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Speaker 1: Also media welcome, Dick. It appen here at the podcast

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Speaker 1: that we're starting as if it was a nomal podcast

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Speaker 1: instead of doing some terrible thing like we normally do.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Bia Wong. This is a podcast about

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Speaker 1: things falling apart, and this is a putting it back

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Speaker 1: together again episode. Yeah, and I'm I'm here with two

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Speaker 1: workers from Donut Workers United, specifically at Blue Star Donuts,

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Speaker 1: Lydia and Ben, to talk about unionization efforts and some

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Speaker 1: really terrible union busting stuff. So Lydia, Ben, welcome to

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Speaker 1: the show.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you for having us. Super excited.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm really excited to have you two here. So

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Speaker 1: all right, So Blue Star Donuts is a donut place

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Speaker 1: in Portland's for people who are not in Portland's question mark,

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Speaker 1: which is probably a lot of you. I don't know,

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Speaker 1: I don't know where you are right now. So I

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Speaker 1: guess the place I wanted to start with talking about

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Speaker 1: this is how did you two get involved with this campaign?

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Speaker 3: You know, it's actually for me. It was right before Halloween.

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Speaker 4: I went to a coworker's house and you know, we

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Speaker 4: had some drinks and hung out and she just sort

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Speaker 4: of you know, the conversation just sort of organically led

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Speaker 4: to work and talking about work and you know, this

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Speaker 4: is messed up at work, this is frustrating us. And

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Speaker 4: then she was like, hey, like, what's your opinion on

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Speaker 4: you know, union stuff? And I actually had when I

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Speaker 4: worked at Starbucks in Texas, I had tried to unionize

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Speaker 4: my location and it didn't no one was interested, but

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Speaker 4: I you know, they She asked us if we wanted

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Speaker 4: to sign a union card or union authorization card, and

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Speaker 4: I was all for it.

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Speaker 3: You know, I'm very into it. So that's that's how

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Speaker 3: it started for me.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So bouncing off of that, it was, I would say,

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Speaker 2: a couple of days before that Halloween party. For me,

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Speaker 2: I'm pretty close friends with the woman who started all

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Speaker 2: of this, and so I was visiting her and she

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Speaker 2: just kind of briefly mentioned She's like, hey, do you

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Speaker 2: know what's going on with Blue Star and kind of

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Speaker 2: open ended question, and you know this company, almost every

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Speaker 2: day something happens. So I was like, I mean, maybe

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Speaker 2: maybe not what's going on? And she's like, well, like

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Speaker 2: are you good with unions? And I'm like, oh, girl,

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Speaker 2: of course I am. I was actually involved with a

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Speaker 2: union in a previous job that was more higher end

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Speaker 2: like government board specific instead of an individual and I

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Speaker 2: was like, yeah, it hit me what's going on. And

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Speaker 2: she's like, okay, cool, we have a couple of people

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Speaker 2: interested trying to unionize Blue Star and I was like, oh,

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Speaker 2: sign me up, Like let's do this thing. And then

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Speaker 2: at that Halloween already when we were all kind of

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Speaker 2: gathered there, we briefly talked about it and how messed

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Speaker 2: up things were, swalk stories and it just kind of

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Speaker 2: click that leads to my brain of like okay, yeah,

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Speaker 2: let's do this. So that was that was my end.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems like it was a really a pretty

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Speaker 1: quick campaign. I know you all had an election. Oh

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Speaker 1: how many weeks ago?

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Speaker 2: Was that like.

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Speaker 3: Two weeks and half? Two weeks ago?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess it'll be like three when this goes out. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so that's that's a very very quick campaign. How many

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Speaker 1: people like ish are are at the shop.

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Speaker 4: It depends on if you're adding like all the satellites

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Speaker 4: and versus like the regular Flagship store. I think we

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Speaker 4: have thirty something at Flagship, which is the location on Jefferson,

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Speaker 4: and then I think there's maybe fifty one employees total.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we're pretty scattered around all of Portland, with one

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Speaker 2: shop in Lake Oswego, but majority of us are in

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Speaker 2: headquarters at Flagship. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: That's something I think is pretty interesting about this campaign

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Speaker 1: and about a lot of the independent campaigns, is that, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's shops that are it's shops that are pretty small,

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Speaker 1: shops that are split around, and it shops that, like,

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Speaker 1: you know it shops with high turnover. Now I was wondering, well, actually,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm assuming you get high turnover.

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Speaker 2: There is a lot of turnover in the satellite shops

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Speaker 2: for sure.

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Speaker 4: I mean I would even say that there was a

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Speaker 4: fair amount of turnover at Flagship. You know, we had

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Speaker 4: a time where in our kitchen, which is the wholesale

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Speaker 4: kitchen which makes the doughnut bites. We refer to it

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Speaker 4: as Red Kitchen, we had four people quit in four

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Speaker 4: days jesushost. They didn't Yeah, they didn't replace those people

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Speaker 4: to continue working than producing the same amount with four

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Speaker 4: less people.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but there were you know.

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Speaker 4: A lot of like poached wororker like temporary workers that

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Speaker 4: were coming and going while I was there.

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Speaker 3: And yeah, some pretty serious turnover.

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Speaker 2: That kind of happened with me. Last year, I was

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Speaker 2: working at Blue Star for like about eight months. Oh

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Speaker 2: it's the new year, I guess two years ago. And

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Speaker 2: then I quit. I left, and then unfortunately last year

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Speaker 2: I hit a little unemployment zone and I'm like, I

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Speaker 2: need a job. So I came back to Blue Star

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Speaker 2: for about three months and this is when everything was

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Speaker 2: going on. But long story short, sorry, last time I

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Speaker 2: was there, we kind of had a little bit of

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Speaker 2: turnover as well. A lot of people were not great,

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Speaker 2: and we had a lot of meetings and got some

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Speaker 2: people fired. Granted, like Ben was saying, is that no

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Speaker 2: one replaced them, and so it's very much of like

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Speaker 2: we have to cover them and a lot more quantity.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so has the sort of speed ups from that

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Speaker 1: was that one of the main things that was driving

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Speaker 1: the unionization or like what other kinds of things were

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Speaker 1: like driving people into this.

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Speaker 3: There were a few things, a few main things.

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Speaker 4: Pay and inconsistency of pay was a real big issue.

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Speaker 4: For instance, there was a person in our kitchen who

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Speaker 4: me and her started around the same time. We had

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Speaker 4: very similar previous experience. Neither of us were cross trained.

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Speaker 4: We did the same exact job she was making three

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Speaker 4: dollars an hour more than I was. And so that

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Speaker 4: kind of thing happens a lot at Blue Star. And

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Speaker 4: there's one of the biggest things for me, honestly, was

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Speaker 4: the point system, what they call the point system the

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Speaker 4: disciplinary system at Blue Starly, you get a certain amount

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Speaker 4: of points that you're allowed to hit. If you go

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Speaker 4: over that amount of points, you're done, you're fired, and

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Speaker 4: you can get h you know, I don't remember the

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Speaker 4: numbers exactly, but it's like one point for calling out

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Speaker 4: of a shift, half a point for being ten minutes late.

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Speaker 3: Geez.

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Speaker 4: There's all these things that you can earn. Yeah, there's

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Speaker 4: all these things that you can earn points for. And

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Speaker 4: it you know, if you reach that number eight, it

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Speaker 4: doesn't really matter how good of an employee you are,

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Speaker 4: you're fired.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. And on top of that, with the point system,

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Speaker 2: it's incredibly unfair because you get points due to things

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Speaker 2: you can't control, like the weathering.

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Speaker 3: It's very able.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And the main issue, what's traffic and crashes. If

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Speaker 2: like a car crash happens and you're stuck in that

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Speaker 2: you and you're like late to work because of it,

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Speaker 2: even when you like let your managers know and let

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Speaker 2: your team. Know, you still get punished for it and

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Speaker 2: you get points and that counts to the eight point total.

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Speaker 2: So that was a main part of the point system

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Speaker 2: that really really had us upset and very unfair, honestly.

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Speaker 4: Well, and it's very it's a very ablest system. I

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Speaker 4: mean there were multiple people in our kitchen alone that

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Speaker 4: had chronic illness issues, ye, myself included. And I there

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Speaker 4: were two nights when in the three ish months that

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Speaker 4: I was working there, two days where I had not

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Speaker 4: slept it all the night before and I was literally

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Speaker 4: not seeing straight, like I was seeing double. I couldn't

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Speaker 4: walk in a straight line like I was not okay,

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Speaker 4: And you know, there's some heavy machinery and like some

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Speaker 4: really hot oil in the kitchen, and I was like,

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Speaker 4: I really don't think I'm safe to come to work.

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Speaker 4: And they're like, that's fine, you know, stay home, get

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Speaker 4: some rest, but you are getting a point.

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Speaker 3: What the And yeah, so you know, a very ablest system.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and going off with that as well, whole sick

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Speaker 2: time and PTO was a mess. And when we get

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Speaker 2: like paid time off, it won't even cover a whole shift.

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Speaker 2: We'll be lucky to get four hours. Yeah, no, it's

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Speaker 2: it's insane really, and so I'll never forget. Like just recently,

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Speaker 2: our special Christmas prize thing, our grand prize on the

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Speaker 2: twelfth day was two hours pto.

