L.A. Carl’s Jr. workers say they’re tired of getting beat up by customers
Carl’s Jr. at a location in North Hollywood. employees walked off the job Tuesday to protest allegedly unsafe working conditions.
About 30 members of the California Fast Food Workers Union protested against two striking Carl’s Jr. He gathered with his workers in front of the restaurant on Vineland Boulevard. Workers said the company failed to provide protection from violent customers and did not provide appropriate access to paid sick leave.
Workers detailed violent interactions with customers, including robberies and physical attacks, and said the company refused to provide safety training. They also said workers were not given time to recover from injuries they sustained on the job.
Striking employee Yolanda Cruz, who has worked at Carl’s Jr. for 20 years, said she feels scared every time she comes to work. The 66-year-old said staff were regularly harassed by customers.
“What else can we do? Pray to God that the way we go to work is the same as the way we come home at the end of the day,” Cruz told The Times in Spanish. “That’s the fear we always have.”
One morning, when Cruz arrived at the store for the opening shift, a man jumped him as he tried to enter the restaurant. Angry customers also regularly throw drinks at employees, according to the workers’ complaint filed with Cal/OSHA and the California Labor Commissioner.
Last summer, a man walked into the restaurant’s kitchen, threw items at employees and threatened them with a frying pan, the complaint said. The man then punched a worker in the face, according to the complaint.
The doctor told the worker to take a week off, but the employee said he was called back to work on the fifth day because no one could cover his shift, the complaint said. According to the complaint, the worker, fearing retaliation from his employer, went to work with a black eye; his face was still swollen from the attack.
“Management tells us that when a customer is aggressive we have to give them what they want, but we have not been trained on what to do if we are attacked or if someone is having a mental health crisis and acting erratically,” the worker said in his complaint.
Tuesday at a Carl’s Jr. in West Hollywood. store entrance. According to the reporter, this store was open when visited.
(Itzel Luna/Los Angeles Times)
Workers have called on city lawmakers to pass the Fast Food Fair Labor Ordinance, which would provide paid, full-time training on workers’ rights and expand paid leave for fast food workers.
The union went to City Hall on Tuesday afternoon to make public comments in support of the ordinance during a meeting of the City Council’s Economic Development and Employment Committee.
Workers also requested unarmed security guards and a safer store design, including barriers and locked doors, according to Cal/OSHA’s complaint.
In a news release announcing the strike, attorneys said these changes were vital to protect the city’s nearly 50,000 fast food workers from violence, wage theft and denial of basic worker protections.
Protect Los Angeles Residents, a coalition backed by fast food restaurants, claims the ordinance would be too costly and endanger the city’s restaurant owners. Fast food companies, including McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A and Starbucks, have spent tens of millions of dollars to suppress legislative efforts.
Carl’s Jr. began operating as a hot dog cart in Los Angeles in 1941. The first full-service restaurant was opened in Anaheim a few years later by founders Carl and Margaret Karcher.
The sprawling burger chain exploded in Southern California in the 1960s before expanding internationally to more than 1,000 locations.
Today, it struggles to maintain its dominance on the West Coast. A large Carl’s Jr. operates 65 locations in the Golden State, including the Vineland location. Its operator filed for bankruptcy in early April.
The operator, Friendly Franchisees Corp., cited the increase in the state’s fast food minimum wage to $20 as well as the brand’s own difficulties with marketing and innovation as reasons for the bankruptcy in a recent court filing.
A company spokesman did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.
