A Labor Shortage? Nah, Workers Are Just Standing Up For Themselves.

Employers need to stop treating food service workers as if they're interchangeable.

The National Labor Relations Board found that Voodoo Doughnut illegally fired employees for their heat-related strike, according to the company’s workers union. In statements from Doughnut Workers United and the Industrial Workers of the World, workers and union representatives report that the NLRB found merit in the unions’ claims of unfair labor practices.

In June 2021, a record-breaking heat wave hit Portland, which killed more than 100 people in Oregon and caused widespread heat exhaustion, power outages, and machinery failure at Portland restaurants, bars, and cafes. During the heat wave, a number of Voodoo Doughnut employees working at the Old Town location went on strike protesting the excessive heat within the building. The strike was a last resort after growing concerns related to the heat throughout the week; workers reported experiencing symptoms of heat exhaustion, including nausea and fatigue, as early as Thursday, June 24. “This is not the first year that heat has been an issue at this location. The current AC unit, which did not fully cool the location, was only installed this year. It’s been a daily conversation,” Samantha Bryce, a Voodoo Doughnut employee and organizer of Voodoo Doughnut’s workers union, told Eater Portland in June. “The only reason you didn’t hear about a strike or a walk-out in the past is because we didn’t have a union then.”

In late June, the high temperature hit 115 on one day and 117 the next. To say that Portland isn’t built to withstand such heat would be something of an understatement. Those are temperatures one might typically associate with Phoenix, AZ, which is air-conditioned to the nth degree and has outdoor misting stations everywhere you turn.

Portland has a lot of ancient buildings with no air conditioning and minimal air movement. Oppressive heat isn’t just uncomfortable; it can be deadly. During the June heatwave, 71 people died from heat-related causes in Multnomah County, where Portland’s located. Most of those were senior citizens without air conditioning, access to fans, or, most tragically, anyone to check in on them.

The previous all-time high here had been 107, which, if memory serves, was in 2007. This heatwave was epic, historic, and explosive- something no one saw coming because this is the Pacific Northwest, not the Sonoran Desert. Erin and I live have lived in a three-level, 3100-sq. ft. house in north Portland for seven years now, but we didn’t have air conditioning installed until three summers ago. We hadn’t felt rushed to have it installed, but this past summer showed us how important that a/c unit has become.

We’re fortunate in that Erin works in an air-conditioned hospital, and I work from home. My office is in a below-ground basement that seldom gets above 66 degrees, so it’s a virtually perfect work environment for me.

But what about the people whose workplaces aren’t air-conditioned? Late June’s heatwave showed that not only can it be uncomfortable, but it can also be dangerous and, in some cases, deadly.

Voodoo Donuts is one of those quirky Portland businesses tourists feel they have to visit for their trip to be complete. It’s famous for being weird and for occasionally serving up some genuinely odd confections. Voodoo is open 24 hours, seven days a week, and people routinely wait in line for 45 minutes or more to buy donuts, maple-bacon bars, or t-shirts and hats.

(A friend from San Antonio once called me and asked me to buy him a Voodoo t-shirt. Being the dutiful friend I am, I waited in line for an hour to procure the t-shirt. A few months later, he sent me a picture of him wearing the t-shirt in front of a mosque in Kazakhstan…and I felt vindicated.)

It’s always amazed me that people are willing to waiting in line for donuts that aren’t- IMHO- even that good. But, then again, I’m not a tourist. I live here.

(Here’s a tip to those planning a trip to Portland. The donuts at Voodoo are unique but decidedly mediocre. There are far better donuts to be had in Puddletown. Voodoo’s pink box may have cult status, but the donuts themselves are just slightly above just OK. Next time, try Blue Star. You can thank me later._)

Ah, but my ADD is showing, for I digress….

Voodoo Donuts is situated in the ground floor of a funky old building in a rundown part of downtown Portland known for harboring homeless people and those prone to puking after too much late-night cheer. But, for most of the year, the age of the building doesn’t present much of an issue. The ambient temperature isn’t low or high enough to render the establishment uncomfortable.

When it’s 117 degrees outside, though, one can’t reasonably expect an air conditioning unit in a poorly-insulated old building to temper conditions inside the building. And, according to Voodoo employees, the working conditions during the heatwave were intolerable.