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Speaker 3: Two hours congratulations.

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Speaker 2: And sick time too. Yeah, there were super proper like

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Speaker 2: we were so hard for this, you deserve this, blah

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Speaker 2: blah blah. And with sick time it like will barely

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Speaker 2: cover a day. And on top of that, if you're

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Speaker 2: like sincerely sick, I got bronchitis on my birthday and

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Speaker 2: I had to leave work for like a week, And

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Speaker 2: around the like second or third day, my manager is like, okay,

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Speaker 2: well for you to be excused properly, you have to

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Speaker 2: go back and get a doctor's note from them and

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Speaker 2: to prove that you are not able to come into work.

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Speaker 2: And you know, I could ramble on like they they

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Speaker 2: don't handle COVID. Well, they're like, if you can stand up,

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Speaker 2: you can slap on a mask and come into work.

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Speaker 2: And COVID specifically spread so quickly there because people were

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Speaker 2: so scared of not coming to work that they would

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Speaker 2: get punished and get points. This then the other that

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Speaker 2: sick people will come into work and get other people sick.

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Speaker 2: It happened, yeah, all the time.

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Speaker 4: I mean I can think of specifically. We had a

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Speaker 4: coworker who, you know, kind of young. This was you know,

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Speaker 4: she was kind of getting her feet wet in the

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Speaker 4: working world, and she had had some issues with illness,

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Speaker 4: and she came to work with strep throat. Yeah, because

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Speaker 4: she was so afraid of getting I mean she literally

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Speaker 4: was like in tears, like having a breakdown to the

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Speaker 4: managers because she was like, I can't get fired, Like

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Speaker 4: I need to keep this job, and I'm afraid that

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Speaker 4: if I don't come in, I'm going to get fired.

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Speaker 4: And that's the kind of culture they create there with

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Speaker 4: that disciplinary system.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's really rough because majority of these workers

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Speaker 2: rely on this job, like this job is their income

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Speaker 2: and they can't really do anything else. And it's so

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Speaker 2: incredibly toxic there where they're just so afraid to not

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Speaker 2: come into work because they will be punished over it.

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Speaker 1: It kind of goes without saying which we as you

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Speaker 1: should say it, which is like it is unbelievably discussing

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Speaker 1: to literally put people's lives in danger because you don't

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Speaker 1: want to let someone take like a few days off

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Speaker 1: because they have fucking stripped Like that's unbelievable.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, over like peace and love to Blue Star, but

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Speaker 2: over donuts like donut bite yeah, like yeah, like like

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Speaker 2: I don't, I don't.

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Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't think it's okay to make

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Speaker 1: like nurses go in when they're sick, but like donuts,

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Speaker 1: like this is oh my god, like.

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Speaker 4: You know, as you know, who cares if we're suffering

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Speaker 4: as long as they make their bottom line?

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, It's really one of those things. It's like yes,

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Speaker 1: like they will survive if slightly less donuts are produced,

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Speaker 1: like they will be fine. However, Comma all over here

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Speaker 1: are getting terribly sick because of all the ship that

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Speaker 1: is that is terrible.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, no, like I laugh all the time about it,

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Speaker 2: and I, you know, my roommate and I are like

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Speaker 2: best friends. I come home almost every day from those

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Speaker 2: shifts being like you'll never guess what happened over like

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Speaker 2: the most craziest hilarious things. I'm like, I can't believe

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Speaker 2: this is real, Like I'm experiencing this.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and we are going to talk more about the

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Speaker 1: absolutely wild stuff that happened here. Unfortunately after we come

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Speaker 1: back from this ad break that pays some of the

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Speaker 1: bills question Mark we are back. So yeah, I wanted

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Speaker 1: to ask about some of the other stuff that's been

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Speaker 1: happening at this shop, because everything that I've ever heard

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Speaker 1: about is just like, I don't know, just deeply weird.

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Speaker 1: And it's well, I guess, I guess one place we

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Speaker 1: can sort of story. It's like it seems like it's

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Speaker 1: one of these places where they, I don't know, it

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Speaker 1: has this very sort of like progressive eveneer around it,

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Speaker 1: and then when it comes time to like you know,

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Speaker 1: like like even sort of live up to those ideals,

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Speaker 1: you just get this. Everyone's forced to come home with COVID.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's it's so funny because you walk in

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Speaker 4: and you know, there's there's pride flags there, you know,

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Speaker 4: all all of the workers are you know, queer and

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Speaker 4: cool and progressive, and you know they're supporting the Portland Teachers' Union.

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Speaker 3: And yet you know, and this story is just disgusting.

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Speaker 4: We had a worker in our kitchen, actually in Lydia,

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Speaker 4: in a nice kitchen, who sexually assaulted two of our coworkers.

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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ.

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Speaker 4: Yes, these these women brought it forward to management. Management

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Speaker 4: victim blamed, they thanked them for keeping it quiet and

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00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:07,840
Speaker 4: not letting it interfere with their work. Yeah, it was

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Speaker 4: not handled well. That was specifically the manager of Red Kitchen,

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Speaker 4: Britney Bergner. A lot of just really like callous and

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Speaker 4: inappropriate mishandling of that situation.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and it was really disgusting.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was disgusting. And I was so so grateful

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Speaker 2: that I wasn't there when this happened, because I would

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00:15:30,920 --> 00:15:34,560
Speaker 2: literally toward this man apart. But the thing with that

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Speaker 2: manager is that him and her got along really well,

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Speaker 2: and what I've heard I wasn't there. I heard that

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Speaker 2: there was some favoritism towards him, and so when these

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00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:55,480
Speaker 2: allegations came up, that's when she got She mishandled it

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Speaker 2: a lot, and it was not dealt with properly at all,

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Speaker 2: and it seemed very much swept under rug kind of

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Speaker 2: very much. So yeah, he did.

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Speaker 3: Nobody talked about it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he did get fired eventually, but eventually that's the

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Speaker 2: main thing. Yeah, and was handled right away.

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Speaker 4: And the you know the effect it had on these

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Speaker 4: women that came forward that this happened to. I mean

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Speaker 4: I I hung out with them outside of work where

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Speaker 4: they would talk about you know what happened and how

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00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:31,520
Speaker 4: it was handled, and like you know, they were sobbing,

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Speaker 4: they were you know, their lives were torn apart over this.

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Speaker 4: I mean it's a very serious thing. As you know,

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Speaker 4: we all know, to be sexually assaulted and then you know,

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Speaker 4: to have it treated this way by someone who's in

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Speaker 4: a position of authority over you, it's you know, I

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Speaker 4: can't help but keep using that word disgusting. It's just

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00:16:49,760 --> 00:16:53,520
Speaker 4: it's inhumane and honestly, like that's blue.

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Speaker 2: Star, Yeah, especially by a company that reaches how open

280
00:16:58,720 --> 00:17:03,200
Speaker 2: and awesome and those family we are, and then behind

281
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Speaker 2: the scenes they're actually mistreating their workers literally every single day.

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Speaker 2: So it's it is, it is disgusting. I have no

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00:17:13,320 --> 00:17:15,080
Speaker 2: other word to describe it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's like someone's sexually assaulting you and

285
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Speaker 1: then them not being fired means you can fucking run

286
00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:27,720
Speaker 1: into them at your job, which is like the fucking

287
00:17:28,040 --> 00:17:31,679
Speaker 1: just absolute nightmare shit. That is like the worst fucking

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00:17:31,680 --> 00:17:32,440
Speaker 1: shit that can happen.

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Speaker 3: And we all worked in the same kitchen.

290
00:17:34,359 --> 00:17:36,000
Speaker 4: We all worked in the same kitchen, so we were

291
00:17:36,040 --> 00:17:38,240
Speaker 4: guaranteed to see each other for most of the day

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Speaker 4: every day, and it's like, yeah, you know, you expect

293
00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:42,239
Speaker 4: these women to go to work and stare at this

294
00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:44,520
Speaker 4: guy and and you know, talk and laugh with this

295
00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:46,560
Speaker 4: guy who assaulted them, Like that's crazy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's absolutely fucking terrible. And I hope, I hope,

297
00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:56,080
Speaker 1: like I hope fucking like some shit happens to these

298
00:17:56,080 --> 00:17:58,359
Speaker 1: people because like God.

299
00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:01,679
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, don worry. We got him banned from some

300
00:18:01,720 --> 00:18:07,480
Speaker 2: bars because classic thing is drugging drinks Jesus Christ. So

301
00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:12,040
Speaker 2: We've spread the word and got flyers, and I'm pretty

302
00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:15,159
Speaker 2: sure he's banned I know for sure too bars, but

303
00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:16,679
Speaker 2: I think others as well.

304
00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:17,280
Speaker 3: I'm not sure.

305
00:18:18,359 --> 00:18:23,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, don't get me wrong. I will definitely go

306
00:18:23,359 --> 00:18:25,880
Speaker 2: out of my way to destroy a man's life.

