GIG HARBOR — Workers at the Burger King in the Lake Kathryn Village Mall in Gig Harbor walked out Tuesday, echoing other walkouts by fast-food workers across the country.
Unlike the workers in Nebraska, who changed their readerboard to say “We All Quit,” the Key Peninsula workers simply closed the restaurant and went home. A napkin hung on a window read, “Closed due to staffing issues.”
Two employees, who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation, told The Gateway the walkout occurred because the staff was “fed up” after a general manager failed to show up for work.
“It was just a really bad day,” one employee said. “Our crew just kinda got fed up and they walked out.”
A second employee said the walkout was “to improve the working conditions.”
Rumors of the walkout first began circulating on social media just before noon Tuesday. Onlookers said they saw the employees leaving the businesses and giving away free food.
Donna Brattain, an area resident, said she sent her daughter to the Burger King to get food about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, but found it closed.
Allison Zimmerman, a manager of the neighboring Cost-Less Pharmacy, said she first learned about the walkout when some of her employees went to try to order food.
Sign with a napkin
“They were greeted by workers walking out of the store, handing out free food outside,” Zimmerman said. “One of my employees helped them put up a sign with a napkin.”
Zimmerman, her husband and brother-in-law also operate the mall, which makes them the restaurant’s landlords, although they are not involved it its operation. She said it has been managed since last April by a Vancouver-based company called Ambrosia QSR.
Vicky Jarrett, director of operations for Ambrosia QSR, declined to comment on the walkout when reached by phone.
“I am not at liberty to discuss this,” Jarrett said.
Jarrett said there currently is a plan to address the working conditions, though said she couldn’t go into specifics.
“We are working on all that, yes,” Jarrett said. “I can’t talk to media about any of that.”
Zimmerman said she has since called the management company and spoke directly to Jarrett.
“I followed back up this morning,” Zimmerman said. “I actually called Vicky Jarrett back and I wanted to know if she had followed up with her workers and figured out how to manage the business over there. She told me that I was rude and she actually hung up on me.” Jarrett denies doing that.
The business appeared to be open and operating Wednesday.
It’s the customers, too
It’s not just management, employees said. It’s the customers, too, who have been rude and impatient, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The employees said they frequently suffer from under-staffing and supply shortages that cause delays, leaving them to deal with frustrated customers who become openly hostile when they have to wait for their food.
“We get treated like garbage by customers. Sometimes they’ll cuss us out and it’s not our fault,” the employee said. “We get these huge orders and we can’t keep up with all of it.”
“We get food thrown at us, we get cookie dough smeared on our windows,” another employee said. “We deal with a corporation that couldn’t care less about the people that work here for years and years and years.”
“It’s always been a problem, but since COVID, people have really been on the wringer,” the first employee said. “They’ve really been disrespectful when we’re all going through the same thing and it’s just overwhelming to have to deal with. We don’t deserve it. We’re just trying to do our job.”
Shortage of staff is another problem, the employee said. “We just can’t get people in to apply here.”
Minimum wage job
Both employees said the starting pay at the business is minimum wage, which is currently $13.69 in Washington.
No matter what they are paid, employees deserve better respect, an employee said.
“We are looking for better respect and better care. For the stuff in our restaurant to actually get fixed,” the employee said. “Just cause we work minimum wage jobs does not mean that we should go home, stressed out, crying.”
The Burger King chain is owned by the conglomerate Restaurant Brands International, which also owns Popeyes and Tim Horton’s. Most of the 18,625 Burger King restaurants worldwide are operated by local franchisees, which set their own wages and working conditions.