Employees approached the general manager at the store, and according to those workers, the general manager told them that if it was too hot within the building, they could leave. Employees participated in a work stoppage for two days, during the end of the heat wave.

It was difficult to blame the employees who rebelled at the idea of working in conditions that would put a Finnish sauna to shame. They weren’t making enough to risk nausea, fatigue, heat exhaustion…or worse.

Voodoo employees, who had unionized a couple of years ago, were in a position where they could act collectively. And they had the protection of labor law behind them. So they protested intolerable working conditions by walking off the job. They should have been safe, except that Voodoo fired them in violation of federal law.

In response, however, many of the employees who went on strike ended up getting fired. Workers participating in union action — strikes, walk-outs, pickets — are generally protected under the National Labor Relations Act, which would legally block employers from firing them in retaliation. However, members of the company’s union, Doughnut Workers United, say nine employees were fired for “workplace abandonment.” In response, the union filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.

According to Doughnut Workers United, the National Labor Relations Board informed them on October 6 that seven of the nine employees fired would have to be rehired by the company with back-pay, in response to the union’s unfair labor practice charge. In other words, the union says the National Labor Relations Board sided with the union, and found the company had violated national labor law.

There’s a question in play here much larger than nine donut workers fired because they “abandoned” their workplace during intolerable working conditions. The Voodoo Donut employees were fortunate to belong to a union, something the vast majority of food workers don’t.

The question becomes what conditions an employer can subject employees to without fear of backlash. If Voodoo’s employees hadn’t been unionized and they’d walked off the job, despite the intolerable heat inside the building, they would’ve had no recourse. They’d be out of work- all of the rights in that situation rest with the employer.

Portland food service workers have long been leaders in the growing restaurant labor movement: The Burgerville Workers Union, representing employees of the Pacific Northwestern fast-food chain, was the country’s first federally recognized fast-food union, and paved the way for food service workers to participate in more union actions around the city. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic and recent extreme weather events, that interest in workplace organizing has only grown. During a period when many workers have been subjected to unsafe working conditions without health insurance or a living wage, many food workers — whether they work for food processing plants and mass-production bakeries, third-party grocery delivery apps, or coffee shops and chains — have felt empowered to unionize or strike as a matter of survival. The Portland chapter of the Industrial Workers of the World released a guide to COVID-19 crisis organizing, responding to the growing interest in labor unions, and a food-service-specific unionizing resource, Shift Change PDX, popped up on Instagram in late 2020. That focus on workplace safety has extended beyond union workers: In response to the June 2021 heat wave, Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration built a new set of rules for employers during extreme heat events.

All of these things represent discrete victories, which are good for food service workers. Nonetheless, Oregon is one of 50 states, and Voodoo Donuts is one of the untold thousands of small businesses nationwide. But, unfortunately, workers have almost no voice and even fewer rights they can exercise without fear of retaliation when it comes to the food service industry.

For the most part, food service employers can treat their employees as they see fit. However, the industry has a distressing tendency to view and treat employees as interchangeable parts. Why devote a lot of time and energy to training and developing employees when they’re just going to leave, anyway?

It’s a “chicken-or-egg” question. Do food service employees tend to be transient because they’re generally treated poorly throughout the industry, or are employees treated poorly because they tend to be transient? Whatever side you happen to come down on, the person serving you your hamburger (or donuts) probably doesn’t make a living wage and/or get the hours they need to make ends meet.

All this summer’s heatwave did was spotlight the reality that food service workers are taken for granted, poorly paid, and treated as interchangeable parts. So it’s no wonder that there’s a “labor shortage” here in Oregon and elsewhere. Truthfully, it’s easier for employers to claim “labor shortage” than to admit “there’s a shortage of people I can exploit, underpay, and mistreat.”

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (Minnesota), I put myself through my last year of college by waiting on tables. Sadly, it seems the industry hasn’t changed much over the past 40 years. It’s still exploitative, it still underpays servers and other employees, and it still subjects them to unfair and often unreasonable working conditions.

Same as it ever was.

But I’ll bet you’re not thinking about that as you’re slicing into that steak, are you?? Perhaps it’s time for you to begin thinking about the people who prepare and bring you your meal. If nothing else, you might consider leaving a larger tip than you might have previously considered.

I’d wager that they’ll appreciate that few extra bucks more than you’ll miss them. And if that isn’t the case, perhaps you should stay home and prepare your own meals.

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