307
00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:30,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so I guess, like you know, with with

308
00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:32,679
Speaker 1: just like the absolute fucking horrifying shake going on, and

309
00:18:32,680 --> 00:18:35,680
Speaker 1: also with YouTube, like you know, people doing organizing outside

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Speaker 1: of the workplace to go after these people, it may

311
00:18:37,880 --> 00:18:40,159
Speaker 1: it makes it makes a lot of sense that, you know,

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00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:44,399
Speaker 1: the unionization campaign has been going, and I wanted to

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00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:46,120
Speaker 1: ask I want, well, I guess I wanted to talk

314
00:18:46,119 --> 00:18:50,000
Speaker 1: about sort of the vote and the stuff leading up

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Speaker 1: to the vote and the things that happened to YouTube

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Speaker 1: because oh my god.

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Speaker 3: Yep, yeah, you know.

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Speaker 4: We we had our vot on January seventeenth. There were

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00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:07,199
Speaker 4: seven votes that were left unopened that were challenged by

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Speaker 4: Blue Star management. Three of them because the employees were

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00:19:11,119 --> 00:19:16,000
Speaker 4: no longer active employees, and four of them for honestly

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00:19:16,040 --> 00:19:18,680
Speaker 4: just like completely bullshit reasons, like they had to get

323
00:19:18,720 --> 00:19:19,720
Speaker 4: a new envelope.

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00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:23,200
Speaker 3: You know, they they were there before the vote, but.

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00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:26,240
Speaker 4: Like seven minutes after the cutoff that you know that

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00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:29,800
Speaker 4: Blue Star wanted one person had to get a new ballot,

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00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:32,920
Speaker 4: and you know, it's like, these are technicalities that really

328
00:19:32,920 --> 00:19:36,679
Speaker 4: should not prevent someone from having their vote counted. And

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00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:41,000
Speaker 4: so we as DW Blue Star objected to six of

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00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:45,600
Speaker 4: those challenges, the four that were very ticky tachi for

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00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:48,199
Speaker 4: obvious reasons. And that was the weekend that was the

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00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:50,159
Speaker 4: week of the big snow snowstorm.

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Speaker 1: As well, we should talk for people who weren't in

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00:19:52,560 --> 00:19:55,040
Speaker 1: Portland for this. Okay, So the city of Portland, this

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00:19:55,080 --> 00:19:56,719
Speaker 1: is the thing I have heard. I am a Chicagoan,

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00:19:57,080 --> 00:20:00,400
Speaker 1: so like I grew up in snowstorms, right the city

337
00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:02,919
Speaker 1: of Portland, Like this is I get, this is this

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00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:04,600
Speaker 1: is this is this is the this is the the

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00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:06,880
Speaker 1: Mia rants about the city of Portland for about five

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00:20:06,880 --> 00:20:09,560
Speaker 1: minutes thing because, oh my fucking god, the city of

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00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:14,159
Speaker 1: Portland does not actually substantively do any kind of like

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00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:16,480
Speaker 1: street clearing. They don't do salt. They don't really I

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00:20:16,520 --> 00:20:20,280
Speaker 1: think they might have like two snowplows. And this means that,

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00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:23,119
Speaker 1: you know, when it, for example, snows, and then the

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00:20:23,119 --> 00:20:25,000
Speaker 1: temperature goes back up and goes freezing, then it goes

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00:20:25,040 --> 00:20:27,720
Speaker 1: back down below freezing, the entire city is covered in

347
00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:30,359
Speaker 1: a sheet of ice. And this lasts for days and

348
00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:34,280
Speaker 1: days and days and days. It is terrible. I came

349
00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:37,760
Speaker 1: into Portland's like in the middle of this, like you

350
00:20:37,760 --> 00:20:40,679
Speaker 1: you walk three steps and you're just going flying on

351
00:20:40,720 --> 00:20:43,359
Speaker 1: this ice. It is terrible. It is dangerous to drive,

352
00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:45,560
Speaker 1: It is dangerous to walk. It is it is dangerous

353
00:20:45,560 --> 00:20:48,679
Speaker 1: to scoot on your butt like terrible. I don't know,

354
00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:52,080
Speaker 1: Like if you did this in Chicago, if the city

355
00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:55,600
Speaker 1: of Chicago failed to clear the streets sufficiently that this

356
00:20:55,720 --> 00:20:57,960
Speaker 1: was happening, the government would be would fucking collapse in

357
00:20:58,040 --> 00:20:58,359
Speaker 1: a week.

358
00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:01,240
Speaker 3: Portland, you deserve better.

359
00:21:02,440 --> 00:21:06,480
Speaker 2: I personally would have preferred snow, like six feet of

360
00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:12,080
Speaker 2: snow over a half ice that inane the whole entire

361
00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:17,200
Speaker 2: city shuts down, and it's it is incredibly dangerous for sure,

362
00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:21,679
Speaker 2: and the city does not prepare for it. The city,

363
00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:27,280
Speaker 2: like landscape itself is not prepared for it. And yeah,

364
00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:30,879
Speaker 2: it's awful. I tripped and fell like three times within

365
00:21:31,359 --> 00:21:35,119
Speaker 2: a week, and my room and I were literally locked

366
00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:39,719
Speaker 2: into our house for days, like four maybe five days.

367
00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:43,199
Speaker 2: We could not leave. And on top of that, we

368
00:21:43,240 --> 00:21:45,080
Speaker 2: had to turn our water off, like it was a

369
00:21:45,119 --> 00:21:45,640
Speaker 2: whole night.

370
00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:48,600
Speaker 1: There so many, so many people lost power, so many

371
00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:49,160
Speaker 1: people's like.

372
00:21:49,280 --> 00:21:54,639
Speaker 2: Yeah, Roath and the NLRB building itself was shut down

373
00:21:54,720 --> 00:21:58,560
Speaker 2: for I don't remember how long, but it was shut down,

374
00:21:59,119 --> 00:21:59,840
Speaker 2: and so it was.

375
00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:02,280
Speaker 4: It was shut down for most of that week leading

376
00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:04,160
Speaker 4: up to the vote. Our vote was on a Thursday,

377
00:22:04,359 --> 00:22:07,520
Speaker 4: and I think Thursday was the first day that the

378
00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:10,800
Speaker 4: actual office was open. There might have been some people

379
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:14,080
Speaker 4: there on Wednesday, but the office itself was closed the

380
00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:16,760
Speaker 4: you know, Monday was Martin Luther King Junior Day, so

381
00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:19,600
Speaker 4: that it was close closed. But you know, I tried

382
00:22:19,640 --> 00:22:22,199
Speaker 4: to take you know, I in my little hatchback with

383
00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:26,560
Speaker 4: two two wheel drive hatchbag tried to drive across Portland

384
00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:29,440
Speaker 4: to take people to the office to turn in their

385
00:22:29,560 --> 00:22:33,119
Speaker 4: their ballots, and because we were doing a mail in ballot,

386
00:22:33,119 --> 00:22:34,920
Speaker 4: but some people had left it at the last minute,

387
00:22:34,960 --> 00:22:36,000
Speaker 4: you know, as human beings do.

388
00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:39,560
Speaker 3: And we we.

389
00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:42,919
Speaker 4: Get you know, we drive across this ice and snow.

390
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:44,960
Speaker 3: We get to the NLRB office.

391
00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:48,359
Speaker 4: There's security guards in the lobby and they say, well,

392
00:22:48,359 --> 00:22:49,640
Speaker 4: you can't go up there as closed.

393
00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:53,360
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, what about tomorrow.

394
00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:55,399
Speaker 4: They're like, we don't know, we'll be here, but we

395
00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:57,880
Speaker 4: can't guarantee that, you know, the nler.

396
00:22:57,840 --> 00:22:58,600
Speaker 3: Office will be here.

397
00:22:58,680 --> 00:23:02,119
Speaker 4: Yeah, And so I call up our rep at the NLRB,

398
00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:05,360
Speaker 4: Michael Moles, and I say, hey, like, what's the deal.

399
00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:06,480
Speaker 3: When can we drop these off?

400
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:08,840
Speaker 4: And he goes, well, actually, you know, you can drop

401
00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:10,840
Speaker 4: them off when we're not there. You can slide them

402
00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:14,360
Speaker 4: under the door, you know, as long as it's the person,

403
00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:17,280
Speaker 4: you know, as long as the person whose ballot is

404
00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:19,560
Speaker 4: being turned in is turning in the ballot, like, you

405
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:21,040
Speaker 4: can't send someone else to do it for you.

406
00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:22,320
Speaker 3: So we go back up.

407
00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:25,639
Speaker 4: On Wednesday and get some turned in and you know,

408
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:28,040
Speaker 4: at this point, the people who wanted to turn in

409
00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:29,000
Speaker 4: on Tuesday.

410
00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:29,960
Speaker 3: They've got you know, they've got work.

411
00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:32,479
Speaker 4: They've got other things going on, they have to find

412
00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:35,480
Speaker 4: a time to get in. So we're going like Thursday morning,

413
00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:38,960
Speaker 4: Thursday afternoon, right before the vote. And that's why all

414
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:42,960
Speaker 4: of these votes were you know, missing things or you

415
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:45,800
Speaker 4: know a little bit late. Is because the whole city

416
00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:48,320
Speaker 4: was shut down for half a week, almost a week,

417
00:23:48,800 --> 00:23:52,600
Speaker 4: and things got you know, messed up.

