“Waffle House staff in Columbia strike over working conditions, demanding security, consistent scheduling, and an end to ‘meal deductions’.”
On Saturday morning, staff members at a Waffle House in Columbia walked out in protest of their working conditions.
Servers and chefs at the well-known all-day breakfast company went on strike at 10 a.m. over demands for greater security, more consistent scheduling, and an end to required “meal deductions” from wages.
The Union of Southern Service Workers is in support of the three-day strike at the Waffle House at 428 Garners Ferry Road. The organization, which represents low-wage workers across a number of industries, was formally established in Columbia last November.
A USSW spokesperson reported that the first, third, and complete second shifts of workers left on foot on Saturday morning.
The increasing safety problem, according to Marshawna Parker, who has over 20 years of experience working for Waffle House in a number of capacities. Parker said she had seen a number of shootings while working for the chain, but the firm only hires a security officer on late evenings on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Parker remarked, “We could have easily been shot over a $3 order of hash browns.” “There is no justification for them not to always have security to protect us… We have lives outside of the building, and some people have children.
According to Parker, unsafe working conditions are an issue across the country. She remembered shootings and bullets in the parking lot at a former location in Lancaster, South Carolina.
Workers also demanded that the required “meal deduction” policy, which entails deducting $3 to $6 from each employee’s paycheck to fund a shift lunch whether or not they consume it, be abolished.
Summer Schoolmeester-Cochran, a Waffle House server, said in a statement that was made public by USSW, “I’m usually the only server working second shift, so I am running around and don’t have time to eat a meal, but Waffle House still makes me pay for it. Let us opt out.”
A request for comment made on Saturday went unanswered by Waffle House.
According to a statement from USSW, workers presented management with a petition on July 1 before going on strike on Saturday. The union claims that the demands of the workers went unanswered.
Demands for a fair salary and management fixing the restaurant’s malfunctioning equipment are also on the list of requirements.
Workers at other Waffle House locations, as well as those from Great Clips and Ryder, who went on a brief strike in April over working conditions, supported the walkout participants.
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