrat since my 18th birthday and NO RIGHT WINGER EVER HAD A GOOD POINT

U MAd Bro?

[R_Flagg_77]

36. You have a very closed mind.

I find that to be a shame really. I've met some fine left and right wing people, many of whom are very articulate and passionate about their stances. Their willing to investigate opposing stances, and work to refine the solutions they come up with for the ills of society.

You sir, seem to lack those qualities.

[DainBramaged]

38. If you think what the Right wing has done to this country over the last 35 years is good

you sir have the closed mind.......


Unions busted

Wages stagnant


Banks thriving while the Middle Class is declining


Wall Street killing us softly


Job exporting to low wage counties by mega-corporations

Tax breaks for oil and coal and factory farms

Tobacco

Gay Rights

Contraception

the illegal unpaid wars

The Right wing has done more damage to this country than the 9/11 terrorists.


Have a nice Right-wing life.

That doesn't make me closed minded, it makes me sick

[nyquil_man]

39. What are liberalism and conservatism's weak points?

Show off your education.

[DainBramaged]

32. Right, so America should plod along with NO healthcare mandate while the Right

blocks EVERY bill that benefits the American people because it's introduced by Democrats or the Administration?


GREAT way to run the country....and 40 million people can continue without healthcare because they aren't business owners..........NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DainBramaged]

24. Could be the franchisees and not corporate

[liberalmuse]

27. Yet another excuse to avoid shit food.

And a pox on Taco Bell and every corporation that uses this sorry excuse in order to continue screwing over Americans who work hard to earn every penny they can to just have the basics. I want to see all greedy corporations bite the dust in my lifetime.

[nyquil_man]

29. If they could outsource those jobs, they would. Once they figure out how to, they will.

It hasn't got a thing to do with Obamacare.

[Lex]

31. Shareholder earnings

is their God, and fuck the people who work to create the earning.

[Lex]

30. Hmmmm . . . . wonder what Taco Bell's corporate profits were last year?

[DainBramaged]

37. Here

Yum Brands Inc.'s YUM +2.21%profit jumped 23% as its Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC chains continued to improve in the U.S., though Yum's growth in China was held back by the economy.


Yum posted a third-quarter profit of $471 million, or $1 a share, up from $383 million, or 80 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding refranchising impacts and other items, earnings rose to 99 cents from 83 cents.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443982904578046904238242108.html