418
00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:56,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like the fact that the City of Portland doesn't

419
00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:59,199
Speaker 1: does not like refuses to buy snowplows and doesn't know

420
00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:01,440
Speaker 1: that you can use be juice is an anti ice thing.

421
00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:04,840
Speaker 1: Like the fact that the fact, the fact that the

422
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:08,199
Speaker 1: fact that the city leadership is utterly incompetent like should

423
00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:10,840
Speaker 1: not should not be a reason why your union vote

424
00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:12,639
Speaker 1: doesn't your votes don't get counted.

425
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:14,360
Speaker 3: That is absolutely absurd.

426
00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:17,399
Speaker 1: It's also like, you know, I mean, like okay, like

427
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:20,800
Speaker 1: I get like the responsible thing to do dream this

428
00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:22,680
Speaker 1: storm was to close and a lot of places were

429
00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:26,600
Speaker 1: fucking open, and that is a disaster. But the fact

430
00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:31,840
Speaker 1: that the LRB is closed and all workers are still

431
00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:35,840
Speaker 1: having to go to work is like, just oh god.

432
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:37,760
Speaker 3: Well.

433
00:24:37,800 --> 00:24:42,520
Speaker 4: And I emailed or I called Michael Males again, our

434
00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:45,040
Speaker 4: rep at the NLRB, and I was like, hey, like

435
00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:48,280
Speaker 4: this is kind of unprecedented, Like, can we push the

436
00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:51,159
Speaker 4: vote out like a week just to make sure that

437
00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:55,399
Speaker 4: everyone can safely get their ballots in. And he told me,

438
00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:57,840
Speaker 4: in no uncertain terms that we would not be doing that.

439
00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:01,480
Speaker 4: He gave me this, you know, long speech about how

440
00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:03,399
Speaker 4: hard it is, how difficult it is, how you know,

441
00:25:03,440 --> 00:25:07,120
Speaker 4: we have to get all these permissions. And you know,

442
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:10,879
Speaker 4: I'm fairly new to all the legal avenues and legal

443
00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:13,040
Speaker 4: parts of union and stuff, and so I didn't really

444
00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:15,359
Speaker 4: have a counter argument. So I was just like, you know,

445
00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:18,720
Speaker 4: throw my hands up, Okay, whatever, we'll do our best.

446
00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:23,120
Speaker 2: Well. At the time, people are literally risking their lives. Yeah,

447
00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:26,640
Speaker 2: and to drive cars. They're risking their cars, They're risking

448
00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:30,280
Speaker 2: their lives trying to get these votes in. So that's

449
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:33,600
Speaker 2: why this appeal to these challenges are so important that

450
00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:38,840
Speaker 2: it's not fair if we don't count in a full

451
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:43,680
Speaker 2: ice storm and the actual we have to account for that. Yeah,

452
00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:46,959
Speaker 2: So like all these things matter and should count, and

453
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:51,680
Speaker 2: that's why we're really pushing that these votes be counted well.

454
00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:54,160
Speaker 4: And two of the votes where people who had quit,

455
00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:58,359
Speaker 4: and one of those was was Lydia, and she was

456
00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:02,159
Speaker 4: straight up intimidated and quitting and you can lydia if

457
00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:02,960
Speaker 4: you want to talk about it.

458
00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:07,879
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Okay, So they I use this word

459
00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:10,520
Speaker 2: pretty loosely, but the more I talk about the more

460
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:15,439
Speaker 2: it's true. They forced me to quit, point blank period.

461
00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:22,560
Speaker 2: They pulled me into this meeting where at Blue Star

462
00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:27,120
Speaker 2: they have these every thirty day check ins and meetings

463
00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:31,480
Speaker 2: to talk about like how you're doing and how's the work,

464
00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:36,919
Speaker 2: et cetera. So on our ninety day check in, we

465
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:42,800
Speaker 2: are promised a raise after working here for ninety days,

466
00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:46,040
Speaker 2: and but first we have to go through a whole meeting,

467
00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:50,840
Speaker 2: and this whole like spectrum one through five. They rate

468
00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:56,040
Speaker 2: you on different topics. So I come in and not

469
00:26:56,080 --> 00:27:00,560
Speaker 2: only is my manager there, but HR and our chef

470
00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:04,680
Speaker 2: is there. And last time I did in ninety day

471
00:27:05,080 --> 00:27:09,679
Speaker 2: that didn't happen. It was just my manager. So immediately

472
00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:13,920
Speaker 2: I'm like, what is going on? This is weird. And

473
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:20,520
Speaker 2: we went through the normal stuff until chef interrupted and

474
00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:25,479
Speaker 2: brought up my schedule. So at the time I was

475
00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:30,960
Speaker 2: working two jobs, Blue Star and another bakery, And before

476
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:35,720
Speaker 2: any of this I checked in with my managers and

477
00:27:36,119 --> 00:27:38,880
Speaker 2: chef to make sure that this was possible and okay

478
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:41,760
Speaker 2: to put me from full time to part time at

479
00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:45,800
Speaker 2: Blue Star. And they were thrilled. They were like, oh,

480
00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:49,480
Speaker 2: that's so great for you. Congratulations. Yes, we can totally

481
00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:52,840
Speaker 2: work with you. This is not a problem at all.

482
00:27:53,359 --> 00:27:57,879
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, great, awesome. And so they brought up

483
00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:01,479
Speaker 2: my schedule and they're like, so we're gonna change some

484
00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:05,240
Speaker 2: things with Red Kitchen and we're going to change production

485
00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:09,720
Speaker 2: times and we're going to bump everything up a couple hours.

486
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:15,000
Speaker 2: Totally fine, Okay, I get it. And I said, I'm like, okay, well,

487
00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:20,399
Speaker 2: you know I work until one pm, so you know

488
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:25,879
Speaker 2: I'm not available to be here until like two. And

489
00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:31,280
Speaker 2: apparently that was an issue because my schedule, my availability

490
00:28:31,320 --> 00:28:35,200
Speaker 2: is no longer working for them, which doesn't make sense

491
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:41,239
Speaker 2: because a closing shift still exists. And I'm I told them,

492
00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:43,640
Speaker 2: I'm like, you can use me. I am part time,

493
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:48,840
Speaker 2: you can use me for like four hours closing, Like

494
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:53,680
Speaker 2: I am okay with that, and they shut me down.

495
00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:57,400
Speaker 2: Chef kind of clicked her teeth and was like, you know,

496
00:28:57,520 --> 00:29:01,200
Speaker 2: that's not really worth it for us, and what are

497
00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:04,080
Speaker 2: you doing over the holidays because this is right before

498
00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:07,560
Speaker 2: our Christmas break and I. I was kind of confused.

499
00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:10,880
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, nothing, I'm just at home. And

500
00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:14,480
Speaker 2: she's like, okay, well you should really take this time

501
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:18,480
Speaker 2: to think about your future here with us, and like

502
00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:24,080
Speaker 2: kind of like stared at me, and I'm like what, Like,

503
00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:27,880
Speaker 2: I what do you mean? And she's like, you know,

504
00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:32,280
Speaker 2: we're changing some things around here, and we don't want

505
00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:34,520
Speaker 2: to get rid of you, we don't want to fire you,

506
00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:39,160
Speaker 2: but you should really think about your future here and

507
00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:44,400
Speaker 2: really leaned in and emphasized that and kind of like

508
00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:48,480
Speaker 2: everyone was kind of like looking at me as if like, hey,

509
00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:52,320
Speaker 2: we want you to quit, but we're not allowed to

510
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:58,480
Speaker 2: like say anything like that. And I asked my manager.

511
00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:00,840
Speaker 2: I was like, it kind of sounds like you're not

512
00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:05,719
Speaker 2: giving me any options here. What am I supposed to

513
00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:09,520
Speaker 2: just leave? And they looked at each other and they

514
00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:11,080
Speaker 2: look back at me. You're like, you know, we can't

515
00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:14,120
Speaker 2: really say one thing or the other, so you know,

516
00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:17,080
Speaker 2: we need your decision by the first and I'm like what.

517
00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:22,240
Speaker 2: I It was very it was very tense. It was

518
00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:26,880
Speaker 2: very weird and awkward, and I was very confused because

519
00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:31,320
Speaker 2: I never thought my job was on the line. I

520
00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:34,520
Speaker 2: never thought it was gonna be jeopardized, and I kept

521
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:37,000
Speaker 2: offering them different options. That was like put me in

522
00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:39,720
Speaker 2: front of house. You know, last year I was trained.

523
00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 2: I was actually supposed to be a manager in our

524
00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:45,480
Speaker 2: other kitchen, but they kind of screwed me over on that.

525
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:49,160
Speaker 2: That's a whole different story. Like I know how to

526
00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:54,560
Speaker 2: handle Purple Kitchen. Put me there, like I'm okay going

527
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:58,800
Speaker 2: from one job immediately into here to save time. And

528
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:02,640
Speaker 2: with every single option I was giving them, they shut

529
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:04,720
Speaker 2: me down and would not work with me at all.

530
00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:10,560
Speaker 2: And then on top of that, they extended my ninety

531
00:31:10,640 --> 00:31:14,920
Speaker 2: day period, and from doing that, I was no longer

532
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:20,920
Speaker 2: allowed to get a raise. And yeah, like you have

533
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:23,640
Speaker 2: to finish ninety days and you get a raise, and

534
00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:27,240
Speaker 2: I'm like, period, that's the policy. Everybody knows that. But

535
00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:32,920
Speaker 2: because my ninety days was extended like probation period, I

536
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:35,120
Speaker 2: was no longer allowed to get a raise.

