Retail Hell Underground

Kroger Asst. Store Manger Fired For Confronting a N.A.T. with Knife He Ends Up Body Slamming

Another retail worker bites the dust after wanting to be a N.A.T. Superhero! 

From Yahoo News:

If you’re an employee of a chain store and you see a shoplifter, don’t confront them. It’s been proven again and again and again and again that no matter how noble your intentions are, you can be fired from your job. As KDFW FOX 4 News reports, this is exactly what happened to one Kroger grocery store manager in Arlington, Texas.

A customer in the parking lot of the Kroger recorded the incident on their cellphone. In the video, you can see the unnamed manager approach the shoplifting suspect. The suspect appears to have a knife in his hand. The manager shoves him into a parked car and gets the knife out the suspect’s hand before eventually slamming him down to the ground.

The alleged shoplifter is 51-year-old Claude Medlock. According to KDFW, Arlington Police say that Mr. Medlock has a, “lengthy criminal history that includes theft and robbery convictions.” They didn’t consider the manager’s actions a crime, but that didn’t matter to Kroger. Kroger sent a statement to KDFW, which read in part:

“The incident…is not a reflection of our company’s fraud prevention protocol, procedures or training…He is no longer employed by our company.”

The manager told the station that he had worked in loss prevention for 13 years, and “believed he handled the situation properly.”

via news.yahoo.com

 

 

 

IHOP Backpeddling Over Threatening to Fire Waitress For Refusing To Pay Back $200 Tip The Custy Says Was a Mistake

They had better fuckin backpeddle. Since this was a custy/credit issue that THEY MADE, she should not have had to pay it back. It's horrible they even asked her to, let alone giving her a deadline and threatening to fire her if she didn't pay. Corporate should have stepped in and wrote it off. How many $200 dinners have they had to write off because of complaining custys? I think IHOP has quickly sensed that this story and the photo are errupting in social media and if they don't resolve it quickly, they'll be screwed. 

From WNEM:

A Henrico waitress says a $200 tip cost her a job at IHOP. The large tip was a supposed mistake. The waitress says managers refunded the money to the customer and allegedly told her to pay up or else.

Chanetrice Carter could not believe her eyes.

"I said, 'my goodness, I just got a $200 tip,'" said Carter. "This is amazing. This is crazy."

Carter's jubilation at the West Broad Street IHOP turned to devastation a week later.

"A part of me was upset," said Chanetrice Carter. "A part of me was mad."

Carter says the manager called for a closed-door meeting about the customer's tip.

"He said, 'that's his handwriting. That's his signature,'" said Carter. "But he only meant to write down $2.00. He didn't mean to write down $200.00"

Carter claims the manager then gave her a deadline.

"You have seven days to pay it back or else," Carter says she was told.

Carter refused to return the money, and she claims she was fired as a result.

"Nobody's rights have been violated here," said NBC 12 legal analyst Steve Benjamin. "There has been no unlawful termination. She didn't have to return the money, but they can in turn fire her because she is just employed at will."

We left a message with the IHOP district manager. He reached out to Carter during our interview. 

"What did they have to say?" we asked.

"He basically said that he wants to sit down tomorrow," said Carter. "And if they can correct anything they will correct it. I just look forward to sitting down with them and seeing what they have to say because nobody would talk to me until you all called."

Carter meets with management Thursday morning. We will keep you posted on what happens.

UPDATE: We spoke to Carter again Thursday afternoon. She says the first statement the district manager made to her Thursday morning was, "How soon can you come back?!"

Carter says she needs a few days to think about it and will have an answer for him Monday.

via www.wnem.com

 

UPS Comes To Their Senses and Rehires the 250 Workers They Fired

Really glad to hear this. So many of them have become fire happy the minute a worker voices an opinion. The same thing happened at Dominos recently and they also hired their workers back as well. I can't help wonder if customer backlash helped. Everyone in my hood would have joined a lynch mob if they fired our saintly driver for that reason.

