News roundup: Fighting for the little guy

Posted by Philip Anselmo on September 25, 2008 - 11:48am
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It seems the Daily News ran out of all the hard-hitting and otherwise informative news that made for an overstuffed edition Wednesday—really, they put together a fine paper yesterday. Today's top headline, in triple-bold font, reads: "Pizza Huts set 'to go' in Albion, Medina". Sure, this is news, but top of the front page news? Well, on closer inspection, it seems that yes, there is more to this story than one might at first suspect.

Check out this second paragraph from reporter Virginia Kropf:

Rumors about the closing of the Albion and Medina stores have been circulating around the county for several days, but attempts to verify the fact on Wednesday were met with "No comment" or slammed receivers.

Sounds like some serious business. And Kropf doesn't let up. In what seemed like a boring story about a couple chain restaurants closing turns into a story about the worker getting screwed over by the man. It turns out the employees in Albion were never told the store would be closing, not officially—or at least, this is the impression from the article. Instead, the management simply stopped posting work schedules and told the employees to show up in Medina at 9:00am Thursday without their uniforms. They were not told why, they said to Kropf.

Check this out:

A man who answered the phone in the Lockport office said he was a supervisor, but declined to give his name. He said he knew nothing about any closings and when confronted with the sign in the Albion Pizza Hut [which read: Due to closing...], he said, "Thanks for telling me. I'll have to call and tell them to take it down."

When asked if he was saying the store would not be closing, he hung up.

Whoa. Those are some shady dealings. A quote from one of the women who works at the Albion Pizza Hut sums it up: "If they had been up front and told us, I could have had that other job," she said.

Great job giving a voice to the voiceless, Virginia. Great article.

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Posted by Gabor Deutsch on September 25, 2008 - 1:53pm
Pizza Hut sneaky but legal.
As a former Pizza Hut Manager I am well aware of their corporate tactics.
They will find a way to fire employees legally so they dont have to pay them unemployment.
They are willing to go to court to fight unemployment claims.
They will offer most employees an option to work at other locations, like even if they are over 100 miles away which would be too costly and time consuming for most minimum wage employees.
If you do not except you are not covered by unemployment.
This tactic is not covered under layoff protection this is closing businesses and a thanks for everything bye bye now.
Posted by Tom Gilliatt on September 25, 2008 - 2:51pm
Glad I never tried to get a job there!
Posted by Mark Potwora on September 25, 2008 - 3:37pm
I think you can refuse a job that is less than 100 miles away,and still get unemployment checks..
Posted by John Roach on September 25, 2008 - 8:14pm
I bet Mark is right.
Posted by Gabor Deutsch on September 26, 2008 - 12:57pm
Yes that is true. I should have said that as long as you fall under the stricked guidelines of being eligible to collect unemployement benifits in the first place.
If you refuse over 100 miles you still will have to actively seek employment and not refuse any opportunities that are recommended or available.
If you are on minimum wage you will get sinificantly less than what your wages were while you seek unemployment.
I guess my biggest point is that I feel sorry for those workers involved period.
I wanted to say that my experience was when Pizza Hut was not closing but they were a Franchise and sold out to corporate. I read that these Pizza Hut stores closing are under LLC. Which is probably just as bad of a situation.
Posted by Tom Gilliatt on September 26, 2008 - 2:52pm
Maybe with the world economy going to hell Pizza Hut might go with it.


The old saying "You reap what you so"




P.S I hope that little saying does not speak some BIG debate if you know what I mean.


Tom