Speaker 1: Also media welcome, Dick. It appen here at the podcast
Speaker 1: that we're starting as if it was a nomal podcast
Speaker 1: instead of doing some terrible thing like we normally do.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Bia Wong. This is a podcast about
Speaker 1: things falling apart, and this is a putting it back
Speaker 1: together again episode. Yeah, and I'm I'm here with two
Speaker 1: workers from Donut Workers United, specifically at Blue Star Donuts,
Speaker 1: Lydia and Ben, to talk about unionization efforts and some
Speaker 1: really terrible union busting stuff. So Lydia, Ben, welcome to
Speaker 1: the show.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you for having us. Super excited.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm really excited to have you two here. So
Speaker 1: all right, So Blue Star Donuts is a donut place
Speaker 1: in Portland's for people who are not in Portland's question mark,
Speaker 1: which is probably a lot of you. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know where you are right now. So I
Speaker 1: guess the place I wanted to start with talking about
Speaker 1: this is how did you two get involved with this campaign?
Speaker 3: You know, it's actually for me. It was right before Halloween.
Speaker 4: I went to a coworker's house and you know, we
Speaker 4: had some drinks and hung out and she just sort
Speaker 4: of you know, the conversation just sort of organically led
Speaker 4: to work and talking about work and you know, this
Speaker 4: is messed up at work, this is frustrating us. And
Speaker 4: then she was like, hey, like, what's your opinion on
Speaker 4: you know, union stuff? And I actually had when I
Speaker 4: worked at Starbucks in Texas, I had tried to unionize
Speaker 4: my location and it didn't no one was interested, but
Speaker 4: I you know, they She asked us if we wanted
Speaker 4: to sign a union card or union authorization card, and
Speaker 4: I was all for it.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm very into it. So that's that's how
Speaker 3: it started for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So bouncing off of that, it was, I would say,
Speaker 2: a couple of days before that Halloween party. For me,
Speaker 2: I'm pretty close friends with the woman who started all
Speaker 2: of this, and so I was visiting her and she
Speaker 2: just kind of briefly mentioned She's like, hey, do you
Speaker 2: know what's going on with Blue Star and kind of
Speaker 2: open ended question, and you know this company, almost every
Speaker 2: day something happens. So I was like, I mean, maybe
Speaker 2: maybe not what's going on? And she's like, well, like
Speaker 2: are you good with unions? And I'm like, oh, girl,
Speaker 2: of course I am. I was actually involved with a
Speaker 2: union in a previous job that was more higher end
Speaker 2: like government board specific instead of an individual and I
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, it hit me what's going on. And
Speaker 2: she's like, okay, cool, we have a couple of people
Speaker 2: interested trying to unionize Blue Star and I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: sign me up, Like let's do this thing. And then
Speaker 2: at that Halloween already when we were all kind of
Speaker 2: gathered there, we briefly talked about it and how messed
Speaker 2: up things were, swalk stories and it just kind of
Speaker 2: click that leads to my brain of like okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: let's do this. So that was that was my end.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems like it was a really a pretty
Speaker 1: quick campaign. I know you all had an election. Oh
Speaker 1: how many weeks ago?
Speaker 2: Was that like.
Speaker 3: Two weeks and half? Two weeks ago?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess it'll be like three when this goes out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's that's a very very quick campaign. How many
Speaker 1: people like ish are are at the shop.
Speaker 4: It depends on if you're adding like all the satellites
Speaker 4: and versus like the regular Flagship store. I think we
Speaker 4: have thirty something at Flagship, which is the location on Jefferson,
Speaker 4: and then I think there's maybe fifty one employees total.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're pretty scattered around all of Portland, with one
Speaker 2: shop in Lake Oswego, but majority of us are in
Speaker 2: headquarters at Flagship. Yeah.
Speaker 1: That's something I think is pretty interesting about this campaign
Speaker 1: and about a lot of the independent campaigns, is that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's shops that are it's shops that are pretty small,
Speaker 1: shops that are split around, and it shops that, like,
Speaker 1: you know it shops with high turnover. Now I was wondering, well, actually,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm assuming you get high turnover.
Speaker 2: There is a lot of turnover in the satellite shops
Speaker 2: for sure.
Speaker 4: I mean I would even say that there was a
Speaker 4: fair amount of turnover at Flagship. You know, we had
Speaker 4: a time where in our kitchen, which is the wholesale
Speaker 4: kitchen which makes the doughnut bites. We refer to it
Speaker 4: as Red Kitchen, we had four people quit in four
Speaker 4: days jesushost. They didn't Yeah, they didn't replace those people
Speaker 4: to continue working than producing the same amount with four
Speaker 4: less people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but there were you know.
Speaker 4: A lot of like poached wororker like temporary workers that
Speaker 4: were coming and going while I was there.
Speaker 3: And yeah, some pretty serious turnover.
Speaker 2: That kind of happened with me. Last year, I was
Speaker 2: working at Blue Star for like about eight months. Oh
Speaker 2: it's the new year, I guess two years ago. And
Speaker 2: then I quit. I left, and then unfortunately last year
Speaker 2: I hit a little unemployment zone and I'm like, I
Speaker 2: need a job. So I came back to Blue Star
Speaker 2: for about three months and this is when everything was
Speaker 2: going on. But long story short, sorry, last time I
Speaker 2: was there, we kind of had a little bit of
Speaker 2: turnover as well. A lot of people were not great,
Speaker 2: and we had a lot of meetings and got some
Speaker 2: people fired. Granted, like Ben was saying, is that no
Speaker 2: one replaced them, and so it's very much of like
Speaker 2: we have to cover them and a lot more quantity.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so has the sort of speed ups from that
Speaker 1: was that one of the main things that was driving
Speaker 1: the unionization or like what other kinds of things were
Speaker 1: like driving people into this.
Speaker 3: There were a few things, a few main things.
Speaker 4: Pay and inconsistency of pay was a real big issue.
Speaker 4: For instance, there was a person in our kitchen who
Speaker 4: me and her started around the same time. We had
Speaker 4: very similar previous experience. Neither of us were cross trained.
