Greasy Spoon Sweatshop

SETTING:

A seedy firehall.

The stage is essentially bare except for a large table Center, surrounded by five folding chairs. There is a blackboard and a bulletin board Left.

AT RISE:

DEBBIE, STEVE, MIKE, and SONYA are seated around the table. STEVE wears a leather jacket and jeans. SONYA is dressed in a cheerleader's outfit. MIKE wears a college football jacket and jeans and DEBBIE is wearing a house dress.

DEBBIE

Boy we sure were busy yesterday. It must have been the hostage situation that drew the crowds.

SONYA

I wish I'd been working. The only excitement we've ever had in the place and it had to be my day off.

(SONYA is a vivacious teenager. The kind of girl Quickie Burger exploits as an attraction in its drive-thru. She is only working to feed her consumer habit at the mall.)

DEBBIE

It was tough after Jim's father was arrested and we got hit. Keith had to stay and help out on fries to handle the rush.

SONYA

Then I'm glad I wasn't working yesterday. I hate it when Keith shows up and starts bossing us around. He had Jim crying that one day.

STEVE

It's too bad about Jim. I can't believe he would kill himself over Quickie Burger. It is definitely not worth it. Then Keith goes and tears up his suicide note so nobody can prove it. Man, that really pissed me off! Well he is not going to get away with it. This guy I want you to meet is a real trouble maker.

DEBBIE (to SONYA)

Mr. Alexander had a gun pointed at Joe.

SONYA

What did Joe do?

DEBBIE

Oh he was all scared. He was shaking like a leaf and offered him a Be Our Guest card.

SONYA

Ha! Be my guest and shoot. Were you scared?

DEBBIE

I was at first but he wasn't mad at us.

MIKE

We could have been on television but Keith wouldn't let us talk to the reporters.

STEVE

Did you see Keith on the eleven o'clock news? He said Jim suffered from emotional problems which made him incapable of handling his job. He suggested that Mr. Alexander was distraught when he pulled a gun on Joe and that such violent behavior probably indicated the root cause of Jim's decision to kill himself.

SONYA

What a bastard!

MIKE

I'm going to look for a new job. I'm really pissed off at that guy.

STEVE

There aren't many jobs out there. What are you looking for?

MIKE

I'd like to get a job working with computers.

DEBBIE

It is hard to find a computer job. I have an associate degree in computer science but I can't get a job.

MIKE

You have a college degree? Then why are you working at Quickie Burger?

DEBBIE (bitter)

Because they all want experience but they don't want to train anybody so you can get the experience. Hell I often forget I even went to college. All that hype about the future being in computers is just bullshit. Most of the local companies have all their software written by now so they only need programmers to modify some code once in a blue moon. Computer programmers only get temp assignments nowadays. The other jobs are data entry and computer operator which are low paying shitty jobs.

MIKE

You still have to know how to use a computer to get a job now.

DEBBIE

Sure, you have to use a computer to enter a sale if you get a job as a cashier. Even Quickie Burger offers those kind of jobs. Still, writing computer programs might have been fun. I would have genuinely enjoyed that kind of work. Now I can only dream of the pleasure there could be in working in a computer language, the pride of being a brilliant professional, the pleasant office environment. Just think, everything that position might have meant to me has been deprived me. Instead I've had to endure a hopeless future, the pressure and abuse of that hellhole, that greasy spoon sweatshop! Don't you see? My life has been diminished, comprised as it is of experiences I do not cherish or find very pleasant.

STEVE

Ah, here is the organizer I invited to speak with us.

(STAN LeBOTZ enters from Right. He is a determined man dressed in a white shirt with tie and black slacks. His manner is energetic and infectious, a motivational speaker. He is carrying a briefcase. STAN crosses the stage to position himself before the blackboard.)

LeBOTZ

Thanks for coming to this meeting. You've never been asked to join a union before, have you? No doubt you've never even heard of anyone attempting to organize a fast food restaurant. I bet you're sure it would fail, aren't you? Well not necessarily. There have been some success stories. Your unfamiliarity with the struggle and its successes is hardly an accident. They don't want you to even dream of the possibility and with total control of the mass media through a billion dollar advertising budget, they can ensure the possibility is never presented before you.

MIKE (surprised)

Hey! What is this? I thought this was about Jim.

STEVE (fiercely)

We are going to fight them by forming a union. It is the only way to get even.

LeBOTZ

Jim's suicide is the greatest outrage I've ever heard of in all my years of labor activism. We will have tremendous public support and considerable moral authority to demand concessions from Quickie Burger.

MIKE (angry)

You're just using Jim to get your union in here.

LeBOTZ

If you had a union, Jim would never have been put in a intolerable position with no way out. He would have had recourse to powerful representation. We would have gotten them off his back.

MIKE

Well it's too late now.