From Business Insider:

UPS has reversed its firing of 250 workers for taking part in a 90-minute strike in February, the company told Business Insider on Wednesday.

The reversal comes after a public uproar over the mass firing, which we reported last week.

UPS officials decided to rehire the workers as part of an agreement reached Wednesday in a meeting with union officials.

"The 250 UPS employees involved in the walkout who were terminated for their actions will have their terminations reduced to a two week suspension without pay for each participant," UPS spokesman Steve Gaut told Business Insider in an email. "UPS has chosen to settle the matter in order to return to normal operations at the site."

As part of the agreement, the branch of the union representing the workers, Teamsters Local 804, will compensate UPS for damages associated with the Feb. 26 walkout, Gaut said. 

Union officials also acknowledged in the agreement that the strike was "illegal and unauthorized and will undertake other actions within the bargaining unit to correct the situation," he said. 

The union disputes that claim.

"The work stoppage on Feb. 26 was legal and permitted under the union contract with UPS," a Teamsters Local 804 spokesman told Business Insider. "Under the agreement reached with UPS, Local 804 acknowledges that the union’s internal procedures for authorizing a strike were not properly followed on Feb. 26 and we have agreed to communicate the proper procedure to all union members."

The UPS employees who were fired walked out on their jobs on Feb. 26 to protest the dismissal of one of their coworkers, Jairo Reyes.

As part of the settlement reached Wednesday, Reyes' discharge will be reduced to a suspension without pay for the period from Feb. 26 until he returns to work. 

"We're looking forward to turning the corner and getting on a new road with UPS," Teamsters Local 804 President Tim Sylvester said. "The

via www.businessinsider.com

 

 

 

 

Slate Video Reveals How Much Would Prices Go Up If Walmart Paid Its Employees a Living Wage

Thanks to Slate for making this video, it's too bad the people that really need to see it and learn from it won't be watching or caring because they are cybernetic drone organisms sent by the Borg Queen to assimilate us into the collective. They have no compassion for their employees livelihood or even life for that matter.

 

61 Year-Old Housing Complex Clerk Fired Over His Confusion of Thinking a Woman's Suicial Death Was an April Fools Mannequin Prank

I think it's really sad that her public suicide has caused so much damage to this innocent man's life, emotionally and financially. I think firing Ronald Benjamin was a bit severe and another example of a company not caring about their employees emotional well being after they've had to face a bizarre situation in their workplace. Have some fucking compassion you robot assholes. The police believed his account and now he's in need of counseling. Hopefully he will get the help he needs. It sounds like Ronald's former coworkers have rallied around him and he has a little dog that will get him past this bad scene.

From NY Daily News:

The body of a 96-year-old woman who reportedly jumped to her death on April Fools' Day was picked up and thrown into a dumpster after being mistaken for a mannequin.

The desk clerk at Peterborough Apartments in St. Petersburg, Fla. told the Tampa Bay Times that he sincerely believed the body was a joke, possibly left by some kids the night before, when he heaved it in the trash Wednesday.

"I'm telling you, I swear to God, the face looked like a rubber mask," Ronald Benjamin told the paper from his home. "If I thought for one instant it was a real person I would have called the police, my manager, everyone I could think of."

Benjamin said he first saw the frail body lying outside the senior housing complex around 4:30 a.m.

There was blood, he said, but he brushed it off as fake.

Police, who don't plan to file criminal charges, believe him.

"Because of the height the woman fell it actually might have caused her features to be distorted, and possibly not look human to the unsuspecting eye," St. Petersburg police spokesman Mike Puetz told the paper.

Around two hours later, he said another employee asked him about it but he assured her that it was a prank.

To not create any more issue, when a 16-year-old paperboy arrived at the apartment Benjamin said he asked him for help moving it. The teen obliged.

Benjamin described the body as surprisingly light as they both lifted it into the dumpster.

As of Thursday the woman has not been publicly identified.

In her apartment, up on the 16th floor, police said they found a suicide note written by her.

Benjamin, who has since been fired by the complex where he's worked for the last nine years, expressed his grief and sadness over what happened.