Speaker 4: We did the same exact job she was making three
Speaker 4: dollars an hour more than I was. And so that
Speaker 4: kind of thing happens a lot at Blue Star. And
Speaker 4: there's one of the biggest things for me, honestly, was
Speaker 4: the point system, what they call the point system the
Speaker 4: disciplinary system at Blue Starly, you get a certain amount
Speaker 4: of points that you're allowed to hit. If you go
Speaker 4: over that amount of points, you're done, you're fired, and
Speaker 4: you can get h you know, I don't remember the
Speaker 4: numbers exactly, but it's like one point for calling out
Speaker 4: of a shift, half a point for being ten minutes late.
Speaker 3: Geez.
Speaker 4: There's all these things that you can earn. Yeah, there's
Speaker 4: all these things that you can earn points for. And
Speaker 4: it you know, if you reach that number eight, it
Speaker 4: doesn't really matter how good of an employee you are,
Speaker 4: you're fired.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And on top of that, with the point system,
Speaker 2: it's incredibly unfair because you get points due to things
Speaker 2: you can't control, like the weathering.
Speaker 3: It's very able.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the main issue, what's traffic and crashes. If
Speaker 2: like a car crash happens and you're stuck in that
Speaker 2: you and you're like late to work because of it,
Speaker 2: even when you like let your managers know and let
Speaker 2: your team. Know, you still get punished for it and
Speaker 2: you get points and that counts to the eight point total.
Speaker 2: So that was a main part of the point system
Speaker 2: that really really had us upset and very unfair, honestly.
Speaker 4: Well, and it's very it's a very ablest system. I
Speaker 4: mean there were multiple people in our kitchen alone that
Speaker 4: had chronic illness issues, ye, myself included. And I there
Speaker 4: were two nights when in the three ish months that
Speaker 4: I was working there, two days where I had not
Speaker 4: slept it all the night before and I was literally
Speaker 4: not seeing straight, like I was seeing double. I couldn't
Speaker 4: walk in a straight line like I was not okay,
Speaker 4: And you know, there's some heavy machinery and like some
Speaker 4: really hot oil in the kitchen, and I was like,
Speaker 4: I really don't think I'm safe to come to work.
Speaker 4: And they're like, that's fine, you know, stay home, get
Speaker 4: some rest, but you are getting a point.
Speaker 3: What the And yeah, so you know, a very ablest system.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and going off with that as well, whole sick
Speaker 2: time and PTO was a mess. And when we get
Speaker 2: like paid time off, it won't even cover a whole shift.
Speaker 2: We'll be lucky to get four hours. Yeah, no, it's
Speaker 2: it's insane really, and so I'll never forget. Like just recently,
Speaker 2: our special Christmas prize thing, our grand prize on the
Speaker 2: twelfth day was two hours pto.
Speaker 3: Two hours congratulations.
Speaker 2: And sick time too. Yeah, there were super proper like
Speaker 2: we were so hard for this, you deserve this, blah
Speaker 2: blah blah. And with sick time it like will barely
Speaker 2: cover a day. And on top of that, if you're
Speaker 2: like sincerely sick, I got bronchitis on my birthday and
Speaker 2: I had to leave work for like a week, And
Speaker 2: around the like second or third day, my manager is like, okay,
Speaker 2: well for you to be excused properly, you have to
Speaker 2: go back and get a doctor's note from them and
Speaker 2: to prove that you are not able to come into work.
Speaker 2: And you know, I could ramble on like they they
Speaker 2: don't handle COVID. Well, they're like, if you can stand up,
Speaker 2: you can slap on a mask and come into work.
Speaker 2: And COVID specifically spread so quickly there because people were
Speaker 2: so scared of not coming to work that they would
Speaker 2: get punished and get points. This then the other that
Speaker 2: sick people will come into work and get other people sick.
Speaker 2: It happened, yeah, all the time.
Speaker 4: I mean I can think of specifically. We had a
Speaker 4: coworker who, you know, kind of young. This was you know,
Speaker 4: she was kind of getting her feet wet in the
Speaker 4: working world, and she had had some issues with illness,
Speaker 4: and she came to work with strep throat. Yeah, because
Speaker 4: she was so afraid of getting I mean she literally
Speaker 4: was like in tears, like having a breakdown to the
Speaker 4: managers because she was like, I can't get fired, Like
Speaker 4: I need to keep this job, and I'm afraid that
Speaker 4: if I don't come in, I'm going to get fired.
Speaker 4: And that's the kind of culture they create there with
Speaker 4: that disciplinary system.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's really rough because majority of these workers
Speaker 2: rely on this job, like this job is their income
Speaker 2: and they can't really do anything else. And it's so
Speaker 2: incredibly toxic there where they're just so afraid to not
Speaker 2: come into work because they will be punished over it.
Speaker 1: It kind of goes without saying which we as you
Speaker 1: should say it, which is like it is unbelievably discussing
Speaker 1: to literally put people's lives in danger because you don't
Speaker 1: want to let someone take like a few days off
Speaker 1: because they have fucking stripped Like that's unbelievable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, over like peace and love to Blue Star, but
Speaker 2: over donuts like donut bite yeah, like yeah, like like
Speaker 2: I don't, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't think it's okay to make
Speaker 1: like nurses go in when they're sick, but like donuts,
Speaker 1: like this is oh my god, like.
Speaker 4: You know, as you know, who cares if we're suffering
Speaker 4: as long as they make their bottom line?
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, It's really one of those things. It's like yes,
Speaker 1: like they will survive if slightly less donuts are produced,
Speaker 1: like they will be fine. However, Comma all over here
Speaker 1: are getting terribly sick because of all the ship that
Speaker 1: is that is terrible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, like I laugh all the time about it,
Speaker 2: and I, you know, my roommate and I are like
Speaker 2: best friends. I come home almost every day from those
Speaker 2: shifts being like you'll never guess what happened over like
Speaker 2: the most craziest hilarious things. I'm like, I can't believe
Speaker 2: this is real, Like I'm experiencing this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we are going to talk more about the
Speaker 1: absolutely wild stuff that happened here. Unfortunately after we come
Speaker 1: back from this ad break that pays some of the
Speaker 1: bills question Mark we are back. So yeah, I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask about some of the other stuff that's been
Speaker 1: happening at this shop, because everything that I've ever heard
Speaker 1: about is just like, I don't know, just deeply weird.