LeBOTZ

It is not too late for you. I'm here now to help you envision your triumph over these bastards. I want you to see yourself moving out of your mobile homes and apartments and living in a real house. I want you to see yourself driving a new car next year. I want you to see how this can come about with a union to ensure you are rewarded for your hard work.

MIKE

I bet you don't want us to see how much the union dues will be.

STEVE (annoyed)

Hey, lay off it Mike. What's your problem?

MIKE

Union workers make too much money. They're ruining American business.

STEVE (flabbergasted)

Oh for Christ's sake, you make a nickel more than minimum wage and you think that is enough? That is the kind of class warfare the conservatives encourage, non- union lower working class resentment towards unionized skilled workers.

MIKE

I'm just working at Quickie Burger to pay my way through college. I'm a business major remember. I'm not a loser like you. You'll be working at Quickie Burger forever.

STEVE (infuriated, stung)

Why you bloodless piece of white wonder bread! Don't think there is an executive office with your name on it, reserved for you. You are one downwardly mobile motherfucker.

LeBOTZ

All right, all right, everybody relax. Maybe you don't plan on working at Quickie Burger forever but you could still use a union. In any event, we have established ourselves in the area as community activists. We have an office in the neighborhood and we won't be going away. So it won't do them any good to fire any of you for joining the union. We will simply approach whomever they hire to replace you and offer them the same legal right to union representation.

MIKE

You'll probably just put Quickie Burger out of business.

LeBOTZ

And would that be such a great loss? What good is a job that doesn't provide a living? You can't support yourself on minimum wage. You're working for much less than a living. If your income doesn't meet your financial needs then you're wasting your time here. You need a job that pays all your bills. You either need to find better jobs or see some improvement in your present job. And for the latter you need a union.

MIKE

Will the union provide us with better jobs when Quickie Burger is forced out of business?

LeBOTZ

Look, this sweatshop has claimed part of the market for dining out. Quickie Burger puts fine restaurants out of business by capturing their share of the market. They can undercut other restaurants by offering lower prices which are made possible by less overhead in the form of labor costs. By exploiting your labor they make it impossible for restaurants offering better wages and benefits to operate. Now should this fast food joint go out of business the local market for dining out shall remain. A vacuum will be created that can be filled by a restaurant which pays higher wages. And they most certainly will pay better because we will have established the community standards for business practices. We will make it clear that we value our children's dignity more than a cheap hamburger. We will make it clear that a greasy spoon sweatshop is an unwelcome presence in our community.

MIKE (upset)

But then we lose our jobs! What do I care if a fine restaurant replaces Quickie Burger? They will only hire experienced cooks and waiters, not unskilled workers and teenagers.

LeBOTZ

If Quickie Burger wishes to remain in this market they will not move away. They don't have the option of assembling their hamburgers in a foreign country and importing them back into the area for sale. And they don't have the option of downsizing or laying off employees either. You know they can't deliver fast service if they understaff the restaurant to a significant degree. So they'll simply be forced to pay what we demand or lose this market. Believe me they have more to lose than you. They certainly profit from this community considering how little they give back to it.

SONYA (snickers)

What about our customers? They are supposed to come first.

LeBOTZ

As I've already said, they should not value a cheap hamburger more than the dignity of their children and neighbors. What kind of customers do you get in here.

DEBBIE (bitter)

Older working class people with property, investments, and retirement accounts. What do they care about young people struggling to raise a family in poverty? They've had years to accumulate their property and now they don't care about anyone else, not even their grandchildren! Why should we unite when you can't even count on family?

LeBOTZ

Listen, you have to realize that older working people have never worked in fast food restaurants. They can hardly imagine the abuse and degradation of working in a greasy spoon sweatshop. Fast food places have only been in existence since the fifties. But as a generation familiar with lousy McJobs comes of age there will be a backlash. The teenagers they exploit become adults, voters, and eventually politicians. Someday a politician that remembers working for Quickie Burger is going to propose legislation to regulate the industry. Won't that be poetic justice?

MIKE

We also get a lot of working people in here who rely on Quickie Burger for affordable meals. Don't you realize you're jeopardizing the working man's eatery? Do you think they can afford to eat at a fine restaurant every day?

LeBOTZ

This "eatery" doesn't serve nutritious meals. It sells greasy food that eventually ruins your health. Fast food is junk food and working people are better off without it. No, this greasy spoon serves no vital or essential purpose. It exploits the consumer as well as the employee. Quickie Burger has reduced food to a mass produced commodity for sheer gluttonous pleasure. Their only concern is to make food a commercial product without regard for its nutritional value.

MIKE

But it is still all working people can afford.

