Gerald Green was no stranger to hard work. The 31 year-old Waffle House employee worked his way up to RockStar Grill Operator through hurricanes, a personal injury and the death of a close friend.
But this week was different. From behind the counter of the restaurant where he has worked for seven years, he delivered a list of company-wide demands from workers across the Southeast. Like him, they are fed up with low wages and poor workplace protections. Together with the Union of Southern Service Workers, Green and his colleagues say that if their demands are not met, they are prepared to go on strike.
“I was nervous as hell,” Green said. “but it had to be done.”
The top of the employees’ list of demands is workplace safety.
Countless viral videos that have been uploaded online over the past decade paint an alarming portrait of a workplace that leaves its employees vulnerable to violence and frequent assaults.
In 2017, a gunman shot and killed 30-year old Jesse Hall inside the Tifton, Georgia Waffle House. Operations resumed the following morning.
Hall and Green were close friends.
“They called me into work a shift the next morning and I didn’t even know he’d died,” Green said. “They had the store open trying to take people’s money and get food out when someone just died here.”
Green says that simply put, workers don’t feel safe. Their demands include 24-hour security in restaurantes, and a new safety plan that would take into account the needs of workers when natural disasters strike.
Waffle House’s are known for staying open during inclement weather. In 2011 a FEMA official even coined the “Waffle House Index,” a metric for determining how severe a storm will be, based on whether or not the restaurant chain shut down.
Waffle House employees are expected to clock in rain or shine. When Hurricane Irma knocked down trees and powerlines in South Georgia, Green showed up to work.
“We don’t get hazard pay. There’s no compensation for having to work during a hurricane and as hurricanes have gotten worse over the years, it’s become more dangerous to work at Waffle House,” Green said.
Workers are also asking the company to raise their wages to $25 per hour. Minimum wage earns some Waffle House employees $7.25 per hour, but servers in some locations make as little as $2.32 hourly.
As workers struggle to make ends meet, the company boasts over $1billion in revenue annually.
For Green, a pay increase would mean time off to recover from a foot injury. He mans the Waffle House grill in an orthopedic boot for 40-hours a week and receives no breaks– a practice that he says, is par for the course
In fact, employees say they receive mandatory meal deductions for breaks they rarely take. They are demanding an end to this practice, which eats up a significant portion of their pay.
“It ends up being about $30,” Green said. “That’s gas money right there.”
According to a story published on WSBTV.com on September 30th, a Waffle House spokesperson released a statement accusing union officials of “embellishing descriptions” and said that, “Waffle House remains proud of its long history of effectively and directly addressing associate concerns. Our senior management teams continue to work alongside our associates as they have done since our company’s inception.”
Green said that if Waffle ignores the demands of the workers, they are prepared to strike.
“I’m glad to finally find a union that’s ready to take on this fight.”