Speaker 1: And it's well, I guess, I guess one place we
Speaker 1: can sort of story. It's like it seems like it's
Speaker 1: one of these places where they, I don't know, it
Speaker 1: has this very sort of like progressive eveneer around it,
Speaker 1: and then when it comes time to like you know,
Speaker 1: like like even sort of live up to those ideals,
Speaker 1: you just get this. Everyone's forced to come home with COVID.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's it's so funny because you walk in
Speaker 4: and you know, there's there's pride flags there, you know,
Speaker 4: all all of the workers are you know, queer and
Speaker 4: cool and progressive, and you know they're supporting the Portland Teachers' Union.
Speaker 3: And yet you know, and this story is just disgusting.
Speaker 4: We had a worker in our kitchen, actually in Lydia,
Speaker 4: in a nice kitchen, who sexually assaulted two of our coworkers.
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ.
Speaker 4: Yes, these these women brought it forward to management. Management
Speaker 4: victim blamed, they thanked them for keeping it quiet and
Speaker 4: not letting it interfere with their work. Yeah, it was
Speaker 4: not handled well. That was specifically the manager of Red Kitchen,
Speaker 4: Britney Bergner. A lot of just really like callous and
Speaker 4: inappropriate mishandling of that situation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it was really disgusting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was disgusting. And I was so so grateful
Speaker 2: that I wasn't there when this happened, because I would
Speaker 2: literally toward this man apart. But the thing with that
Speaker 2: manager is that him and her got along really well,
Speaker 2: and what I've heard I wasn't there. I heard that
Speaker 2: there was some favoritism towards him, and so when these
Speaker 2: allegations came up, that's when she got She mishandled it
Speaker 2: a lot, and it was not dealt with properly at all,
Speaker 2: and it seemed very much swept under rug kind of
Speaker 2: very much. So yeah, he did.
Speaker 3: Nobody talked about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he did get fired eventually, but eventually that's the
Speaker 2: main thing. Yeah, and was handled right away.
Speaker 4: And the you know the effect it had on these
Speaker 4: women that came forward that this happened to. I mean
Speaker 4: I I hung out with them outside of work where
Speaker 4: they would talk about you know what happened and how
Speaker 4: it was handled, and like you know, they were sobbing,
Speaker 4: they were you know, their lives were torn apart over this.
Speaker 4: I mean it's a very serious thing. As you know,
Speaker 4: we all know, to be sexually assaulted and then you know,
Speaker 4: to have it treated this way by someone who's in
Speaker 4: a position of authority over you, it's you know, I
Speaker 4: can't help but keep using that word disgusting. It's just
Speaker 4: it's inhumane and honestly, like that's blue.
Speaker 2: Star, Yeah, especially by a company that reaches how open
Speaker 2: and awesome and those family we are, and then behind
Speaker 2: the scenes they're actually mistreating their workers literally every single day.
Speaker 2: So it's it is, it is disgusting. I have no
Speaker 2: other word to describe it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's like someone's sexually assaulting you and
Speaker 1: then them not being fired means you can fucking run
Speaker 1: into them at your job, which is like the fucking
Speaker 1: just absolute nightmare shit. That is like the worst fucking
Speaker 1: shit that can happen.
Speaker 3: And we all worked in the same kitchen.
Speaker 4: We all worked in the same kitchen, so we were
Speaker 4: guaranteed to see each other for most of the day
Speaker 4: every day, and it's like, yeah, you know, you expect
Speaker 4: these women to go to work and stare at this
Speaker 4: guy and and you know, talk and laugh with this
Speaker 4: guy who assaulted them, Like that's crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's absolutely fucking terrible. And I hope, I hope,
Speaker 1: like I hope fucking like some shit happens to these
Speaker 1: people because like God.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, don worry. We got him banned from some
Speaker 2: bars because classic thing is drugging drinks Jesus Christ. So
Speaker 2: We've spread the word and got flyers, and I'm pretty
Speaker 2: sure he's banned I know for sure too bars, but
Speaker 2: I think others as well.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, don't get me wrong. I will definitely go
Speaker 2: out of my way to destroy a man's life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so I guess, like you know, with with
Speaker 1: just like the absolute fucking horrifying shake going on, and
Speaker 1: also with YouTube, like you know, people doing organizing outside
Speaker 1: of the workplace to go after these people, it may
Speaker 1: it makes it makes a lot of sense that, you know,
Speaker 1: the unionization campaign has been going, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask I want, well, I guess I wanted to talk
Speaker 1: about sort of the vote and the stuff leading up
Speaker 1: to the vote and the things that happened to YouTube
Speaker 1: because oh my god.
Speaker 3: Yep, yeah, you know.
Speaker 4: We we had our vot on January seventeenth. There were
Speaker 4: seven votes that were left unopened that were challenged by
Speaker 4: Blue Star management. Three of them because the employees were
Speaker 4: no longer active employees, and four of them for honestly
Speaker 4: just like completely bullshit reasons, like they had to get
Speaker 4: a new envelope.
Speaker 3: You know, they they were there before the vote, but.
Speaker 4: Like seven minutes after the cutoff that you know that
Speaker 4: Blue Star wanted one person had to get a new ballot,
Speaker 4: and you know, it's like, these are technicalities that really
Speaker 4: should not prevent someone from having their vote counted. And
Speaker 4: so we as DW Blue Star objected to six of
Speaker 4: those challenges, the four that were very ticky tachi for
Speaker 4: obvious reasons. And that was the weekend that was the
Speaker 4: week of the big snow snowstorm.
Speaker 1: As well, we should talk for people who weren't in
Speaker 1: Portland for this. Okay, So the city of Portland, this
Speaker 1: is the thing I have heard. I am a Chicagoan,
Speaker 1: so like I grew up in snowstorms, right the city
Speaker 1: of Portland, Like this is I get, this is this
Speaker 1: is this is this is the this is the the
Speaker 1: Mia rants about the city of Portland for about five
Speaker 1: minutes thing because, oh my fucking god, the city of
Speaker 1: Portland does not actually substantively do any kind of like
Speaker 1: street clearing. They don't do salt. They don't really I
Speaker 1: think they might have like two snowplows. And this means that,
Speaker 1: you know, when it, for example, snows, and then the
Speaker 1: temperature goes back up and goes freezing, then it goes
Speaker 1: back down below freezing, the entire city is covered in
Speaker 1: a sheet of ice. And this lasts for days and
Speaker 1: days and days and days. It is terrible. I came
Speaker 1: into Portland's like in the middle of this, like you
Speaker 1: you walk three steps and you're just going flying on
Speaker 1: this ice. It is terrible. It is dangerous to drive,
Speaker 1: It is dangerous to walk. It is it is dangerous
Speaker 1: to scoot on your butt like terrible. I don't know,
Speaker 1: Like if you did this in Chicago, if the city
Speaker 1: of Chicago failed to clear the streets sufficiently that this
Speaker 1: was happening, the government would be would fucking collapse in
Speaker 1: a week.