"It's all I've thought about all day," he told the paper. "I haven't slept all day."

via www.nydailynews.com

 

From St. Peter'sburg Tribune

ST. PETERSBURG — A front desk clerk who mistook the body of a 96-year-old woman for a mannequin before arranging to have the corpse dumped into a trash bin Thursday has been fired.

“He is no longer with us,” said Sheryl Case, the office manager at Peterborough apartments, a 16-story subsidized building in downtown St. Petersburg that is reserved for people ages 62 and above.

The dead woman’s identity is expected to be released Friday. St. Petersburg detectives emailed all the pertinent information to the law enforcement agency in England that patrols the neighborhood in which a relative is said to live.

A resident of the building, the woman hoisted herself over a balcony wall with the help of a stool before plummeting from her 16th floor apartment to the parking lot, police said. A suicide note was left behind.

The front desk clerk, Ronald Benjamin, 61, who has worked at the building for nine years, went out for a smoke at 4:30 a.m. and saw the body in the parking lot, but thought it was a mannequin placed there as part of an April Fool’s Day prank, police said.

When his relief came at 6 a.m., she told him she thought it was a body, but he maintained it was a mannequin, police have said. It was decided that if it were a mannequin, it had to be taken out of the parking lot and put in a trash bin.

Benjamin enlisted the help of a woman and her teenage son who were delivering newspapers to help him dispose of the body.

It was only after a maintenance worker showed up at 8 a.m. and looked into the dumpster — and recognized it as a body — that authorities were called.

Reached at his St. Petersburg rental apartment, Benjamin said through a co-worker he did not want to come outside to comment because he had become despondent, the co-worker, Mark Hill, said.

“He’s in there with his little dog,” Hill said.

Hill said Benjamin told him he thought someone from one of the neighboring bars had left the mannequin as part of an April Fool’s Day prank, and Hill said he himself had played pranks on Benjamin in the past.

Ashley L. Marshall, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Elder Affairs, said the state agency does not monitor the building, which she said is neither an independent living facility, nursing facility, assisted living facility or a continuing care retirement.

via tbo.com

 

 

Yogart Wars: Chobani Founder's Ex-Wife Says He Stole Recipe From Rival Greek Yogart Company Fage

Yikes! So much drama over yogart! Bravo TV needs to get some cameras on them!

From Huff Po:

Hamdi Ulukaya, the founder and CEO of Chobani, allegedly bribed a former employee at Fage to reveal the rival's recipe for Greek yogurt, according to Ulukaya's ex-wife.

A recent court filing obtained by The Huffington Post accuses Ulukaya, a Turkish born immigrant and now billionaire, of repeatedly bragging about how he "traveled to Europe and bribed this employee with 30,000 Euros."

The allegations are being made by Ulukaya's ex-wife, Ayse Giray. The former couple has been locked in a legal battle since 2012, when Giray first claimed Ulukaya denied her a stake in the company.

When asked about Giray's allegations, Chobani told HuffPost in a statement that "the allegations are completely baseless and without merit."

The recent accusations were first reported Friday by the New York Post, which has run a number of unflattering stories about Chobani in recent months.

While Fage introduced Greek yogurt to American customers nearly a decade before Chobani, Chobani quickly trumped its rival.

In 2012, AdAge reported Chobani commanded 47 percent of the Greek yogurt market, compared to Fage's 14 percent. Greek yogurt represents more than 40 percent of the $7.4 billion American yogurt market, Reuters reported.

Chobani, which began in 2005 with just five employees, now employs 1,200 people in New York state alone.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

 

 

 

UPS Fires 250 Workers in Queens, NY Because They Showed Support For Fired Coworker

As this news sinks in, UPS is standing firm on the firings and not changing their minds. I think it's up to the customers who love their drivers to create some sort of social media backlash. I know if we lost our UPS driver named Mo, there would be an angry mob forming in my neighborhood!

