The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s relaxation of almost all masking requirements on Thursday was celebrated as a milestone in the fight against COVID-19. “But with a majority of Americans unvaccinated,” the Washington Post reports, “others questioned the sudden and blanket recommendation, worrying that the onus is now heavier on state and local governments, businesses and individuals to determine whether precautions are necessary.”
Those fully vaccinated are cleared to take off their masks indoors and outdoors except on airplanes, buses, trains and other public transportation, and in health-care settings. Business owners may decide for themselves whether to continue to require masks. But who is to police who is and isn’t fully vaccinated? Certainly not Walmart greeters.
And while some retailers and restaurants are raising pay to attract workers in a market with 1.2 unemployed workers per job opening, staffing up is still slow. The sudden lifting of the mask mandate means restaurants are unprepared.
“If we don’t have the staff, we can’t seat people,” said Jane Anderson, executive director of the Independent Restaurant Association in Asheville, North Carolina. Gov. Roy Cooper on Friday lifted the state’s mask mandate to match the CDC’s new guidance.
Employees themselves are not ready to go back to work in an environment with hostile customers who may or may not be vaccinated.
“The entire industry preys upon desperation”
Jake Galardi Marko, a ten-year restaurant industry veteran, quit his Olive Garden job of two over abuse from customers over Covid-19 protections.
From The Guardian:
“It’s a minefield of unsafe working environments and exploitative practices still permeate the hiring and training processes,” he said. “People always say but we make tips so it can’t be that bad. This is used as an excuse to ignore abusive and exploitative practices.”
Before starting his new position, he applied to dozens of restaurants and had several interviews, and noted many restaurants are in a chaotic state and unprepared to take on new workers. He said they are baiting potential hires with signing bonuses that don’t pan out, promises of higher wages, or applying for a position only to be told on the first day of hire they have to start out as a busser and work their way up. He left one job because the restaurant was not enforcing coronavirus safety protections.
“I contemplate leaving the industry every day. Most of us do but we have bills to pay, rent comes due every month. A lot of us have kids to support,” he added. “The entire industry preys upon desperation.”
The industry itself and the US Chamber of Commerce blame federal unemployment supplements for jobs going unfilled. Several Republican-led states used that rationale to stop distributing those benefits to force people back to work.
The argument ignores the fact that so many daycare facilites closed permanently during the pandemic. Not all schools are open and kids still remote learning at home need supervision. Not to mention workers are reluctant to take those desperation jobs for less than a living wage.
Workers in the restaurant industry say that any issues the industry is experiencing in hiring enough workers is a result of low wages, safety concerns and harassment from customers over Covid-19 protocols
According to a report published by One Fair Wage and the UC Berkeley Food Labor Research Center in May 2021, 53% of workers in the restaurant industry have considered leaving their job since the pandemic started, with low wages and tips, safety concerns, and harassment from customers as the primary reasons provided by workers.
Workers in the restaurant industry were among the highest sectors of workers who died of coronavirus during the pandemic, according to a University of California San Francisco study published in January.
That makes those reluctant to return to work lazy in conservative eyes.
Cris Cardona, a shift manager at a McDonald’s in Orlando, is one of several workers at the fast-food chain in at least 15 US cities who will participate in a daylong strike on 19 May to demand the company raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Cardona has worked at McDonald’s for four years, and makes just over $11 an hour, which he explained has prevented him from moving out of his parents’ home, getting his own car, or being able to go attend college.
“They call us essential, but the reality is they treat us like we’re disposable,” said Cardona. “They like to say that no one wants to work, that they’re having trouble finding workers and they blame this on unemployment benefits, but the problem is no one wants to work for a poverty wage, to risk their lives for $7.25 an hour.”
The marquee on a fast food restaurant up the street offers $12/hr for new hires and $13/hr for shift supervisors in a city with a high cost of living, low wages, and an affordable housing problem like many other cities.