Joanne Bartlett was fired on day 89 of her 90 day trial period at Mission Bay Burger Fuel. She was fired just after asking for more than one 10 minute break during her eight hour shift.
Joanne received high grades in the company’s training program, has culinary school qualifications and regularly worked extra shifts when asked.
No reason was given for her dismissal.
Activists picketed her store last Friday.
During the picket company chief executive Josef Roberts told TV3 that Burger Fuel franchises would use the 90 day bill again in the future. When the cameras stopped rolling, Roberts pleaded with the picketers to stop as the store had lost their entire lunch trade which would significantly impact on their tight margins.
This CEO told Unite that he would make an agreement with them if they stopped taking action. Burger fuel has since reneged on its agreement.
It’s time to send Burger Fuel a clear message. We need to picket as many stores as we can on the same day at the same time and drive the message home.
It is important for the workers movement that we get a concrete win at Burger Fuel. Not only do we need to send a strong message to other employers that we won’t stop until we win, we need to show activists that there is action that they can be involved in that works and is fun.
That’s why we are organising another round of protests on Saturday 4th of September from 12 noon – 2pm during Burger Fuel’s busiest lunch break.
The first action in Auckland was successful and Wellington activists were successful the following day. It will work again, but this time it will hurt them more.
We need unions and activist groups to commit to adopting/organising a store and to appoint a contact person to help organise others to attend.
Already Australian unionists have agreed to picket the two Sydney Burger Fuels.
We are currently developing flyers and other materials for the picket and we will get them to you before the action.
There are Burger Fuel stores in Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, Rotorua, Taupo, New Plymouth, Napier, Palmerston North, Wellington and Sydney.
Please email simon.oosterman(at)ndu.org.nz or txt / phone him at 021 922 551 to say if:
a) You can join a picket,
b) The store you can picket and
c) If you (or someone from your organisation) can commit to being a contact person and help organise the picket at that store.
In the areas with multiple stores we may meet up at a single store before the picket to see what numbers we have on the day to make sure we’ve got enough for each store.
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