Speaker 3: Portland, you deserve better.
Speaker 2: I personally would have preferred snow, like six feet of
Speaker 2: snow over a half ice that inane the whole entire
Speaker 2: city shuts down, and it's it is incredibly dangerous for sure,
Speaker 2: and the city does not prepare for it. The city,
Speaker 2: like landscape itself is not prepared for it. And yeah,
Speaker 2: it's awful. I tripped and fell like three times within
Speaker 2: a week, and my room and I were literally locked
Speaker 2: into our house for days, like four maybe five days.
Speaker 2: We could not leave. And on top of that, we
Speaker 2: had to turn our water off, like it was a
Speaker 2: whole night.
Speaker 1: There so many, so many people lost power, so many
Speaker 1: people's like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Roath and the NLRB building itself was shut down
Speaker 2: for I don't remember how long, but it was shut down,
Speaker 2: and so it was.
Speaker 4: It was shut down for most of that week leading
Speaker 4: up to the vote. Our vote was on a Thursday,
Speaker 4: and I think Thursday was the first day that the
Speaker 4: actual office was open. There might have been some people
Speaker 4: there on Wednesday, but the office itself was closed the
Speaker 4: you know, Monday was Martin Luther King Junior Day, so
Speaker 4: that it was close closed. But you know, I tried
Speaker 4: to take you know, I in my little hatchback with
Speaker 4: two two wheel drive hatchbag tried to drive across Portland
Speaker 4: to take people to the office to turn in their
Speaker 4: their ballots, and because we were doing a mail in ballot,
Speaker 4: but some people had left it at the last minute,
Speaker 4: you know, as human beings do.
Speaker 3: And we we.
Speaker 4: Get you know, we drive across this ice and snow.
Speaker 3: We get to the NLRB office.
Speaker 4: There's security guards in the lobby and they say, well,
Speaker 4: you can't go up there as closed.
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, what about tomorrow.
Speaker 4: They're like, we don't know, we'll be here, but we
Speaker 4: can't guarantee that, you know, the nler.
Speaker 3: Office will be here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And so I call up our rep at the NLRB,
Speaker 4: Michael Moles, and I say, hey, like, what's the deal.
Speaker 3: When can we drop these off?
Speaker 4: And he goes, well, actually, you know, you can drop
Speaker 4: them off when we're not there. You can slide them
Speaker 4: under the door, you know, as long as it's the person,
Speaker 4: you know, as long as the person whose ballot is
Speaker 4: being turned in is turning in the ballot, like, you
Speaker 4: can't send someone else to do it for you.
Speaker 3: So we go back up.
Speaker 4: On Wednesday and get some turned in and you know,
Speaker 4: at this point, the people who wanted to turn in
Speaker 4: on Tuesday.
Speaker 3: They've got you know, they've got work.
Speaker 4: They've got other things going on, they have to find
Speaker 4: a time to get in. So we're going like Thursday morning,
Speaker 4: Thursday afternoon, right before the vote. And that's why all
Speaker 4: of these votes were you know, missing things or you
Speaker 4: know a little bit late. Is because the whole city
Speaker 4: was shut down for half a week, almost a week,
Speaker 4: and things got you know, messed up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like the fact that the City of Portland doesn't
Speaker 1: does not like refuses to buy snowplows and doesn't know
Speaker 1: that you can use be juice is an anti ice thing.
Speaker 1: Like the fact that the fact, the fact that the
Speaker 1: fact that the city leadership is utterly incompetent like should
Speaker 1: not should not be a reason why your union vote
Speaker 1: doesn't your votes don't get counted.
Speaker 3: That is absolutely absurd.
Speaker 1: It's also like, you know, I mean, like okay, like
Speaker 1: I get like the responsible thing to do dream this
Speaker 1: storm was to close and a lot of places were
Speaker 1: fucking open, and that is a disaster. But the fact
Speaker 1: that the LRB is closed and all workers are still
Speaker 1: having to go to work is like, just oh god.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 4: And I emailed or I called Michael Males again, our
Speaker 4: rep at the NLRB, and I was like, hey, like
Speaker 4: this is kind of unprecedented, Like, can we push the
Speaker 4: vote out like a week just to make sure that
Speaker 4: everyone can safely get their ballots in. And he told me,
Speaker 4: in no uncertain terms that we would not be doing that.
Speaker 4: He gave me this, you know, long speech about how
Speaker 4: hard it is, how difficult it is, how you know,
Speaker 4: we have to get all these permissions. And you know,
Speaker 4: I'm fairly new to all the legal avenues and legal
Speaker 4: parts of union and stuff, and so I didn't really
Speaker 4: have a counter argument. So I was just like, you know,
Speaker 4: throw my hands up, Okay, whatever, we'll do our best.
Speaker 2: Well. At the time, people are literally risking their lives. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and to drive cars. They're risking their cars, They're risking
Speaker 2: their lives trying to get these votes in. So that's
Speaker 2: why this appeal to these challenges are so important that
Speaker 2: it's not fair if we don't count in a full
Speaker 2: ice storm and the actual we have to account for that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So like all these things matter and should count, and
Speaker 2: that's why we're really pushing that these votes be counted well.
Speaker 4: And two of the votes where people who had quit,
Speaker 4: and one of those was was Lydia, and she was
Speaker 4: straight up intimidated and quitting and you can lydia if
Speaker 4: you want to talk about it.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Okay, So they I use this word
Speaker 2: pretty loosely, but the more I talk about the more
Speaker 2: it's true. They forced me to quit, point blank period.