From Huff Po:

UPS, one of the world's largest shipping and logistics companies, has decided to fire 250 workers who staged a 90-minute protest in February. The protest was organized after a long-time employee was fired over an hours dispute.

Twenty of the workers were notified of their dismissal on Monday. The remaining 230 were told they would be fired as soon as replacements are trained.

The workers, who are based in Queens, N.Y., walked off the job when Jairo Reyes, a 24-year company veteran and union activist, got in a dispute with the company over the number of hours senior staff could work, according to the New York Daily News.

Reyes was fired on February 14 -- “that was my Valentine’s Day gift from UPS,” Reyes told the Queens Courier -- and the ensuing protest occurred February 26.

A UPS spokesperson confirmed the firing to the Huffington Post, referring to the protest as "an unauthorized work stoppage."

"We simply cannot allow employee misconduct that jeopardizes our ability to reliably serve our customers and maintain order in our delivery operations," UPS spokesperson Steve Gaut wrote in an email to HuffPost. "For this reason, the company is releasing employees involved in the work stoppage."

The Queens workers are represented by the local branch of the Teamsters union. In a statement on their website, they describe the firings as "arbitrary discipline."

"UPS’s actions this week were a heartless attack on drivers and their families," the Teamsters Local 804 wrote.

Local officials and union representatives have demanded that UPS rehire the workers and that the city revoke the millions in New York government contracts currently awarded to the company.

UPS also "receives millions of dollars every year in reduced fine and fees for parking tickets," according to NYC Public Advocate Letitia James, who will protest alongside the Teamsters at New York City Hall Thursday.

Update 4/3: Thursday, a UPS spokesperson informed The Huffington Post that the contract between UPS and the Teamsters includes a no-strike clause. Management at the Maspeth facility, where employees worked, warned the employees as they were leaving that their jobs were at risk, the spokesperson said. The Teamsters did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

 

 

Paula Deen Shuts Down Restaurant and Doesn't Tell Employees

At least they got severance checks...anyone who has worked in retail or at small restaurants and businesses will tell you that when those place shut down with a note on the door those employees didn't get severance pay....still not a classy move Paula!

From Yahoo:

Uncle Bubba's Seafood and Oyster House — the home of Paula Deen's 2013 racism scandal — has closed its doors, and employees of the restaurant were the very last to know.

The Washington Post reports that those who showed up to their Thursday morning shift at the Savannah, GA eatery were met with locked doors. The Savannah Morning News reported that employees were collecting their severance checks in the parking lot.

The Facebook page of the eatery had just a simple message posted to the top of its fan page:

Facebook

Commenters put the restaurant management on blast for not informing its employees of the decision to close before posting to social media and shutting the doors.

Deen co-owned Uncle Bubba’s with her brother, Bubba Heirs. 

Deen made cringeworthy headlines when a former employee of Uncle Bubba’s filed a lawsuit claiming she had experienced sexual harassment and racial discrimination while working at the restaurant. In a  deposition for the case, Deen admitted unapologetically that she’d used the N-word, which ended up costing her millions in lost endorsement deals.

A statement on Uncle Bubba's abrupt closing was posted to Facebook:

Since its opening in 2004, Uncle Bubba's Oyster House has been a destination for residents and tourists in Savannah, offering the region's freshest seafood and oysters. However, the restaurant's owner and operator, Bubba Heirs, has made the decision to close the restaurant in order to explore development options for the waterfront property on which the restaurant is located. At this point, no specific plans have been announced and a range of uses are under consideration in order realize the highest and best use for the property.

via finance.yahoo.com

 

 

 

Two Former McDonald's Managers Confess To Being Pressured Into Sneaky Scheduling Techniques That Saved The Company Money and Cheated Workers

 

Sent to RHU from Hiedi:

Via MSN Money:

Two former McDonald’s Corp. store managers, assisting with a campaign to raise pay for fast-food workers, said they helped withhold employees’ wages at the restaurant chain after facing pressure to keep labor costs down.

