The $15 Question–Staples NOT Exempt

Last week around the country, fast food workers went on strike demanding a wage increase to $15/hour.

While in concept this sounds like a wonderful idea, the strikers’ message was to the wrong people and certainly for the wrong reason.

First off, these strikers should have been striking in front of the corporate offices of the companies they work for, the offices of the shareholders, or the offices of the board of directors.

Doing their striking in front of the restaurants in which they work is just proof by how misguided these people really are.

While there are some of the restaurants that are corporate owned, the vast majority of them are owned by franchises. These franchises control things like hiring and wages of the employees. Of course they could pay everyone what these strikers want, but in doing so prices would have to go up considerably or so they say.

Beyond the franchising fees that the local owners pay the corporate offices, these restaurant locations usually do a pretty good take of profit. So where does this money go? Again, it usually goes into the hands of shareholders, board of directors and to other non-deserving people.

What usually happens is that the daily moneys are deposited in a bank account, that the company usually withdraws most of it leaving just enough for the store to pay for its expenses. This is the way it worked back when I worked at Woolworth despite that the company was not a franchise, but a corporate entity. However, the concept remains basically the same. The local store must live within its budget to pay its employees and pay its other monthly expenses. And yes, all expenses such as lights, electricity, water were all paid by the local store not the corporate office.

Of course, these restrictions in budget meant that when money was scarce, hours were cut of the lower end employees like me while the higher paid employees still had all their hours sucking out all the budget money. So realistically, strikers should also be angry at their peers when these people lose hours to fellow employees. Again this is another misdirected group that the strikers should be angry at.

It was not just Woolworth that had to live within a budget in my work life, the horrible company Staples was even worse in that regard.

Way back when I was hired $9/hour was considered the minimum for full-time employment. This is also about the same that workers at fast food places get whether full or part-time. Ironically, I spent the first 6 months of my career with Staples working on average 35+ hours a week, but getting just part-time pay. Sadly, I was given NO back pay for all the time that I was really working full-time at part-time pay nor was I ever given a raise after my probationary period as was required by the company at the time.

Over the next 12 years, I was given a total of about $1.50 in raises over that time period, leaving me nowhere near the $15/hour that the striking workers are asking for. In fact, during my last 2 years of employment, I was told that I had reached a “dead end” and that my raises would be just a “couple of pennies a year”. This is hardly a working wage nor a cost of living adjustment.

So where does all the company’s money go?

· Other floor people such as department heads, front-end supervisors, money room person and other non-managerial positions. Granted at Woolworth, I was trained as both a front-end supervisor and a money room person, but I was NEVER even offered a chance at either of these positions. Apparently, Staples wanted to suppress my career with them.

· Big bonuses for management. At one point, I heard that one low-end manager got a Christmas bonus of $5,000. Imagine what the high-end managers got. Imagine that the hourly employees get NOTHING in bonuses EVER!!!

· Corporate paper pushers. The do-nothing people in the company need to get paid something for doing nothing all day.

· The Board of Directors. Do some of these people ever been in a Staples store before? Hey, they get paid anyway even if it is with stock shares.

· And lastly, all the other corporate people hired to do nothing. These are the people who will lose their jobs when the hierarchy falls apart in the company because they were never needed in the first place.

As anyone can see from this posting, it is not just the fast food workers getting screwed; it is anybody in the service oriented industry. However, the only way the voices will really be heard is if the people take their protests to the people who steal the money that rightfully entitled to the employees and get rid of the slackers once and for all. Until this is done, any protest will fall on deaf ears and will continue to be laughed at by all the media outlets. It is up to everyone to fight the corporate injustice.