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Fired without cause and without notice in my "right to work" state.
I never ate very much at the local Sammich-Factory before. The sandwiches were decent, but always overstuffed and falling apart. The lines were usually too long. But it was the customer service – even on slow days when there were no lines at all – that I couldn’t tolerate. I couldn’t hear the sandwich-makers behind the high plastic counter, and resented having to shout over it. They always spoke too fast and couldn’t hear me, so everything on each sides question and/or answer ended up repeated 3 and even 4 times. The faster they spoke, the behinder they got. It made for an uncomfortable, nerve-wracking experience and definitely was not how I wanted to unwind on an already too short lunch break. So instead I would travel a quarter mile further to Borealis Breads and enjoy a hand made sandwich on truly fresh made bread, often with gourmet garnishes, and delicious home-made soup.
Then I fell on extra-hard times and was desperate for some quick income. The local Sammich-Factory manager had just lost 2 people at once, with 2 more giving notice, and was desperate for immediate help. Otherwise, doubtless, she would never have hired a mid-fifties former professional to work alongside a slew of 20 year olds.
And so, I became part of the action behind the scenes and “on the line.”
Whatever happened to labor laws? I worked temporarily in food service, both fast and slow, some 35 years ago while in college. I distinctly remember scheduled break times. I distinctly remember specific break areas – a discrete table around a corner or by the rest room where we could sit and eat somewhat out of sight and out of the way. I distinctly remember free food provided to help make up for the low wages and hard, hard work.
Today? All gone. I worked 6 hours at a stretch with the manager nipping at my heels if I stopped so much as to scratch an itch, never mind pee. Any food eaten was on the run, while we prepared the “fresh food” for the counter. Yes…if we ate at all, we did so in the same place where we prepared the food, while we prepared the food. Standing. Not a chair in sight. The young women kept bags of throwaway (postdated?) chips and heisted fountain drinks or paid-for bottled drinks at the back of the work counter, un-gloving, grabbing chips, shoving them in their mouths, and re-gloving as they chopped, poured, mixed…and chewed. Occasionally, if things were really slow, the young men made sandwiches, usually with heisted (throwaway day-old) bread and non-measured food. The leftover, day-old bread was kept in a plastic bag under the back counter and taken home, along with end slices of tomatoes and other veggies. Even by the owner.
Some of this is illegal here, where we have the “right to work.” That would be -- the heisted food. Yes, breaks are not required until after 6 hours, and then although the state “recommends” a half hour, there is no actual limit and no requirement for a specific break area away from food preparation.
It is, however, illegal to feed your employees. It is also illegal for the store owner to take home his day-old bread and extra veggies. Unless, of course, you declare the throw-away food as part of their income and pay taxes on it.
The freshness is an illusion – the waste is not. And so, every day a couple pounds of end slices of veggies are thrown out or, occasionally, “stolen” by the owner. That’s from each store in the Sammich-Factory Chain. An average week probably sees 30+ loaves of bread “stolen,” rotating thieves among the staff and the owner.
That is not the only waste, however. To create an illusion of “freshness,” someone apparently recently handed down a new rule – the lids are no longer sufficient. The small bins that held the chopped veggies and weighed out meat are to be covered with at least one layer of plastic wrap and then topped by the lid. One of the more diligent employees double wrapped the bins before topping with the lid. An hour or two later, the wrap is thrown away and the process repeated. Yes – wrapped in plastic before covering for an hour-- so customers will see the plastic wrap removed and think “fresh!”
In fact, the food arrives weekly; by the time Monday roles around all that’s left of the tomatoes, green peppers and cukes have been sitting at the bottom of a deeply filled box for a week. Many are already shriveled or bruised and rotting, so end up thrown away. Or not.
Pounds and pounds of food sits for a week and then is thrown away while the hungry line up at over-stressed food pantries. Miles of plastic wrap to add to dump sites in every town.
Processed meat product – the illusion of food Some of the meats are real. The roast beef, bacon, ham, turkey, tuna and chunky chickens clearly came from the real thing.
Then there are the meatballs, the oven-cooked chicken “breast” and the “seafood delight,” or whatever they call them. I call them pieces of rubber, myself. I’m sure that in order to be allowed to use the word meatball, chicken and seafood, there is some actual beef, chicken and seafood in there. Mostly, though, once thawed they look like soy imitation meat. The pizza, by the way, comes from Walmart. At least, according to the box they’re shipped in.
Well, it looks clean, anyway. We wash our hands constantly and wear gloves when handling the food. There is a real attempt to keep the food clean.
Unfortunately, those plastic hoods that keep the customer’s germs out…tend to trap ours in. Think there isn’t some serious “spray” going on when we’re shouting questions and answers at the customers? Think again. At least one time, I know I accidentally violated that old childhood “Say it, don’t spray it” rule, possibly spritzing the entire meat section.
Exhaled breath (bioaerosol) can contain airborne pathogens and spread disease. With no place for our breath to go, it’s trapped under that hood, where the cooler temperatures could condense it to precipitate onto the food below.
Fact: I am not the employee who spent an entire day handling food and working the food line…with a temperature of 104. (She ended up in the hospital the next day…gotta wonder who she exposed, and what she exposed them too!)
I guess she couldn’t afford a day or two off from work. I wonder how she’ll handle the hospital bill? But that’s the thing. Young people often don’t think like that. They’re easily fooled into giving up basic rights, running their bodies into the ground for the enrichment of anonymous stockholders…and somehow thinking that’s right and moral.
We Don’t Discriminate here at the Sammich-Factory There is no age discrimination here. There really isn’t. I made beginner mistakes, but nothing too costly. I was not the only one who was spacey, flushed and tired when the a/c broke during a heat wave, leaving us sweltering next to the ovens. I am not the employee who dropped a pound or so of cheese on the floor. I also am not the employee who twice, at closing, left the oven on overnight. Nor am I the employee above who worked at food prep and service with a fever of 104.
Yet after 3 weeks, I was fired – without cause and without notice because, in the manager’s words, “I’m afraid you might get hurt. I know I won’t last here another 10 years myself.”
She had just hired two 20-year-old co-workers’ friends and one 40ish personal friend.
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