Portland: Burgerville Union Demands Co-Worker Be ReHired

First day in Portland. Walk into a protest against 'Burgerville' fast food chain on workers rights pic.twitter.com/NAFpwjh0IM

— Joff (@joffcasciani) August 11, 2016

From Burgerville Workers Union

This evening at 9pm over 50 members and supporters of the Burgerville Workers Union marched into the Burgerville at the Convention Center and delivered a letter demanding that Burgerville reinstate a fired worker and end dangerous working conditions.

Paul, a union member, has been working full time at Burgerville to support himself through culinary school. Over and over, he was asked to come in and work long hours, often closing late at night, and staying past the time he was scheduled to be off. Managers routinely set impossible goals which pressure workers to put themselves in dangerous situations in order to try to meet them. Two weeks ago, during one of these late night shifts, Paul burned himself because of an improperly set water heater. In pain and frustration, he accidentally damaged a sink. Without recourse or due process, Paul was suspended for a week and then fired.

Workers are pushed past their limits by Burgerville and its managers. This creates dangerous conditions where accidents happen and people frequently get hurt. Instead of getting help and relief, workers like Paul get blamed. Paul and his coworkers believe he was fired unjustly. They are standing together with the Burgerville Workers Union and supporters to call for Paul to be reinstated with back pay and for Burgerville to create a transparent discipline process.

Portland IWW writes: 

The Portland IWW (and friends) marched on Burgerville on Aug 9 to protest the retaliatory firing of a union member. We packed the inside of the store with over 50 people, and later held picket lines at both driveway entrances to the store parking lot. The convention center store is one of Burgerville’s busiest locations. The union is protesting the retaliatory firing of a worker who burned himself on the job after a grueling extended shift.