537
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:38,240
Speaker 4: And what's funny is they extended my ninety days as well.

538
00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:40,800
Speaker 4: I can talk about that more later, but this is

539
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:44,920
Speaker 4: it's just it's just odd because Red Kitchen, our kitchen,

540
00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:47,160
Speaker 4: which at that point was made up of I think

541
00:31:47,240 --> 00:31:50,960
Speaker 4: six people, all vocal union supporters, wore buttons every day.

542
00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:54,680
Speaker 2: Yep, we were the most vocal people about it. We

543
00:31:54,720 --> 00:32:00,200
Speaker 2: wore our union buttons every day. We like everybody knows that, Like,

544
00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:04,880
Speaker 2: we were firm believers standing up for this union. And

545
00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:10,440
Speaker 2: that kind of segues into the furlough situation where they

546
00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:14,280
Speaker 2: all shut down our kitchen. They our whole entire team

547
00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:18,600
Speaker 2: are six people of vocal union supporters, suddenly no job.

548
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:22,640
Speaker 1: It's incredibly messed up, and we're going to come back

549
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:26,320
Speaker 1: for more unbelievably messed up stuff after this ad break.

550
00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:38,400
Speaker 3: And we're back.

551
00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:42,080
Speaker 4: Going back to the votes that were challenged, The other

552
00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:47,160
Speaker 4: person who quit was one of the main organized She

553
00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:49,640
Speaker 4: was with her and one other person where the people

554
00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:53,160
Speaker 4: who kicked off all of the organizing at Blue Star,

555
00:32:53,720 --> 00:33:00,200
Speaker 4: and basically they changed around her schedule so much to

556
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:03,320
Speaker 4: kind of force her into quitting. She was very stressed

557
00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:06,640
Speaker 4: with school and like just the way that they kept

558
00:33:06,680 --> 00:33:10,280
Speaker 4: messing with her made her quit. Basically, she was afraid

559
00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:11,880
Speaker 4: that she was going to be fired, so she went

560
00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:16,800
Speaker 4: ahead and quit. And so that was that other challenged vote.

561
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:21,160
Speaker 4: But yeah, the furlough situation is wild. And I also

562
00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:26,280
Speaker 4: got my probation extended. I actually filed a unfairly reor

563
00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:29,680
Speaker 4: practice because of that, Because the reason they gave me

564
00:33:29,800 --> 00:33:35,120
Speaker 4: for extending my probation was that I was bringing the

565
00:33:35,120 --> 00:33:39,520
Speaker 4: their words on paper, bringing the vibe down by complaining

566
00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:45,680
Speaker 4: about working conditions. Bringing the vibe down by complaining about

567
00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:53,680
Speaker 4: working conditions, and.

568
00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:56,240
Speaker 2: How ridiculous this company is. The third reasons where I'm

569
00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:59,120
Speaker 2: like this must be the Truman Show, like this is

570
00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:02,160
Speaker 2: not real. Where are the cameras well?

571
00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:05,040
Speaker 4: And first of all, complaining about working conditions is a

572
00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:08,759
Speaker 4: federally protected act. Ye, I can do that and I

573
00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:10,000
Speaker 4: cannot be punished for that.

574
00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:11,760
Speaker 3: It is against the law, which is why I filed

575
00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:12,200
Speaker 3: the ULP.

576
00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:16,080
Speaker 4: Second of all, the reason I was complaining is because

577
00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:20,000
Speaker 4: they had taken us down from three to four people

578
00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:25,359
Speaker 4: opening shifts to two. And the way two people work, Yeah,

579
00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:28,520
Speaker 4: the way two people operates for opening shift in Red

580
00:34:28,640 --> 00:34:31,600
Speaker 4: Kitchen is one person is mixing the dough and loading

581
00:34:31,640 --> 00:34:34,279
Speaker 4: it into the fryer, and that is a constant thing,

582
00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:39,920
Speaker 4: like you mix batches for like four hours like on

583
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:41,520
Speaker 4: like back to back to back to back to back,

584
00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:43,960
Speaker 4: and the other person has to stand at the end

585
00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:47,000
Speaker 4: of the conveyor belt and take the glazed bites off

586
00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:49,759
Speaker 4: of the conveyor belt and put them onto trays. This

587
00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:52,960
Speaker 4: is a non stop job. You cannot even walk away

588
00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:56,640
Speaker 4: for a few seconds. And when you know, typically, like

589
00:34:56,680 --> 00:34:59,640
Speaker 4: the best practice that was done the entire time I

590
00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:02,640
Speaker 4: was there to this was that you did not do

591
00:35:02,840 --> 00:35:05,440
Speaker 4: that position for more than an hour because it was

592
00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:09,640
Speaker 4: physically difficult to stand in one place like that and

593
00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:12,719
Speaker 4: do that and do those repetitive motions. And two, it's

594
00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:16,440
Speaker 4: like fucking psychological torture because you're in the corner of

595
00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:19,960
Speaker 4: this room, You're not speaking to anybody, You're literally just

596
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:23,359
Speaker 4: staring at your own hands. I mean, it's it's not

597
00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:26,359
Speaker 4: like nobody likes to they call it catching. Nobody likes

598
00:35:26,360 --> 00:35:30,080
Speaker 4: to catch. And I was doing this for up to

599
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:36,279
Speaker 4: three hours a day uninterrupted, and I have psiatic nerve

600
00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:39,279
Speaker 4: issues with my leg and I you know, I've made

601
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:43,000
Speaker 4: them aware of this multiple multiple times. I cannot catch

602
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:46,040
Speaker 4: for more than an hour at a time, and you

603
00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:48,600
Speaker 4: know what I was doing catching for three hours every day.

604
00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:49,680
Speaker 1: So they're just trying to injure.

605
00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:52,000
Speaker 3: So that's what I was, yes, and that's what I

606
00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:54,880
Speaker 3: was complaining about. I was saying, I'm in pain.

607
00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:58,200
Speaker 4: I'm literally having to go on muscle relaxers every single

608
00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:01,040
Speaker 4: day because of the fact that this is having on

609
00:36:01,120 --> 00:36:04,800
Speaker 4: me physically, Like I I can't sleep at night because

610
00:36:04,840 --> 00:36:07,799
Speaker 4: my leg is so tense and it's in so much

611
00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:12,600
Speaker 4: pain from fucking catching these donuts and putting them on trays.

612
00:36:12,719 --> 00:36:13,440
Speaker 3: It's insane.

613
00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:19,040
Speaker 4: And so you know, they're yet they're penalizing me for

614
00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:22,279
Speaker 4: having the gall to voice the fact that what they're

615
00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:25,560
Speaker 4: doing is literally ruining my quality of life.

616
00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:29,640
Speaker 2: Really and going off that every single issue we bring

617
00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:33,480
Speaker 2: up to management, they have the tone of like, well,

618
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:37,080
Speaker 2: that sucks, that's a bummer, deal with it, and literally, yeah,

619
00:36:37,160 --> 00:36:41,480
Speaker 2: literally just like okay, and we're like, okay, fix it,

620
00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:45,319
Speaker 2: because we are human beings with nerves and bones and

621
00:36:46,120 --> 00:36:49,600
Speaker 2: we cannot stand on our feet for this long like

622
00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:53,359
Speaker 2: it's it's wild, it is.

623
00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:58,040
Speaker 4: And you know that that kind of also segues into

624
00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:01,239
Speaker 4: the furlough thing that we were all very vocal on

625
00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:04,880
Speaker 4: union support. You know, I had filed at this point

626
00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:09,799
Speaker 4: two ulps because of the extended probation and because they

627
00:37:10,040 --> 00:37:15,440
Speaker 4: suspended me for three days for something that was absurd,

628
00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:19,480
Speaker 4: and I had filed two ulps, and this came like

629
00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:23,080
Speaker 4: right on the heels of that second ULP. They you know,

630
00:37:23,120 --> 00:37:26,560
Speaker 4: we had Christmas Day off and I had taken the

631
00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:29,520
Speaker 4: next day, the Tuesday off, so I was visiting family

632
00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:33,160
Speaker 4: in Dallas, and I believe everyone else had that Tuesday

633
00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:36,719
Speaker 4: off as well. And we come back on that Wednesday,

634
00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:40,600
Speaker 4: and you know, we're working a regular shift. About halfway

635
00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:43,160
Speaker 4: through the shift, they say, okay, you know, we're having

636
00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:47,120
Speaker 4: a red kitchen meeting. Everyone come into the office, which

637
00:37:47,239 --> 00:37:49,280
Speaker 4: that had never happened before.

638
00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:51,360
Speaker 3: We never had an all kitchen meeting like that.