LeBOTZ

What about the abusive management style, the militaristic discipline? Most of the people who eat here wouldn't want to work here. So how can they justify their contribution to its success? They should boycott the entire industry or blame themselves when the economy forces them to put in a stint in such a place. Quickie Burger has become an institution in this country. It is hard to imagine anything toppling an entrenched institution. But I tell you Quickie Burger does not represent anything essential or desirable in our lives. And because it does not have any true value it is extremely vulnerable. The truth is we would be better off without a Quickie Burger in our suburban slum. And since there is no defense against the truth, I assure you Quickie Burger has no future in this country!

MIKE

Where does that leave us?

LeBOTZ

We have set up a fund to compensate you for a year's wages should you lose your job as a result of our organizing drive. What the hell, that's only eight thousand dollars.

MIKE (excited)

Why didn't you say that earlier? I can go for collecting a year's wages for doing nothing.

LeBOTZ (sarcastically)

Well we finally have you on board. Now we have to draw up a list of grievances.

SONYA

I only got a nickel raise on my last performance review.

LeBOTZ

That's not an incentive, that's an insult. You should receive at least a dollar raise.

(LeBOTZ writes each grievance on the blackboard.)

STEVE

Well I didn't even get that! My name tag was on crooked so I didn't get a raise.

LeBOTZ

That is an example of their authoritarian management style.

DEBBIE

If we cook too much product for the holding cabinets and it has to be wasted, we are told that waste comes out of raises.

LeBOTZ

What! That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. The employee is not responsible for management of waste. You simply aren't empowered to control waste. Waste is a form of overhead and the owner should pay his own overhead expenses, not deduct them from his employee's wages. You earned those raises through your extra effort. He has no right to offer a raise for extra effort and then when you make that effort, start deducting his expenses from it.

DEBBIE

We have to cook more product than the projections call for to buy ourselves some time on the busiest shifts.

LeBOTZ

Is a shift frequently understaffed?

STEVE

Oh every day! Somebody always calls in sick or doesn't show up and then we have to work harder to make up for it.

LeBOTZ

Well absenteeism is a form of sabotage even if the employee is not consciously subversive. When you hate your job and decide to take the day off to get even, you are committing sabotage. A high absenteeism rate indicates very poor job satisfaction and poor labor relations.

STEVE

We never have enough people working grill. They get hourly reports on the labor percentage and if the percentage is too high, somebody gets sent home early.

LeBOTZ

You mean before their scheduled hour?

STEVE

Yes. Although most people are overjoyed to get out early and sullen if they're asked to stay later.

LeBOTZ

Checking the labor percentage every hour is just ridiculous. By understaffing the restaurant, they force you to work with little assistance and where is the teamwork in that? To them, teamwork is just a ploy to get you to work more than one position during your shift. If they were on your team they wouldn't understaff the busiest shifts. It just forces you to work that much harder and that increases productivity. Only they are on the winning team.

MIKE

And if you can't keep up they verbally abuse you or threaten to fire you. That is what happened to Jim a lot.

LeBOTZ

Management by stress. I think your greatest grievance is incredibly poor treatment. Harsh discipline, harassment, and making threats shows a complete lack of respect for the employee. Quickie Burger claims to be powered by people with pride. What a joke! They rob you of all pride by humiliating you. There is no real empowerment of the employee at Quickie Burger. You are forced to play by their roles or you're out. Without a union, you are powerless and easily intimidated.

STEVE

Yeah, we have to follow really strict procedures too. For instance, we have to center the pickles on the buns or the general manager has a hissy fit.

LeBOTZ

What does it matter if the pickle is centered?

STEVE

And we have to move all the equipment when we sweep the floor even when it is inconvenient to other people who are working with it. You can't sweep under the holding cabinet cart when someone needs to get into it.

LeBOTZ

Their management style is too strict. They are micromanaging your every move. You are not empowered to make your job any easier. So how are you to improve your performance? If you have to follow strict procedures, work with little assistance, and meet impossible demands, how do you go about earning a raise? You can't. They make increasing demands upon you but they refuse to increase your rewards.

DEBBIE (enlightened)

That is right! How can we make an extra effort when they are demanding maximum effort at all times?

LeBOTZ

Your job is overloaded. You have too much to do in the time allotted.

SONYA

We also must get the customers out of drive thru in 59 seconds or less. They time us.

LeBOTZ

With a stopwatch? That is the worst kind of working condition. In factories, managers time the assembly line to force a speedup. We have to sabotage production to put a stop to that.

STEVE

We also don't get any benefits except for free uniforms and meals. No medical insurance, no paid holidays, no vacations, and no pension.

SONYA

Last year we had to work Thanksgiving even though nobody goes out to eat for Thanksgiving. That ruined my holiday.

MIKE

What I find really inconvenient is the security. I have to ask for a key every time I need stock from the freezer because they keep it locked up. They don't trust us. Actually, somebody is stealing apple juice and drinking it in the freezer. It drives the managers nuts because they can't find out who is doing it.

