(Subway) Sandwich Artists Unionize

[Omaha Steve]

http://inthesetimes.com/article/17071/sandwich_artists_unionize




Subway workers, like other fast-food workers, grapple with low wages, irregular hours and little time off. (NJ.com/Creative Commons)

ACT LOCALLY » AUGUST 11, 2014

Subway workers in New Jersey get organized.
BY WILLIAM A. HUDSON

Subway may claim to be the “leader in fast, healthy food,” but that alleged commitment to wellness often doesn't extend to its employees. In the last decade, the company has been found guilty of about 17,000 labor violations. Now, at least one group of workers is fighting back. On July 18, after a three-month campaign, employees of a Subway franchise in Bloomsbury, N.J. voted 8-5 to join the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) Local 108.

The Bloomsbury workers are in a unique position: Rather than staffing a standalone Subway, they’re employed at a franchise tucked into a Pilot Flying J travel center, where gas attendants, cashiers, and maintenance workers voted in February to join Local 108, too. This initiative, says Local 108 President Charles Hall, helped drive the Subway workers to organize in turn.

Hall says that workers in both areas of the center share similar concerns, including “Low wages across the board for all workers and sporadic scheduling,” as well as a lack of opportunities for advancement or raises.

“Many of the workers earned minimum wage or slightly above minimum wage, and they had limited paid time off and holidays,” Hall tells In These Times. “These factors made the workers feel that they were being treated unfairly and that management wasn't listening to them.”

FULL story at link.

[FSogol]

1. I'm pro-worker, but "artist" is stretching the truth a bit. Glad they are

unionizing.

[pinboy3niner]

2. Maybe they have the Matisse of Meatball Subs...

The Cézanne of Chipotle Chicken, the Seurat of Spicy Chicken, the Bacon of Bacon Ranch Melts...

[FSogol]

3. More likely they have the Kincade of Ketshup

[Agschmid]

4. You are so good with words!

[pinboy3niner]

5. I consulted my Subsaurus

Believe me, I'm no hero when it comes to vocabulary or Subway fare. (I've never eaten there and had to look up their menu.)

But after my research, I AM starting to feel like the Dali of Deli.

[FSogol]

8. +1, Snerk

[jmowreader]

6. That's their official name

The "art" in a Subway sandwich is somewhere between Thomas Kincade and Reuben Kincade, but who are we to judge?

[pinboy3niner]

7. "Artist,' 'Projectile Vomiting from Both Ends,' they're easy concepts to confuse

[Laelth]

9. k&r for labor. n/t

-Laelth