Speaker 2: They pulled me into this meeting where at Blue Star
Speaker 2: they have these every thirty day check ins and meetings
Speaker 2: to talk about like how you're doing and how's the work,
Speaker 2: et cetera. So on our ninety day check in, we
Speaker 2: are promised a raise after working here for ninety days,
Speaker 2: and but first we have to go through a whole meeting,
Speaker 2: and this whole like spectrum one through five. They rate
Speaker 2: you on different topics. So I come in and not
Speaker 2: only is my manager there, but HR and our chef
Speaker 2: is there. And last time I did in ninety day
Speaker 2: that didn't happen. It was just my manager. So immediately
Speaker 2: I'm like, what is going on? This is weird. And
Speaker 2: we went through the normal stuff until chef interrupted and
Speaker 2: brought up my schedule. So at the time I was
Speaker 2: working two jobs, Blue Star and another bakery, And before
Speaker 2: any of this I checked in with my managers and
Speaker 2: chef to make sure that this was possible and okay
Speaker 2: to put me from full time to part time at
Speaker 2: Blue Star. And they were thrilled. They were like, oh,
Speaker 2: that's so great for you. Congratulations. Yes, we can totally
Speaker 2: work with you. This is not a problem at all.
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, great, awesome. And so they brought up
Speaker 2: my schedule and they're like, so we're gonna change some
Speaker 2: things with Red Kitchen and we're going to change production
Speaker 2: times and we're going to bump everything up a couple hours.
Speaker 2: Totally fine, Okay, I get it. And I said, I'm like, okay, well,
Speaker 2: you know I work until one pm, so you know
Speaker 2: I'm not available to be here until like two. And
Speaker 2: apparently that was an issue because my schedule, my availability
Speaker 2: is no longer working for them, which doesn't make sense
Speaker 2: because a closing shift still exists. And I'm I told them,
Speaker 2: I'm like, you can use me. I am part time,
Speaker 2: you can use me for like four hours closing, Like
Speaker 2: I am okay with that, and they shut me down.
Speaker 2: Chef kind of clicked her teeth and was like, you know,
Speaker 2: that's not really worth it for us, and what are
Speaker 2: you doing over the holidays because this is right before
Speaker 2: our Christmas break and I. I was kind of confused.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, nothing, I'm just at home. And
Speaker 2: she's like, okay, well you should really take this time
Speaker 2: to think about your future here with us, and like
Speaker 2: kind of like stared at me, and I'm like what, Like,
Speaker 2: I what do you mean? And she's like, you know,
Speaker 2: we're changing some things around here, and we don't want
Speaker 2: to get rid of you, we don't want to fire you,
Speaker 2: but you should really think about your future here and
Speaker 2: really leaned in and emphasized that and kind of like
Speaker 2: everyone was kind of like looking at me as if like, hey,
Speaker 2: we want you to quit, but we're not allowed to
Speaker 2: like say anything like that. And I asked my manager.
Speaker 2: I was like, it kind of sounds like you're not
Speaker 2: giving me any options here. What am I supposed to
Speaker 2: just leave? And they looked at each other and they
Speaker 2: look back at me. You're like, you know, we can't
Speaker 2: really say one thing or the other, so you know,
Speaker 2: we need your decision by the first and I'm like what.
Speaker 2: I It was very it was very tense. It was
Speaker 2: very weird and awkward, and I was very confused because
Speaker 2: I never thought my job was on the line. I
Speaker 2: never thought it was gonna be jeopardized, and I kept
Speaker 2: offering them different options. That was like put me in
Speaker 2: front of house. You know, last year I was trained.
Speaker 2: I was actually supposed to be a manager in our
Speaker 2: other kitchen, but they kind of screwed me over on that.
Speaker 2: That's a whole different story. Like I know how to
Speaker 2: handle Purple Kitchen. Put me there, like I'm okay going
Speaker 2: from one job immediately into here to save time. And
Speaker 2: with every single option I was giving them, they shut
Speaker 2: me down and would not work with me at all.
Speaker 2: And then on top of that, they extended my ninety
Speaker 2: day period, and from doing that, I was no longer
Speaker 2: allowed to get a raise. And yeah, like you have
Speaker 2: to finish ninety days and you get a raise, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, period, that's the policy. Everybody knows that. But
Speaker 2: because my ninety days was extended like probation period, I
Speaker 2: was no longer allowed to get a raise.
Speaker 4: And what's funny is they extended my ninety days as well.
Speaker 4: I can talk about that more later, but this is
Speaker 4: it's just it's just odd because Red Kitchen, our kitchen,
Speaker 4: which at that point was made up of I think
Speaker 4: six people, all vocal union supporters, wore buttons every day.
Speaker 2: Yep, we were the most vocal people about it. We
Speaker 2: wore our union buttons every day. We like everybody knows that, Like,
Speaker 2: we were firm believers standing up for this union. And
Speaker 2: that kind of segues into the furlough situation where they
Speaker 2: all shut down our kitchen. They our whole entire team
Speaker 2: are six people of vocal union supporters, suddenly no job.
Speaker 1: It's incredibly messed up, and we're going to come back
Speaker 1: for more unbelievably messed up stuff after this ad break.
Speaker 3: And we're back.
Speaker 4: Going back to the votes that were challenged, The other
Speaker 4: person who quit was one of the main organized She
Speaker 4: was with her and one other person where the people
Speaker 4: who kicked off all of the organizing at Blue Star,
Speaker 4: and basically they changed around her schedule so much to
Speaker 4: kind of force her into quitting. She was very stressed
Speaker 4: with school and like just the way that they kept
Speaker 4: messing with her made her quit. Basically, she was afraid
Speaker 4: that she was going to be fired, so she went
Speaker 4: ahead and quit. And so that was that other challenged vote.
Speaker 4: But yeah, the furlough situation is wild. And I also
Speaker 4: got my probation extended. I actually filed a unfairly reor
Speaker 4: practice because of that, Because the reason they gave me
Speaker 4: for extending my probation was that I was bringing the
Speaker 4: their words on paper, bringing the vibe down by complaining
Speaker 4: about working conditions. Bringing the vibe down by complaining about
Speaker 4: working conditions, and.
Speaker 2: How ridiculous this company is. The third reasons where I'm
Speaker 2: like this must be the Truman Show, like this is
Speaker 2: not real. Where are the cameras well?
Speaker 4: And first of all, complaining about working conditions is a
Speaker 4: federally protected act. Ye, I can do that and I
Speaker 4: cannot be punished for that.
Speaker 3: It is against the law, which is why I filed
Speaker 3: the ULP.
