food service

Hamburgers vs value - Kämpa Tillsammans

Article by Swedish communist group Kämpa Tillsammans, examining the relationship between informal workplace activity in a hamburger restaurant, and the broader communist movement.

By Marcel, member of the communist group Kämpa Tillsammans! 1

1. Kämpa Tillsammans! means "Struggle together!" and shall be understood as an imperative.

France: Migrant workers' occupation wins

Sacked workers occupying the Buffalo Grill restaurant for one month have beaten their employers and been re-instated with their employment status regularised.

The one-month occupation of the restaurant and parking lot of the Buffalo Grill in Viry-Chatillon outside Paris has resulted in an important victory for 20 undocumented migrant workers fired at the fast food chain.

Precarious and pissed off: Lessons from the Montpelier Downtown Workers' Union, 2003-2005

An account and analysis of the Vermont Workers' Center's innovative but ultimately failed attempt to set up a geographically-based union in the state's capital.

By Sean West

Beginnings and Endings

Paris: Migrant workers occupy Buffalo Grill

Undocumented workers at the fast food chain in Paris have occupied the Buffalo Grill in Viry-Chatillon after being sacked and reported to the authorities.

The migrants, mostly of African origin, many with years of employment at the chain, face expulsion from the France of Nicolas Sarkozy to their country of origin.

France: Airport catering workers demonstrate

LSG-Gate-Gourmet workers threatened with dismissal as the management attempt to wind the company up demonstrated on Wednesday 4 April.

Many of the 853 workers facing the sack protested outside the company offices before moving to Roissy airport where they protested at the Lufthansa check-in desks, Lufthansa is the former owner of LSG.

Super Size My Pay - Fast food workers in New Zealand organise for better pay and conditions, 2005-6

In New Zealand, hundreds of fast food workers waged an innovative campaign called Super-Size My Pay during 2005-06. This is one worker's overview and analysis of the campaign.

This text is taken from the December 2006 issue of the Industrial Workers of the World Australia's newsletter, Direct Action.

Direct action victory on health and safety at Starbucks, 2006

Making work safer through direct action - Daniel Gross and Joe Tessone recount the actions of workers winning a small but significant victory on health and safety at a Chicago Starbucks outlet in 2006.

Requests have been routinely made and ignored for the purchase of a stepladder. It is vital for our safety that we have a stepladder available to use for such tasks as changing light bulbs, reaching boxes on high shelves, and cleaning ceiling tiles. Currently, we are forced to balance ourselves on unstable café tables to accomplish tasks in hard to reach places.

Ireland: Domino's drivers on strike

Workers at the Tallaght branch of Domino's Pizza went on strike Friday night over wages.

Around 50 drivers refused to work the evening shift on Friday from 5pm, they then picketed out workers at the Walkinstown branch from 8pm, persuading around seven drivers to come out despite management threats that they would sack any drivers who joined the strike. The picket ended at 9pm due to bad weather at which point drivers from both branches went home.

Strike at McDonalds, Paris, August 2004

A brief account and information about a CGT union strike at the McDonald’s Place d’Italie branch in Paris in 2004.

About the Frog Pubs strike, 2003

Detailed article about the struggle of Sri Lankan Tamil migrant workers in Paris against British pub chain Frog.