labor

Operations

Efforts to grow the restaurant labor pool face a big challenge: Time

The industry has a number of initiatives underway to pull more potential hires into the field. But the setback of the pandemic and the need for scale are deferring the payoff.

Workforce

Menu shrinkage is out. Customized, labor-saving menu strategies move in

Cross-training, chef-driven speed-scratch ingredients and operational shortcuts help meet back-of-house labor challenges post-pandemic without sacrificing innovation.

Innovation seems to be slowing turnover more than eliminating jobs, at least for now.

Operators have examined their kitchens and processes and added a lot more technology while focusing on takeout. The result has been a more efficient operation.

Backed by the deep-pocketed SEIU, the California Fast Food Workers Union aims to organize quick-service workers across brands. It will likely be the source of two members of the state's new wage-setting Fast Food Council.

New efforts to kill the credit are arising in Illinois and Maryland, adding to the activity in four other states and on Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are considering a measure to fix the results of losing the credit there.

An architect of the bill setting the new wage has proposed excusing quick-service restaurants in a number of locations, including casinos, sports arenas and state-owned beaches.

SEIU President Mary Kay Henry said she will not seek re-election, ending a 14-year tenure of unprecedented union activity within the industry.

Franchisee Rice Enterprises, which declared bankruptcy last year, had employed a registered sex offender as a manager.

The famed chef voluntarily recognized a Unite Here chapter as the collective bargaining representative for employees of The Bazaar. He now has four unionized restaurants.

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