LeBOTZ

Petty theft is also a form of sabotage. No doubt it is a deliberate attempt to annoy the management rather than real theft for profit. Another sign of poor morale.

MIKE

The owner threatens to prosecute when they catch the culprit.

LeBOTZ

For an apple juice? He is a real asshole! Well we have quite a list of grievances here. What is your usual grievance procedure?

STEVE

They have an open door policy where you can always talk to a manager or fill out a Personal Action Letter.

LeBOTZ

Do you have any employee meetings?

SONYA

We are supposed to have crew meetings and rap sessions but they've let that slide for over a year now.

LeBOTZ

Then you have no means to resolve employee/management disputes. There are no lines of communication. That is why you need union representation. We can take your grievances to the management and demand a resolution of the problem. We shall empower you and win greater rewards and benefits for you. Our first step shall be a surprise strike to force recognition of the union. We could petition for a National Labor Relations Board supervised election but they are notoriously slow. The NLRB has been co-opted by corporate America.

MIKE

I think we all open tomorrow so we can shut them down for three hours in the morning.

LeBOTZ

Excellent! Then we'll all meet outside Quickie Burger at four o'clock tomorrow morning. I'll have to go back to my motel room and get some rest if I'm going to get up that early. See you later.

(LeBOTZ gathers up his papers and exists Right.)

STEVE (relishing the prospect)

Quickie Burger will get a rude awakening tomorrow. Generation X shall have its revenge after years of exploitation. You can't profit from the sweat of teenagers without creating a generation determined to take the sweet taste of success out of your mouth. I've had a belly full of that lousy McJob. Tomorrow is the day I've been dreaming of during my dreary hours of toil for the Man.

DEBBIE

I hope I don't lose my job. I have a kid to support and rent to pay.

MIKE

He said you'll receive a year's wages if you're fired. That is easy money. Probably tax free too.

DEBBIE

I don't trust him to pay up once I'm no longer an employee.

STEVE

His offer was on the level. He showed me the financial documents of a fifty thousand dollar trust fund for striker's support. There is some real money behind this union drive. This will be a test case to inspire future efforts.

MIKE (skeptical)

I don't know. Are you sure they are really committed to us? It is highly unusual for anyone to attempt to organize unskilled workers. There can't be much dues money in it for them. This seems highly irregular to me.

STEVE (bitter)

I don't care if it is legit or not! We've been all alone back there, in the kitchen. Nobody has given a damn about us until now. Our parents, relatives, neighbors, the media, the labor activists, nobody has done a damn thing for us. Do you think even the NAACP has dared to criticize Quickie Burger for exploiting African Americans? Not on your life. They've praised the corporation for providing jobs and opportunities to minorities. What bullshit. It is a stinking dead end job for Christ's sake! The NAACP has sold us into wage slavery, just like brothers in Africa would sell other tribespeople to the colonial slavers.

SONYA

Just be grateful you're not a recent immigrant from Africa. If you didn't speak the language or have a green card you wouldn't even make minimum wage. You should hear the horror stories my parents tell me. Anyway, I'm still in high school so I don't see why I should be required to join a union.

STEVE

Damn, that is right! I don't think it is legal for you to be involved in a strike. It might be too dangerous for a minor.

SONYA (sarcastic)

Why? Is Keith going to hire security guards to machine gun us all?

STEVE

Well if the police are called we could get maced.

MIKE

I'm not going to be there then. I'm not willing to be arrested for the union. Let somebody else be the martyr.

STEVE (maudlin)

You're a coward. A coward must spend his life being servile. I'm tired of being afraid of the boss. I'm tired of fearing for my job. I really don't care if I lose it, I just want my dignity back. That job has taken my soul from me. My spirit is being killed by the monotonous grind, a death by slow degrees. Once I felt there was a profound depth to my being. I would watch a good movie and really feel something, like there was something noble in life. But now everything seems mean and mediocre. The really terrible thing is that my profound depth remains, unexpressed and unacknowledged. I am locked within myself. What use does Quickie Burger have for a great spirit? Insignificance has been imposed upon me. I'm nobody.

SONYA (moved)

Hey, remember what Martin Luther King said, "I am somebody".

STEVE (bitter)

His dream is dead and lying under a police shroud in the streets. We are a defeated people being forced into federal concentration camps for minorities. An entire generation has been lost, shackled to a grill or a cell.

SONYA

Nonsense. We must keep hope alive.

STEVE

We are lucky to keep ourselves alive.

(He shakes off his depression.)

But tomorrow shall be a day of reckoning!

DEBBIE

Well, I'll be seeing you. I have to relieve the baby sitter.

MIKE

And I have to go study for a test. See you later.

STEVE

Be there tomorrow!

(DEBBIE, MIKE, STEVE, and SONYA exit separately Right.)