639
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,080
Speaker 4: They pull us in and you know, we're all looking

640
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:56,040
Speaker 4: at each other on the way in like, oh fuck,

641
00:37:56,040 --> 00:37:57,279
Speaker 4: what are they going to do? Like are they going

642
00:37:57,320 --> 00:37:59,680
Speaker 4: to reduce our hours? Are they going to fire one

643
00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:02,239
Speaker 4: of us? You know what's happening? And we get in

644
00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:07,600
Speaker 4: there and head chef Stephanie Thornton says, okay, so you

645
00:38:07,640 --> 00:38:12,200
Speaker 4: know we've had an issue happen. What's happened is our

646
00:38:12,239 --> 00:38:15,160
Speaker 4: distributors have told us that they are returning a bunch

647
00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:16,320
Speaker 4: of our product.

648
00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:18,480
Speaker 3: It's you know, some of it's expired, but most of.

649
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:21,319
Speaker 4: It is just fine, but it's nearing its expiration date,

650
00:38:21,640 --> 00:38:25,319
Speaker 4: so they're returning it. I'm saying that m okay, sounds fake,

651
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:29,960
Speaker 4: but okay, And then they say, unfortunately, because of this,

652
00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:34,160
Speaker 4: because we don't have space in our freezer to continue

653
00:38:34,200 --> 00:38:36,960
Speaker 4: to put product in the freezer, to continue to make

654
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:39,480
Speaker 4: product and put it in the freezer, we are having

655
00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:42,799
Speaker 4: to put you guys on indefinite furlough. You know, we

656
00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:45,239
Speaker 4: don't have a return to work date. We don't have

657
00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:48,520
Speaker 4: a plan for bringing you back. You know, we asked,

658
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:51,160
Speaker 4: can we get you know, those of us who are

659
00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:53,840
Speaker 4: cross trained, can we work in other areas? Can you

660
00:38:53,880 --> 00:38:55,880
Speaker 4: cross train those of us who aren't, so that we

661
00:38:55,920 --> 00:38:58,600
Speaker 4: can work up front or work at a satellite store

662
00:38:58,640 --> 00:39:01,760
Speaker 4: you know there they are literally hiring for satellite stores.

663
00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:05,040
Speaker 4: But they furlowed us, and we were asking, can we

664
00:39:05,040 --> 00:39:08,120
Speaker 4: do these other things? And they said no, point blank no.

665
00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:13,040
Speaker 4: So all of a sudden, you know, six people who

666
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:16,239
Speaker 4: had jobs, you know, a minute or two ago, All

667
00:39:16,239 --> 00:39:20,239
Speaker 4: of a sudden, we're facing For me personally, I'm facing homelessness.

668
00:39:22,280 --> 00:39:26,960
Speaker 3: That's the reality, you know. And we have too.

669
00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:29,680
Speaker 4: Our two shift leads, they are a couple and they

670
00:39:29,719 --> 00:39:34,440
Speaker 4: live together and like that is their entire income. And

671
00:39:34,920 --> 00:39:39,480
Speaker 4: it's just on a kind of more personal note, it's wild.

672
00:39:39,600 --> 00:39:42,360
Speaker 4: And maybe this is me being a little bit naive.

673
00:39:42,400 --> 00:39:46,520
Speaker 4: But it's wild to have spent months in company with

674
00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:50,160
Speaker 4: these people and have them pretend to care about me

675
00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:53,840
Speaker 4: and then have them do something that quite literally puts

676
00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:56,320
Speaker 4: my life in danger, especially because I had just signed

677
00:39:56,360 --> 00:39:59,719
Speaker 4: up for healthcare with them and I have multiple chronic

678
00:39:59,719 --> 00:40:03,640
Speaker 4: Illnes says, I have to go to doctors regularly, and

679
00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:06,640
Speaker 4: all of a sudden, I'm like, holy shit, my life

680
00:40:06,640 --> 00:40:09,760
Speaker 4: has completely changed in thirty seconds.

681
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:13,279
Speaker 1: You know this is the day after Christmas?

682
00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:16,800
Speaker 3: What? Yeah, the day after Christmas.

683
00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:19,560
Speaker 4: We were giving two days notice, Jesus said, in two

684
00:40:19,640 --> 00:40:23,040
Speaker 4: days starting on January first. You don't have a job,

685
00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:25,879
Speaker 4: and we don't know how long, but you know, we'll

686
00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:28,319
Speaker 4: let you know if we ever are going to do

687
00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:30,239
Speaker 4: production again, and we can bring you back, even just

688
00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:33,440
Speaker 4: for a little bit, which they didn't. They started up

689
00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:37,080
Speaker 4: production again and we were not told or called in

690
00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:37,640
Speaker 4: or anything.

691
00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:40,560
Speaker 2: So I want to touch a little more on our

692
00:40:40,680 --> 00:40:44,040
Speaker 2: shift leads. Per second. Yes, there are a couple. They

693
00:40:44,080 --> 00:40:48,760
Speaker 2: live together, but much like then, they are basically they're

694
00:40:48,800 --> 00:40:53,680
Speaker 2: facing houselessness as well. And luckily they do have another

695
00:40:53,760 --> 00:40:59,960
Speaker 2: roommate who can somewhat cover them, but that can't last forever. Yeah,

696
00:41:00,120 --> 00:41:03,080
Speaker 2: and just the other day, I had to run them groceries.

697
00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:11,359
Speaker 2: They can't afford anything, and it's it's a huge buck

698
00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:17,400
Speaker 2: over for them because they love, they are so passionate

699
00:41:17,480 --> 00:41:22,279
Speaker 2: about this job and like they rely heavily on it,

700
00:41:22,760 --> 00:41:27,720
Speaker 2: and they got their pay raises and their higher positions

701
00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:32,880
Speaker 2: and more responsibilities, and to be so betrayed like that

702
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:39,120
Speaker 2: from a company quite literally destroyed them. Our shift lead

703
00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:44,080
Speaker 2: he had a full breakdown and stormed out and walked out,

704
00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:49,239
Speaker 2: and it affected them so heavily and so emotionally and

705
00:41:49,320 --> 00:41:54,600
Speaker 2: so mentally, and they keep trying to, you know, find

706
00:41:54,600 --> 00:42:00,279
Speaker 2: other jobs, and you know, still in contact. Just yesterday

707
00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:04,280
Speaker 2: they sent me a screenshot of them talking to chef

708
00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:07,960
Speaker 2: and being like, hey, is there any updates? Is there

709
00:42:08,520 --> 00:42:12,280
Speaker 2: you know, anyway we can come get our job back.

710
00:42:12,840 --> 00:42:15,600
Speaker 2: Is you know we're still waiting for you to tell

711
00:42:15,680 --> 00:42:19,480
Speaker 2: us literally anything And Chef said, oh, we don't know.

712
00:42:20,280 --> 00:42:23,040
Speaker 2: We can't give you an answer right now, and just

713
00:42:23,120 --> 00:42:24,120
Speaker 2: kind of brushed it off.

714
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:29,800
Speaker 4: And one thing that's particularly insulting is that they ended

715
00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:31,640
Speaker 4: this meeting with us where they were telling us we

716
00:42:31,640 --> 00:42:34,520
Speaker 4: were losing our jobs by giving us a sheet of

717
00:42:34,600 --> 00:42:38,120
Speaker 4: paper on how to file for unemployment in Oregon. And

718
00:42:40,239 --> 00:42:42,600
Speaker 4: the thing with an indefinite furlough, if you don't have

719
00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:46,200
Speaker 4: a return to work date, then you have to go

720
00:42:46,400 --> 00:42:48,640
Speaker 4: you have to jump through the hoops of applying for

721
00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:53,200
Speaker 4: jobs while you're like in order to get unemployment. So like,

722
00:42:53,239 --> 00:42:55,399
Speaker 4: if you're if you have a return to work date

723
00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:58,239
Speaker 4: and it's within four weeks of the you know, the

724
00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:01,200
Speaker 4: day that you got furloughed, you can get unemployment for

725
00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:01,800
Speaker 4: that time.

726
00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:04,719
Speaker 3: And you don't. You can just hang out and get unemployment.

727
00:43:05,120 --> 00:43:07,239
Speaker 4: If you don't have a return to work date, you

728
00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:09,279
Speaker 4: have to treat it as a layoff and you have

729
00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:13,280
Speaker 4: to be making a like conscious efforts to job hunt

730
00:43:13,440 --> 00:43:15,840
Speaker 4: every single week. You have to record those efforts. If

731
00:43:15,880 --> 00:43:18,279
Speaker 4: you get an interview, you have to take it. If

732
00:43:18,360 --> 00:43:20,239
Speaker 4: you get a position offered to you, you have to

733
00:43:20,280 --> 00:43:22,840
Speaker 4: take it, and it has to be in the field

734
00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:26,120
Speaker 4: that you got that you got furloughed from. And there's

735
00:43:26,160 --> 00:43:29,520
Speaker 4: all these very specific rules and it just makes it

736
00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:30,680
Speaker 4: incredibly difficult.

737
00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:32,560
Speaker 3: You know, all these hoops you have to jump through.

738
00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:37,080
Speaker 4: It's dehumanizing, it's fucked up, and it's insulting.

739
00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:40,040
Speaker 2: There was no support other than that if you need

740
00:43:40,719 --> 00:43:44,080
Speaker 2: that support, there's no severance package. There was no like

741
00:43:45,320 --> 00:43:48,840
Speaker 2: short in the meeting, they're like, yeah, sorry, guys, this sucks,

742
00:43:48,880 --> 00:43:52,919
Speaker 2: but like it just didn't feel real, Like this whole

743
00:43:52,960 --> 00:43:56,560
Speaker 2: situation was not empathetic at all, and like all.