Speaker 4: Second of all, the reason I was complaining is because
Speaker 4: they had taken us down from three to four people
Speaker 4: opening shifts to two. And the way two people work, Yeah,
Speaker 4: the way two people operates for opening shift in Red
Speaker 4: Kitchen is one person is mixing the dough and loading
Speaker 4: it into the fryer, and that is a constant thing,
Speaker 4: like you mix batches for like four hours like on
Speaker 4: like back to back to back to back to back,
Speaker 4: and the other person has to stand at the end
Speaker 4: of the conveyor belt and take the glazed bites off
Speaker 4: of the conveyor belt and put them onto trays. This
Speaker 4: is a non stop job. You cannot even walk away
Speaker 4: for a few seconds. And when you know, typically, like
Speaker 4: the best practice that was done the entire time I
Speaker 4: was there to this was that you did not do
Speaker 4: that position for more than an hour because it was
Speaker 4: physically difficult to stand in one place like that and
Speaker 4: do that and do those repetitive motions. And two, it's
Speaker 4: like fucking psychological torture because you're in the corner of
Speaker 4: this room, You're not speaking to anybody, You're literally just
Speaker 4: staring at your own hands. I mean, it's it's not
Speaker 4: like nobody likes to they call it catching. Nobody likes
Speaker 4: to catch. And I was doing this for up to
Speaker 4: three hours a day uninterrupted, and I have psiatic nerve
Speaker 4: issues with my leg and I you know, I've made
Speaker 4: them aware of this multiple multiple times. I cannot catch
Speaker 4: for more than an hour at a time, and you
Speaker 4: know what I was doing catching for three hours every day.
Speaker 1: So they're just trying to injure.
Speaker 3: So that's what I was, yes, and that's what I
Speaker 3: was complaining about. I was saying, I'm in pain.
Speaker 4: I'm literally having to go on muscle relaxers every single
Speaker 4: day because of the fact that this is having on
Speaker 4: me physically, Like I I can't sleep at night because
Speaker 4: my leg is so tense and it's in so much
Speaker 4: pain from fucking catching these donuts and putting them on trays.
Speaker 3: It's insane.
Speaker 4: And so you know, they're yet they're penalizing me for
Speaker 4: having the gall to voice the fact that what they're
Speaker 4: doing is literally ruining my quality of life.
Speaker 2: Really and going off that every single issue we bring
Speaker 2: up to management, they have the tone of like, well,
Speaker 2: that sucks, that's a bummer, deal with it, and literally, yeah,
Speaker 2: literally just like okay, and we're like, okay, fix it,
Speaker 2: because we are human beings with nerves and bones and
Speaker 2: we cannot stand on our feet for this long like
Speaker 2: it's it's wild, it is.
Speaker 4: And you know that that kind of also segues into
Speaker 4: the furlough thing that we were all very vocal on
Speaker 4: union support. You know, I had filed at this point
Speaker 4: two ulps because of the extended probation and because they
Speaker 4: suspended me for three days for something that was absurd,
Speaker 4: and I had filed two ulps, and this came like
Speaker 4: right on the heels of that second ULP. They you know,
Speaker 4: we had Christmas Day off and I had taken the
Speaker 4: next day, the Tuesday off, so I was visiting family
Speaker 4: in Dallas, and I believe everyone else had that Tuesday
Speaker 4: off as well. And we come back on that Wednesday,
Speaker 4: and you know, we're working a regular shift. About halfway
Speaker 4: through the shift, they say, okay, you know, we're having
Speaker 4: a red kitchen meeting. Everyone come into the office, which
Speaker 4: that had never happened before.
Speaker 3: We never had an all kitchen meeting like that.
Speaker 4: They pull us in and you know, we're all looking
Speaker 4: at each other on the way in like, oh fuck,
Speaker 4: what are they going to do? Like are they going
Speaker 4: to reduce our hours? Are they going to fire one
Speaker 4: of us? You know what's happening? And we get in
Speaker 4: there and head chef Stephanie Thornton says, okay, so you
Speaker 4: know we've had an issue happen. What's happened is our
Speaker 4: distributors have told us that they are returning a bunch
Speaker 4: of our product.
Speaker 3: It's you know, some of it's expired, but most of.
Speaker 4: It is just fine, but it's nearing its expiration date,
Speaker 4: so they're returning it. I'm saying that m okay, sounds fake,
Speaker 4: but okay, And then they say, unfortunately, because of this,
Speaker 4: because we don't have space in our freezer to continue
Speaker 4: to put product in the freezer, to continue to make
Speaker 4: product and put it in the freezer, we are having
Speaker 4: to put you guys on indefinite furlough. You know, we
Speaker 4: don't have a return to work date. We don't have
Speaker 4: a plan for bringing you back. You know, we asked,
Speaker 4: can we get you know, those of us who are
Speaker 4: cross trained, can we work in other areas? Can you
Speaker 4: cross train those of us who aren't, so that we
Speaker 4: can work up front or work at a satellite store
Speaker 4: you know there they are literally hiring for satellite stores.
Speaker 4: But they furlowed us, and we were asking, can we
Speaker 4: do these other things? And they said no, point blank no.
Speaker 4: So all of a sudden, you know, six people who
Speaker 4: had jobs, you know, a minute or two ago, All
Speaker 4: of a sudden, we're facing For me personally, I'm facing homelessness.
Speaker 3: That's the reality, you know. And we have too.
Speaker 4: Our two shift leads, they are a couple and they
Speaker 4: live together and like that is their entire income. And
Speaker 4: it's just on a kind of more personal note, it's wild.
Speaker 4: And maybe this is me being a little bit naive.
Speaker 4: But it's wild to have spent months in company with
Speaker 4: these people and have them pretend to care about me
Speaker 4: and then have them do something that quite literally puts
Speaker 4: my life in danger, especially because I had just signed
Speaker 4: up for healthcare with them and I have multiple chronic
Speaker 4: Illnes says, I have to go to doctors regularly, and
Speaker 4: all of a sudden, I'm like, holy shit, my life
Speaker 4: has completely changed in thirty seconds.
Speaker 1: You know this is the day after Christmas?
Speaker 3: What? Yeah, the day after Christmas.
Speaker 4: We were giving two days notice, Jesus said, in two
Speaker 4: days starting on January first. You don't have a job,
Speaker 4: and we don't know how long, but you know, we'll
Speaker 4: let you know if we ever are going to do
Speaker 4: production again, and we can bring you back, even just
Speaker 4: for a little bit, which they didn't. They started up
Speaker 4: production again and we were not told or called in
Speaker 4: or anything.
