“Do These New Coronavirus Prevention Measures Make You Feel Safe?” No, Taco Bell, They Don’t.
April 20, 2020
Taco Bell drive through and delivery remain open in many “essential business” states. (Mike Mozart
By Ninalyn
So my job has a strict social media policy. I could get fired for writing this open letter. But I think the risk is worth it right now.
Hi, Taco Bell! My name is Nina, I’ve worked for the Bell for a little under five and a half years, my current franchisee is Desert de Oro, and I’m here to elaborate on an answer I gave to an internal poll asking questions about our COVID-19 response.
The question—which was asked with radio buttons and did not provide any space for elaboration—was “do our new procedures make you feel safe?”
No, Taco Bell. No, they don’t.
You have suggested we wear masks, which is nice. But you haven’t provided them. I just paid $40, which I will not be reimbursed for, to buy fabric and elastic to protect my crew. I won’t be paid for my time in doing your job, either.
You have provided paid sick time—but only for people who test positive for COVID-19, even though getting a test is wildly difficult, verging on impossible. My state isn’t even offering them right now. Now I’m lucky, I’m a shift leader and live in a state where you are required to give me sick pay whether I have COVID or not, but what about my crew who don’t yet fall under the sick pay law? What about locations in other states where sick pay isn’t mandated? And if half the crew calls in and two have COVID diagnoses and two have symptoms but haven’t been able to get a test, do you really think the untested people will be able to stay home, even though CDC guidelines (and, frankly, your own policies) say they should?
You’ve advised us to start handing out drive through orders on trays to minimize contact. Do you have any idea how many people then take the tray into their car to unload it, thus creating more contact than of we’d just handed out the food with gloves? Same with putting all drinks in carriers—do you know how many people try to hand the carriers back? It’s a lot. Did you ask any frontline employees, like….at all, if these measures make sense with how customers actually act? (I’m guessing not.)
We are armed with gloves and a bottle of sanitizer and that’s it. We’re not being given hazard pay, even though we’re being required to treat cash and dirty trays basically as biohazard. I’m having nightmares about work, dreams in which I’m surrounded by customers trying to pull down my homemade mask while people in suits tell me said mask doesn’t match my uniform. I’m sure I’m not the only one having nightmares like this.
But do you know what makes me feel least safe of all, Taco Bell?
(Here comes the part I could probably get fired for. I’m relying on you, KOS readers, to point out why that would be a bad idea and a shit thing to do.)
According to an email we received, if we are required by the state to shut down, you will not continue to pay us, as other companies have agreed, nor will you furlough us.
What you have decided, Taco Bell, is that you will fire us.
It’s okay, though, because we’ll be re-hireable. I’m pretty sure—at least, given that you didn’t indicate anything to the contrary—that this means we lose all the benefits we’ve earned with years of labor, and any pay raises we’ve gotten over the years will be right in the trash, but we can have our jobs back. How generous. One of the women in my store has been here for 17 years and missed fewer than half a dozen days of work. You will tell her she has lost everything she worked for all those years just so you don’t have to help your workers?
We are risking our lives so you can stay open. We’re not being provided the PPE we need, our new “safety measures” are a joke, we’re still being required to make all our metrics while having staffing cut, and at the end of it all our thanks might be losing our jobs.
But it’s okay. Nobody will care as long as you keep giving them free tacos. Right?
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Posted with permission