744
00:43:56,480 --> 00:43:58,600
Speaker 1: Theos and you know, you could tell their excuses bullshit

745
00:43:58,680 --> 00:44:01,200
Speaker 1: because like okay, like let let let's say what they

746
00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:03,279
Speaker 1: were saying was real that like, okay, they got a

747
00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:04,680
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff return and they don't have room in

748
00:44:04,719 --> 00:44:09,160
Speaker 1: their freezers. It's been a month. They should now, there's

749
00:44:09,239 --> 00:44:12,520
Speaker 1: no way that they now still do not have room

750
00:44:12,680 --> 00:44:13,920
Speaker 1: in their freezers.

751
00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:19,080
Speaker 4: Like what Well, and here's the here's the kicker is

752
00:44:19,120 --> 00:44:23,399
Speaker 4: that we were for maybe them a month, maybe over

753
00:44:23,440 --> 00:44:26,560
Speaker 4: a month really since we filed the union petition, since

754
00:44:26,560 --> 00:44:29,600
Speaker 4: we handed them the petition, we had ramped up production

755
00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:32,879
Speaker 4: even though we were in the slow season and we

756
00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:36,560
Speaker 4: were not actually like the bites that we were making

757
00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:40,040
Speaker 4: were not ordered by anyone. We were just putting. We

758
00:44:40,040 --> 00:44:42,840
Speaker 4: were making extra to put in the freezer.

759
00:44:44,200 --> 00:44:48,839
Speaker 2: Not only the freezer, but they rented a whole entire warehouse.

760
00:44:49,280 --> 00:44:51,000
Speaker 2: We haven't the strategy.

761
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:54,920
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that they they did this, you know, I

762
00:44:54,920 --> 00:44:56,680
Speaker 4: don't want to say they did this on purpose, but

763
00:44:56,719 --> 00:44:59,319
Speaker 4: it is it might be suspicious to me that they're

764
00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:03,239
Speaker 4: that there bill up these these you know bites in

765
00:45:03,280 --> 00:45:06,040
Speaker 4: the freezer when they didn't need them, when they didn't.

766
00:45:05,760 --> 00:45:08,040
Speaker 3: Have orders for them, and now all of a sudden,

767
00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:09,719
Speaker 3: oh we don't have room in the freezer. We have

768
00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:10,880
Speaker 3: to let you go, you know.

769
00:45:11,160 --> 00:45:14,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, oddly convenient.

770
00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:15,560
Speaker 3: It is. It is.

771
00:45:15,640 --> 00:45:19,080
Speaker 4: And that really ramped up when they when we gave

772
00:45:19,080 --> 00:45:21,840
Speaker 4: them the union petition November seventeenth.

773
00:45:21,200 --> 00:45:25,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is just really very blatant retaliation.

774
00:45:26,880 --> 00:45:30,759
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And I.

775
00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:33,759
Speaker 4: Have filed an unfair labor practice for it's called what

776
00:45:33,800 --> 00:45:36,880
Speaker 4: they call a lockout for the you know us being furloughed,

777
00:45:37,440 --> 00:45:42,400
Speaker 4: and it, like you said, it really is blatant, especially

778
00:45:42,480 --> 00:45:44,879
Speaker 4: given that, you know, even walking into that meeting, all

779
00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:49,040
Speaker 4: of us were wearing our union buttons. I just why

780
00:45:49,080 --> 00:45:52,640
Speaker 4: would you lay off an entire department, especially when that

781
00:45:52,760 --> 00:45:56,440
Speaker 4: department is what is keeping your business afloat, Like that

782
00:45:56,600 --> 00:45:59,200
Speaker 4: is the money maker for Blue Stars, those wholesale.

783
00:45:58,760 --> 00:46:02,879
Speaker 2: Bites, and we've been told that all the time. It's

784
00:46:02,920 --> 00:46:07,839
Speaker 2: like these donut bites make the money, So make that

785
00:46:07,880 --> 00:46:11,600
Speaker 2: makes sense. Then why are you shutting down that money

786
00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:15,080
Speaker 2: maker and the other kitchen and front of house are like,

787
00:46:15,640 --> 00:46:19,239
Speaker 2: are still there, still doing production? Like not touched by

788
00:46:19,280 --> 00:46:19,799
Speaker 2: this at all.

789
00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:22,040
Speaker 4: Yeah.

790
00:46:22,120 --> 00:46:24,040
Speaker 1: And that's one of these things you get with employers

791
00:46:24,080 --> 00:46:26,160
Speaker 1: all the time where it's like, well, okay, so employers

792
00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:29,719
Speaker 1: very very clearly and obviously know where the money is made.

793
00:46:29,719 --> 00:46:32,400
Speaker 1: They know exactly where the money is made, literally up

794
00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:35,040
Speaker 1: until the moments that you start asking from more of

795
00:46:35,080 --> 00:46:37,759
Speaker 1: the money you're making them, at which point suddenly like,

796
00:46:37,840 --> 00:46:40,400
Speaker 1: oh who knows where money comes from?

797
00:46:41,200 --> 00:46:44,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you have no money, even though the CEO

798
00:46:44,960 --> 00:46:47,400
Speaker 2: has like at least three teslas.

799
00:46:47,880 --> 00:46:49,760
Speaker 1: Totally oh my god.

800
00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:52,840
Speaker 4: Yeah, like Katie Pope can't take a little bit of

801
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:54,759
Speaker 4: a pay cut so that you know, we can all

802
00:46:54,840 --> 00:46:57,120
Speaker 4: keep our jobs and you know, survive.

803
00:46:57,840 --> 00:46:58,840
Speaker 3: It's wild.

804
00:46:59,360 --> 00:47:01,120
Speaker 1: Yeah. And and I mean this is one of the

805
00:47:01,120 --> 00:47:04,400
Speaker 1: other things too, is that like businesses, you know, this

806
00:47:04,480 --> 00:47:07,719
Speaker 1: is this is the the way capitalism works, is that

807
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:13,279
Speaker 1: businesses would rather fucking lose money than have their employees

808
00:47:13,440 --> 00:47:17,680
Speaker 1: have slightly like not be intobilitating pain, not be sick,

809
00:47:17,760 --> 00:47:19,240
Speaker 1: and get slightly more money.

810
00:47:20,719 --> 00:47:20,919
Speaker 2: Yep.

811
00:47:23,160 --> 00:47:25,759
Speaker 4: It is crazy to me because this whole you know,

812
00:47:25,800 --> 00:47:29,160
Speaker 4: they're they're hiring all these lawyers to to you know,

813
00:47:30,239 --> 00:47:33,080
Speaker 4: you know, handle the union stuff, and I'm like, you

814
00:47:33,120 --> 00:47:35,239
Speaker 4: shut down Red Kitchen, you hire these lawyers, You're doing

815
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:37,240
Speaker 4: all these efforts, and I'm like, you would have saved

816
00:47:37,360 --> 00:47:41,400
Speaker 4: so much money if you just recognize our fucking union.

817
00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:43,600
Speaker 3: Like that's how easy it is, you know.

818
00:47:44,080 --> 00:47:48,400
Speaker 2: And not only that, we have what five shops in Portland,

819
00:47:48,600 --> 00:47:51,520
Speaker 2: we have a shop in la as well, Los Angeles

820
00:47:51,760 --> 00:47:57,360
Speaker 2: where prices are extravagant, Like they have money. We know

821
00:47:57,520 --> 00:48:01,120
Speaker 2: they have money, and we're honestly at the point, I'm

822
00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:03,799
Speaker 2: at the point of show me your books, show me,

823
00:48:04,120 --> 00:48:06,360
Speaker 2: prove to me that you do not have this money,

824
00:48:06,800 --> 00:48:10,640
Speaker 2: because then that will be a different discussion. Like it's

825
00:48:10,840 --> 00:48:20,160
Speaker 2: just it's frustrating. It's typical corporate business and I'm over it.

826
00:48:20,280 --> 00:48:22,319
Speaker 2: And the I'm over it for how they treated me.

827
00:48:22,440 --> 00:48:26,080
Speaker 2: I'm over how they treat my friends, my team. It's

828
00:48:26,600 --> 00:48:31,040
Speaker 2: it's ridiculous and they should know better, honestly.

829
00:48:31,719 --> 00:48:35,719
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, So is there anything else that you two

830
00:48:35,719 --> 00:48:36,719
Speaker 1: want to make sure you get in?

831
00:48:37,880 --> 00:48:39,560
Speaker 3: Maybe just the gofund me?

832
00:48:40,239 --> 00:48:43,160
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah? How can how can people support you support

833
00:48:43,200 --> 00:48:43,640
Speaker 1: the union?

834
00:48:45,040 --> 00:48:45,279
Speaker 2: Yeah?