The ex-managers, who came forward as part of an effort backed by worker advocacy group Fast Food Forward, said they engaged in tactics such as asking employees to continue working after they clocked out or adding unpaid breaks to time sheets. They took the steps to avoid exceeding a store’s strict goals for wage expenses, said Lakia Williams, a former assistant manager at a McDonald’s in Charleston, South Carolina.

 

 

“There was so much pressure,” she said in an interview. “It’s not only the franchisees group and the general managers, it is corporate. It’s something internal, it’s something deeper, and it’s something that has been going on for years.”

Williams said she would ask employees to work for an hour or two after they clocked out. She needed them to help clean up after a busy day and would usually give them $20 of her own money to compensate, Williams said. Kwanza Brooks, a manager who worked at McDonald’s stores in North Carolina and Maryland, said she amended time sheets to keep labor costs down.

In response to the ex-managers’ comments, McDonald’s said it takes action to resolve pay concerns in its company-owned restaurants and trusts its franchisees to do the same.

“McDonald’s and our independent owner-operators share a concern and commitment to the well-being and fair treatment of all people who work in McDonald’s restaurants,” Heather Oldani, a spokeswoman for the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company, said in an e-mailed statement. “Whether employed by McDonald’s or by our independent owner-operators, employees should be paid correctly.”

McDonald’s shares fell 0.3 percent to $97.59 at the close in New York. They have risen 0.6 percent this year, trailing the 2.3 percent gain for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

How the Minimum Wage Affects Prosperity

The new allegations follow a wave of lawsuits in March claiming that McDonald’s workers were being idled without pay for minutes and hours at work during slow periods, in violation of U.S. and state labor laws. Some workers also allege that McDonald’s requires them to pay for their uniforms, driving their pay below legal minimums. On the day the lawsuits were filed, McDonald’s said it was reviewing the allegations and would take necessary actions.

Contact information for the two managers was provided by BerlinRosen, a public-relations firm that is managing the media effort for Fast Food Forward. The advocacy group, which has received funding from the Service Employees International Union, also commissioned a survey on fast-food wages as part of the campaign.

Small Sample

Williams and Brooks are just two former managers at a chain with 14,200 U.S. locations, and almost 90 percent of those restaurants are owned by franchisees, meaning McDonald’s itself has less control over them.

“McDonald’s and our owner-operators employ separately but in total over 750,000 workers in the United States, and we caution against drawing broad conclusions based on a small, random informal sampling,” Oldani said in her statement.

Still, the problem of workers getting their wages squeezed is widespread, said Nelson Lichtenstein, director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. While most costs are contractual, such as food expenses and rent, labor is one area that can and does get cut, he said.

“Wage theft is endemic in this whole retail, restaurant world,” Lichtenstein said in an interview. “It’s built into the system.”

Burger King

In the study commissioned by Fast Food Forward, about 89 percent of current and recent fast-food workers said they had their wages stolen. That included employees at McDonald’s, Burger King Worldwide Inc. and Wendy’s Co., the three largest U.S. burger chains. The survey, conducted by Washington-based Hart Research Associates, polled 1,088 people who had worked in fast food within the past three months.

Alix Salyers, a spokeswoman for Miami-based Burger King, said her company hasn’t reviewed the survey. Moreover, Burger King doesn’t make scheduling or wage decisions for its franchisees, who own and operate almost all of the company’s restaurants, she said. Bob Bertini, a spokesman for Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy’s, declined to comment.

Outcry over fast-food pay has led thousands of restaurant workers to protest in cities across the U.S., demanding wages of $15 an hour and the right to form a union.

Average Wage

The U.S. federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, and President Barack Obama has asked Congress to raise that to $10.10. Some states require higher pay than the current national minimum. Fast-food workers in America make about $9 an hour, or $18,720 a year, if they work full time, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Williams, who made $8.50 an hour at McDonald’s, said she quit in July 2012 after seeing her own wages get squeezed. She had to work off the clock about three or four hours a week, Williams said. The 30-year-old is now at Hardee’s, where she earns $9.75 an hour and has more flexibility t

via money.msn.com