Stephen's Open Letter

Secretary of Labor Gary Locke

200 Constitution Ave., NW

Washington, DC 20210

Dear Secretary Locke:

First and foremost, I wanted to thank you as head of the Department of Labor for promoting and developing the welfare for the workers of this country. Because of your efforts, average workers like myself enjoy rights that are protected in the workplace and the opportunity to make advancement for a more profitable employment through training. But what caught my attention is something tragic that has been happening in the workplace for the past several decades. The owners and managers of our country’s fast food restaurants have not been providing the proper training their workers need to be safe and productive. Instead, they are left on their own to figure out how to work and how to run a piece of machinery. As a result of their lack of training, fast food workers have suffered countless injuries and have unknowingly served unsanitary food to the public. I urge you to examine the fast food restaurants’ training policies and fight for the welfare of our workers.

The lack of training provided by the fast food chains has endangered the lives of their workers, sometimes even causing debilitating injuries. That is what happened to one man in Jefferson County, Texas named Richard Stubbs in a fast food chain called Sonics Drive-In. Although he wasn’t properly trained and didn’t receive assistance or proper safety equipment, Stubbs was told to clean the filter on a deep fryer. Because he didn’t know to how to properly clean a fryer, he injured and aggravated the disc and nerve root in his lower back. The injury caused permanent and debilitating damage (Holleran). Can you believe that? Imagine working in a dangerous environment without any adequate training. You are almost bound to end hurting yourself or others since you don’t know what you are doing or if it is safe. But many fast food workers find themselves in this very situation. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) found that “adolescents working in the restaurant industry in general were at six times greater risk of sustaining a work-related burn injury than teens working in any other industry. Nearly half of all burn injuries involved hot grease. Such injuries can be prevented by … training employees in safe work practices, among other precautions” (Blosser). I understand that training takes time and money. But the time and money used for training more than compensates the time and money lost because an employee can’t work or can’t be productive due to an injury (Daniels). But most important, fast food workers are more than just employees. They are our neighbors, relatives, friends, cousins, brothers or sisters who are trying to make a living. With all the work they are asked to perform, the least fast food companies could do is show their workers how to do it properly. After all, we are humans, not cogs in a working machine.

Proper training for fast food workers not only benefits the employees, but also the customers. Since they handle and serve our food, the quality of a fast food worker’s training can be directly related to the quality of our food. Unfortunately, we at times get the short end of the stick. How many times have you heard of hair or pieces of a rubber glove served with the food? I’ve heard enough horror stories regarding fast food to make even the strongest stomachs turn. In a Dateline NBC report, they surveyed thousands of fast food restaurants and compiled their inspection reports. They found that McDonald’s “averaged 126 critical violations for every 100 inspections, the highest average in our survey. McDonald's was the only chain where hand washing was the most commonly cited violation. Either inspectors witnessed employees not washing their hands or the restaurants had inadequate handwashing facilities” (Thompson). Can you imagine that? And these are the very people who serve the billions of people who eat at fast food restaurant. Yet we misplace our trust in them, thinking that they are trained to be conscious about food sanitation. That is why your help is so important. Our health and well being are in jeopardy without someone to intervene in our behalf.

To make matters worse, our government has provided fast food companies with subsidiaries for training. But instead of using the money for its intended purpose, fast food companies have provided minimal to no training while pocketing the rest of the money. In 1996, an investigation conducted by your department confirmed the restaurants’ treacherous dealings:

Through federal programs, the [fast food] chains have for years claimed tax credits of up to $2,000 for each new low-income worker they hired. [The] investigation concluded that 92 percent of these workers would have been hired by the companies anyway – and that their new jobs were part-time, provided little training, and came with no benefits. American taxpayers have in effect subsidized the industry’s high turnover rate, providing company tax breaks for workers who are employed for just a few months and receive no training (Schlosser 72).

I was shocked to learn how my taxes are being misused to support minimal training and or zero training. We face enough economic problems in this country. Police, teachers, and hospitals are cutting back due to a lack of funds. Yet, why are fast food companies receiving subsidies for something that they don’t provide? Are they more important than the services provided by policemen, teachers, and hospitals?

I exhort you to act on our behalf and cut programs that provide federal subsidies to fast food companies to “train” their workers. Create stronger policies on fast food owners and managers to ensure that they provide the proper training fast food workers need and stiff penalties for failing to do so. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

A concerned citizen

Stephen Sanidad

Works Cited

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The dark side of the All-American meal. New York:

Houghton Mifflin, 2004. print

Holleran, Kelly. “Fast food worker claims boss knew of previous injury when assigning task.”

setexasrecord.com. 14 May 2009. Web. 24 May 2011

Blosser, Fred. “Most teen worker injuries in restaurants occur in fast food.”

cdc.gov. NIOSH. 22 Dec 1999. Web. 23 May 2011

Thompson, Lea “Dirty Dining.” msnbc.msn.com. Microsoft National Broadcasting Company.

13 March 2005. Web 25 May 2011

Daniels, Stephanie. “Cost of Workplace Accidents and Injuries.” ehow.com. Web. 1 June 2011