835
00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:47,440
Speaker 4: So we have a go fund me setup for the

836
00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:50,680
Speaker 4: six furload workers to provide a month's worth of income

837
00:48:51,440 --> 00:48:56,680
Speaker 4: two weeks for the employees who quit early, and that

838
00:48:56,800 --> 00:49:00,640
Speaker 4: is it's called help loose our employees, fighting investing. And

839
00:49:00,840 --> 00:49:03,520
Speaker 4: right now we're at just under one thousand dollars. Our

840
00:49:03,560 --> 00:49:06,279
Speaker 4: goal for all six of those people's incomes for a

841
00:49:06,320 --> 00:49:10,560
Speaker 4: month is fifteen thousand, just under sixteen thousand. You know,

842
00:49:10,680 --> 00:49:13,279
Speaker 4: I don't know if we'll ever reach that goal, but

843
00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:15,279
Speaker 4: you know, the as much as we can get is

844
00:49:15,320 --> 00:49:19,240
Speaker 4: great because right now, you know, I'm surviving on cereal.

845
00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:22,640
Speaker 4: I know that the shift leads we were talking about earlier.

846
00:49:22,680 --> 00:49:25,719
Speaker 4: You know, they're getting groceries from lydia. People are struggling.

847
00:49:26,200 --> 00:49:29,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was definitely in my survivor era on rice

848
00:49:29,800 --> 00:49:33,600
Speaker 2: and beans. It was it's really tough, and you know,

849
00:49:34,120 --> 00:49:37,480
Speaker 2: it is a big goal, realistically it is. But you know,

850
00:49:37,600 --> 00:49:41,120
Speaker 2: not to sound desperate or anything, but truly, every little

851
00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:43,960
Speaker 2: bit helps. If you can really only afford five or

852
00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:47,280
Speaker 2: ten bucks, we'll take it. That is, we're so grateful

853
00:49:47,360 --> 00:49:53,800
Speaker 2: for anything, and it's it's people's lives. It's literally people's lives.

854
00:49:54,239 --> 00:49:56,960
Speaker 2: Multiple people are facing not being able to have a

855
00:49:57,040 --> 00:50:02,799
Speaker 2: roof over their head because of this, So truly any

856
00:50:02,840 --> 00:50:04,960
Speaker 2: little bit helps.

857
00:50:04,520 --> 00:50:09,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, so please go help them out. I I don't know.

858
00:50:09,360 --> 00:50:12,880
Speaker 3: This it it's.

859
00:50:12,320 --> 00:50:15,960
Speaker 1: Just really really brutal too. And especially like again, like

860
00:50:16,520 --> 00:50:19,919
Speaker 1: this is also a fucking terrible time, Like there's there's

861
00:50:19,920 --> 00:50:22,640
Speaker 1: never a good time to like be at risk of

862
00:50:22,680 --> 00:50:26,120
Speaker 1: losing your home. Uh, winter is especially fucking bad for that.

863
00:50:26,440 --> 00:50:28,640
Speaker 1: There are yeah, so there there's so many. There are

864
00:50:28,680 --> 00:50:31,520
Speaker 1: so many sort of terrible compounding things that these union

865
00:50:31,640 --> 00:50:34,600
Speaker 1: that these union busting companies are sort of relying on

866
00:50:34,760 --> 00:50:39,680
Speaker 1: to screw over and intimidate and hurt the people who

867
00:50:39,719 --> 00:50:40,960
Speaker 1: make them all their fucking money.

868
00:50:41,960 --> 00:50:43,160
Speaker 3: So well, and that's what it did.

869
00:50:43,200 --> 00:50:46,480
Speaker 4: It scared a lot of people into unfortunately voting no.

870
00:50:46,600 --> 00:50:48,920
Speaker 4: It scared a lot of people who were really involved,

871
00:50:49,280 --> 00:50:52,279
Speaker 4: you know, in the organizing process to step back and

872
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:54,759
Speaker 4: and you know, not respond to our text messages and

873
00:50:54,760 --> 00:50:58,200
Speaker 4: not continue to advocate for the union. It you know

874
00:50:58,280 --> 00:51:02,680
Speaker 4: that us getting furloughed really fucked with our whole union campaign.

875
00:51:03,840 --> 00:51:07,279
Speaker 1: So yeah, go go go give go, go, give these

876
00:51:07,280 --> 00:51:10,520
Speaker 1: workers your supports they really need it, and yeah go

877
00:51:10,719 --> 00:51:14,239
Speaker 1: you know, and one thing again like that needs to

878
00:51:14,280 --> 00:51:16,279
Speaker 1: sort of we need to sort of emphasize is that

879
00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:19,440
Speaker 1: this is illegal. They cannot fucking they legally cannot do

880
00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:23,160
Speaker 1: this but you know this is this is one of

881
00:51:23,239 --> 00:51:25,680
Speaker 1: the things that is fucking hard about union organizing is

882
00:51:25,719 --> 00:51:30,319
Speaker 1: that the law, assuming the law does like ever, fucking

883
00:51:30,360 --> 00:51:31,959
Speaker 1: catch up to these people. It takes time.

884
00:51:33,000 --> 00:51:36,160
Speaker 2: And yeah, there is one little thing I do want

885
00:51:36,239 --> 00:51:40,120
Speaker 2: to make sure people know about because we just found

886
00:51:40,120 --> 00:51:43,200
Speaker 2: this out pretty recently while we were doing shop visits.

887
00:51:43,360 --> 00:51:47,640
Speaker 2: They have jars for tips that say tips are shared

888
00:51:47,680 --> 00:51:48,320
Speaker 2: with the kitchen.

889
00:51:48,760 --> 00:51:52,280
Speaker 3: They're not. Yeah, that's not true. This is not true.

890
00:51:52,440 --> 00:51:55,520
Speaker 2: We saw no tips and there was an instance where

891
00:51:55,560 --> 00:51:59,239
Speaker 2: we accidentally got tips, and one by one we were

892
00:51:59,280 --> 00:52:02,480
Speaker 2: sent to the back to sign a form saying this

893
00:52:02,760 --> 00:52:06,440
Speaker 2: was an accident. You are not gain tips. Sign this,

894
00:52:07,040 --> 00:52:13,279
Speaker 2: and they took our tips away. It's not fair. And

895
00:52:13,360 --> 00:52:15,520
Speaker 2: on top of that, they're lying to the public. They're

896
00:52:15,600 --> 00:52:18,279
Speaker 2: lying to their customers that kitchen is gain tips when

897
00:52:18,320 --> 00:52:18,640
Speaker 2: we're not.

898
00:52:19,880 --> 00:52:24,160
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I will say, in addition to the GoFundMe,

899
00:52:24,600 --> 00:52:26,719
Speaker 4: we do have you know, if you're not able to

900
00:52:26,719 --> 00:52:30,080
Speaker 4: support monetarily, we do have a Twitter and an Instagram

901
00:52:30,280 --> 00:52:32,479
Speaker 4: where we post updates if you want to follow along

902
00:52:32,520 --> 00:52:34,840
Speaker 4: with our progress and see, you know, how our election

903
00:52:34,960 --> 00:52:38,120
Speaker 4: goes and everything. It's just on both Twitter and or

904
00:52:38,120 --> 00:52:43,239
Speaker 4: excuse me x and Instagram. It is at DWU Underscore

905
00:52:43,320 --> 00:52:43,799
Speaker 4: Blue Star.

906
00:52:44,120 --> 00:52:46,200
Speaker 1: So yeah, well we'll we'll have links to all this

907
00:52:46,239 --> 00:52:47,840
Speaker 1: out of the description awesome.

908
00:52:47,920 --> 00:52:51,040
Speaker 2: Word of mouth is really the biggest thing, even going

909
00:52:51,040 --> 00:52:56,080
Speaker 2: off again, like, if you can't support us financially, you

910
00:52:56,120 --> 00:52:59,560
Speaker 2: can just share the GoFundMe through friends, family, whoever, and

911
00:52:59,680 --> 00:53:00,840
Speaker 2: just it out there.

912
00:53:01,960 --> 00:53:05,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so go go go do that. Yeah, go

913
00:53:05,480 --> 00:53:09,120
Speaker 1: help any way you can. And yeah, go go go

914
00:53:09,160 --> 00:53:12,600
Speaker 1: fight your own bosses because they're screwing yous, like screwing

915
00:53:12,640 --> 00:53:15,960
Speaker 1: you in very similar ways. What's happening here? Two? Yeah,

916
00:53:16,000 --> 00:53:18,160
Speaker 1: and this is the spinnaket happen here. You can find

917
00:53:18,239 --> 00:53:21,040
Speaker 1: us at Twitter and Instagram at happen here pod and

918
00:53:21,280 --> 00:53:25,880
Speaker 1: you can find more Clozobdia shows at closeid Media. Yeah

919
00:53:26,080 --> 00:53:28,760
Speaker 1: go go go into the world and make life worse

920
00:53:28,880 --> 00:53:30,360
Speaker 1: for people who do terrible stuff.

921
00:53:35,960 --> 00:53:38,320
Speaker 2: It could happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.

922
00:53:38,560 --> 00:53:41,200
Speaker 3: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website

923
00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:43,520
Speaker 3: cool Zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the

924
00:53:43,520 --> 00:53:47,120
Speaker 3: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

925
00:53:47,360 --> 00:53:49,440
Speaker 2: You can find sources for it could Happen Here. Updated

926
00:53:49,560 --> 00:53:53,600
Speaker 2: monthly at cool zonemedia dot com Slash Sources thanks for listening.