Speaker 2: So I want to touch a little more on our
Speaker 2: shift leads. Per second. Yes, there are a couple. They
Speaker 2: live together, but much like then, they are basically they're
Speaker 2: facing houselessness as well. And luckily they do have another
Speaker 2: roommate who can somewhat cover them, but that can't last forever. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and just the other day, I had to run them groceries.
Speaker 2: They can't afford anything, and it's it's a huge buck
Speaker 2: over for them because they love, they are so passionate
Speaker 2: about this job and like they rely heavily on it,
Speaker 2: and they got their pay raises and their higher positions
Speaker 2: and more responsibilities, and to be so betrayed like that
Speaker 2: from a company quite literally destroyed them. Our shift lead
Speaker 2: he had a full breakdown and stormed out and walked out,
Speaker 2: and it affected them so heavily and so emotionally and
Speaker 2: so mentally, and they keep trying to, you know, find
Speaker 2: other jobs, and you know, still in contact. Just yesterday
Speaker 2: they sent me a screenshot of them talking to chef
Speaker 2: and being like, hey, is there any updates? Is there
Speaker 2: you know, anyway we can come get our job back.
Speaker 2: Is you know we're still waiting for you to tell
Speaker 2: us literally anything And Chef said, oh, we don't know.
Speaker 2: We can't give you an answer right now, and just
Speaker 2: kind of brushed it off.
Speaker 4: And one thing that's particularly insulting is that they ended
Speaker 4: this meeting with us where they were telling us we
Speaker 4: were losing our jobs by giving us a sheet of
Speaker 4: paper on how to file for unemployment in Oregon. And
Speaker 4: the thing with an indefinite furlough, if you don't have
Speaker 4: a return to work date, then you have to go
Speaker 4: you have to jump through the hoops of applying for
Speaker 4: jobs while you're like in order to get unemployment. So like,
Speaker 4: if you're if you have a return to work date
Speaker 4: and it's within four weeks of the you know, the
Speaker 4: day that you got furloughed, you can get unemployment for
Speaker 4: that time.
Speaker 3: And you don't. You can just hang out and get unemployment.
Speaker 4: If you don't have a return to work date, you
Speaker 4: have to treat it as a layoff and you have
Speaker 4: to be making a like conscious efforts to job hunt
Speaker 4: every single week. You have to record those efforts. If
Speaker 4: you get an interview, you have to take it. If
Speaker 4: you get a position offered to you, you have to
Speaker 4: take it, and it has to be in the field
Speaker 4: that you got that you got furloughed from. And there's
Speaker 4: all these very specific rules and it just makes it
Speaker 4: incredibly difficult.
Speaker 3: You know, all these hoops you have to jump through.
Speaker 4: It's dehumanizing, it's fucked up, and it's insulting.
Speaker 2: There was no support other than that if you need
Speaker 2: that support, there's no severance package. There was no like
Speaker 2: short in the meeting, they're like, yeah, sorry, guys, this sucks,
Speaker 2: but like it just didn't feel real, Like this whole
Speaker 2: situation was not empathetic at all, and like all.
Speaker 1: Theos and you know, you could tell their excuses bullshit
Speaker 1: because like okay, like let let let's say what they
Speaker 1: were saying was real that like, okay, they got a
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff return and they don't have room in
Speaker 1: their freezers. It's been a month. They should now, there's
Speaker 1: no way that they now still do not have room
Speaker 1: in their freezers.
Speaker 4: Like what Well, and here's the here's the kicker is
Speaker 4: that we were for maybe them a month, maybe over
Speaker 4: a month really since we filed the union petition, since
Speaker 4: we handed them the petition, we had ramped up production
Speaker 4: even though we were in the slow season and we
Speaker 4: were not actually like the bites that we were making
Speaker 4: were not ordered by anyone. We were just putting. We
Speaker 4: were making extra to put in the freezer.
Speaker 2: Not only the freezer, but they rented a whole entire warehouse.
Speaker 2: We haven't the strategy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that they they did this, you know, I
Speaker 4: don't want to say they did this on purpose, but
Speaker 4: it is it might be suspicious to me that they're
Speaker 4: that there bill up these these you know bites in
Speaker 4: the freezer when they didn't need them, when they didn't.
Speaker 3: Have orders for them, and now all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: oh we don't have room in the freezer. We have
Speaker 3: to let you go, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, oddly convenient.
Speaker 3: It is. It is.
Speaker 4: And that really ramped up when they when we gave
Speaker 4: them the union petition November seventeenth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is just really very blatant retaliation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And I.
Speaker 4: Have filed an unfair labor practice for it's called what
Speaker 4: they call a lockout for the you know us being furloughed,
Speaker 4: and it, like you said, it really is blatant, especially
Speaker 4: given that, you know, even walking into that meeting, all
Speaker 4: of us were wearing our union buttons. I just why
Speaker 4: would you lay off an entire department, especially when that
Speaker 4: department is what is keeping your business afloat, Like that
Speaker 4: is the money maker for Blue Stars, those wholesale.
Speaker 2: Bites, and we've been told that all the time. It's
Speaker 2: like these donut bites make the money, So make that
Speaker 2: makes sense. Then why are you shutting down that money
Speaker 2: maker and the other kitchen and front of house are like,
Speaker 2: are still there, still doing production? Like not touched by
Speaker 2: this at all.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And that's one of these things you get with employers
Speaker 1: all the time where it's like, well, okay, so employers
Speaker 1: very very clearly and obviously know where the money is made.
Speaker 1: They know exactly where the money is made, literally up
Speaker 1: until the moments that you start asking from more of
Speaker 1: the money you're making them, at which point suddenly like,
Speaker 1: oh who knows where money comes from?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you have no money, even though the CEO
Speaker 2: has like at least three teslas.
Speaker 1: Totally oh my god.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like Katie Pope can't take a little bit of
Speaker 4: a pay cut so that you know, we can all
Speaker 4: keep our jobs and you know, survive.
Speaker 3: It's wild.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And and I mean this is one of the
Speaker 1: other things too, is that like businesses, you know, this
Speaker 1: is this is the the way capitalism works, is that
Speaker 1: businesses would rather fucking lose money than have their employees
Speaker 1: have slightly like not be intobilitating pain, not be sick,
Speaker 1: and get slightly more money.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 4: It is crazy to me because this whole you know,
Speaker 4: they're they're hiring all these lawyers to to you know,
Speaker 4: you know, handle the union stuff, and I'm like, you
Speaker 4: shut down Red Kitchen, you hire these lawyers, You're doing
Speaker 4: all these efforts, and I'm like, you would have saved
Speaker 4: so much money if you just recognize our fucking union.
Speaker 3: Like that's how easy it is, you know.
Speaker 2: And not only that, we have what five shops in Portland,
Speaker 2: we have a shop in la as well, Los Angeles
Speaker 2: where prices are extravagant, Like they have money. We know
Speaker 2: they have money, and we're honestly at the point, I'm
Speaker 2: at the point of show me your books, show me,
Speaker 2: prove to me that you do not have this money,
Speaker 2: because then that will be a different discussion. Like it's
Speaker 2: just it's frustrating. It's typical corporate business and I'm over it.
Speaker 2: And the I'm over it for how they treated me.
Speaker 2: I'm over how they treat my friends, my team. It's
Speaker 2: it's ridiculous and they should know better, honestly.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, So is there anything else that you two
Speaker 1: want to make sure you get in?
Speaker 3: Maybe just the gofund me?
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah? How can how can people support you support
Speaker 1: the union?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: So we have a go fund me setup for the
Speaker 4: six furload workers to provide a month's worth of income
Speaker 4: two weeks for the employees who quit early, and that
Speaker 4: is it's called help loose our employees, fighting investing. And
Speaker 4: right now we're at just under one thousand dollars. Our
Speaker 4: goal for all six of those people's incomes for a
Speaker 4: month is fifteen thousand, just under sixteen thousand. You know,
Speaker 4: I don't know if we'll ever reach that goal, but
Speaker 4: you know, the as much as we can get is
Speaker 4: great because right now, you know, I'm surviving on cereal.
Speaker 4: I know that the shift leads we were talking about earlier.
Speaker 4: You know, they're getting groceries from lydia. People are struggling.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was definitely in my survivor era on rice
Speaker 2: and beans. It was it's really tough, and you know,
Speaker 2: it is a big goal, realistically it is. But you know,
Speaker 2: not to sound desperate or anything, but truly, every little
Speaker 2: bit helps. If you can really only afford five or
Speaker 2: ten bucks, we'll take it. That is, we're so grateful
Speaker 2: for anything, and it's it's people's lives. It's literally people's lives.
Speaker 2: Multiple people are facing not being able to have a
Speaker 2: roof over their head because of this, So truly any
Speaker 2: little bit helps.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so please go help them out. I I don't know.
Speaker 3: This it it's.
Speaker 1: Just really really brutal too. And especially like again, like
Speaker 1: this is also a fucking terrible time, Like there's there's
Speaker 1: never a good time to like be at risk of
Speaker 1: losing your home. Uh, winter is especially fucking bad for that.
Speaker 1: There are yeah, so there there's so many. There are
Speaker 1: so many sort of terrible compounding things that these union
Speaker 1: that these union busting companies are sort of relying on
Speaker 1: to screw over and intimidate and hurt the people who
Speaker 1: make them all their fucking money.
Speaker 3: So well, and that's what it did.
Speaker 4: It scared a lot of people into unfortunately voting no.
Speaker 4: It scared a lot of people who were really involved,
Speaker 4: you know, in the organizing process to step back and
Speaker 4: and you know, not respond to our text messages and
Speaker 4: not continue to advocate for the union. It you know
Speaker 4: that us getting furloughed really fucked with our whole union campaign.
Speaker 1: So yeah, go go go give go, go, give these
Speaker 1: workers your supports they really need it, and yeah go
Speaker 1: you know, and one thing again like that needs to
Speaker 1: sort of we need to sort of emphasize is that
Speaker 1: this is illegal. They cannot fucking they legally cannot do
Speaker 1: this but you know this is this is one of
Speaker 1: the things that is fucking hard about union organizing is
Speaker 1: that the law, assuming the law does like ever, fucking
Speaker 1: catch up to these people. It takes time.
Speaker 2: And yeah, there is one little thing I do want
Speaker 2: to make sure people know about because we just found
Speaker 2: this out pretty recently while we were doing shop visits.
Speaker 2: They have jars for tips that say tips are shared
Speaker 2: with the kitchen.
Speaker 3: They're not. Yeah, that's not true. This is not true.
Speaker 2: We saw no tips and there was an instance where
Speaker 2: we accidentally got tips, and one by one we were
Speaker 2: sent to the back to sign a form saying this
Speaker 2: was an accident. You are not gain tips. Sign this,
Speaker 2: and they took our tips away. It's not fair. And
Speaker 2: on top of that, they're lying to the public. They're
Speaker 2: lying to their customers that kitchen is gain tips when
Speaker 2: we're not.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I will say, in addition to the GoFundMe,
Speaker 4: we do have you know, if you're not able to
Speaker 4: support monetarily, we do have a Twitter and an Instagram
Speaker 4: where we post updates if you want to follow along
Speaker 4: with our progress and see, you know, how our election
Speaker 4: goes and everything. It's just on both Twitter and or
Speaker 4: excuse me x and Instagram. It is at DWU Underscore
Speaker 4: Blue Star.
Speaker 1: So yeah, well we'll we'll have links to all this
Speaker 1: out of the description awesome.
Speaker 2: Word of mouth is really the biggest thing, even going
Speaker 2: off again, like, if you can't support us financially, you
Speaker 2: can just share the GoFundMe through friends, family, whoever, and
Speaker 2: just it out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so go go go do that. Yeah, go
Speaker 1: help any way you can. And yeah, go go go
Speaker 1: fight your own bosses because they're screwing yous, like screwing
Speaker 1: you in very similar ways. What's happening here? Two? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and this is the spinnaket happen here. You can find
Speaker 1: us at Twitter and Instagram at happen here pod and
Speaker 1: you can find more Clozobdia shows at closeid Media. Yeah
Speaker 1: go go go into the world and make life worse
Speaker 1: for people who do terrible stuff.
Speaker 2: It could happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.
Speaker 3: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
Speaker 3: cool Zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the
Speaker 3: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 2: You can find sources for it could Happen Here. Updated
Speaker 2: monthly at cool zonemedia dot com Slash Sources thanks for listening.