Salon.com > Burger King

Hands-free Whopper holder debuts in Puerto Rico

Fri, 31 May 2013 23:00:00 +0000

If you like dignity but prefer hamburgers, Burger King has just the gift for you. Burger King has been giving away hands-free Whopper holders at its stores in Puerto Rico.

Burger King had posted a promotional video for the product, but then appears to have taken it down for reasons that are unclear, according to the Toronto Sun. However, there is a sleek fan-produced music video online that explains how it works: you basically wear the hamburger holder as a necklace, thus enabling you to stuff your face into the burger without ever using your hands.

Is this supposed to be a real product, or is it a publicity prank? Burger King only distributed 50 of the hands-free holders so far, to Puerto Rican customers who are frequent visitors under the chain's loyalty program, Medical Daily reported.

Fast food strikes spread to Seattle

Thu, 30 May 2013 13:25:00 +0000

In the seventh major fast food worker walkout in eight weeks, fast food strikes Thursday will hit Seattle. Organizers expect a mid-morning walkout to including workers from restaurant chains like McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Subway, Arby’s, Chipotle and more. The wave of strikes began with an unprecedented strike day in New York earlier this year, followed by similar coordinated actions in cities including Detroit and Milwaukee.

As Josh Eidelson reported for the Nation:

“I’m sick of seeing my co-workers and me essentially get pushed and pushed and barely be able to eat,” Taco Bell employee Caroline Durocher told The Nation Wednesday. “And I think it’s time that we pushed them back"...

The Seattle strike comes two weeks after New York's fast food workers campaign released a report alleging rampant wage theft in the industry, and hours after the Congressional Progressive Caucus announced plans to MSNBC.com for a nationwide tour focused on low wages and economic inequality. It also follows a day-long strike last week in Washington, DC, staged by federally-contracted workers – federal building fast food employees included – demanding that President Obama take executive action to improve their working conditions.

.... The fast food strike wave represents organized labor’s most dramatic challenge to the massive, fast-growing, and virtually union-free industry. As I’ve written previously, fast food’s low-wages, precarious employment, and emotional labor are increasingly representative of the larger economy. The shape of the strikes – single-day walkouts, by aminority of the workforce, with an emphasis on community support – represents anincreasingly prevalent labor strategy for attempting to build worker organization, squeeze management, and avert retaliation, in the face of legal and economic changes that havemade strikes more risky and less effective.

Where does all our military spending go?

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:13:00 +0000

Outside the United States, the Pentagon controls a collection of military bases unprecedented in history. With U.S. troops gone from Iraq and the withdrawal from Afghanistan underway, it’s easy to forget that we probably still have about 1,000 military bases in other peoples' lands. This giant collection of bases receives remarkably little media attention, costs a fortune, and even when cost cutting is the subject du jour, it still seems to get a free ride.

With so much money pouring into the Pentagon’s base world, the question is: Who’s benefiting?

Fast food walkout planned in Chicago

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 01:45:00 +0000

Demanding a hefty raise and a fair chance to form a union, workers in Chicago’s growing fast food and retail sectors plan to walk off the job Wednesday morning. The one-day walkout begins at 5:30 a.m. Central Time, and organizers expect 500 workers from a dozen chains to participate. The work stoppage follows similar strikes by New York City fast food workers and by Wal-Mart retail employees across the country, and marks the latest escalation in the struggle between an embattled labor movement and two industries that increasingly dominate and define the new economy.

“At the end of the day,” Macy’s employee Krystal Maxie-Collins told Salon, “it feels like I’ve done all of this to help everyone else, to help the store, help the managers, help the customers, but it doesn’t feel like anyone is looking out for me.” Maxie-Collins, a mother of four who works part-time for the state minimum wage of $8.25 plus a commission, said she had initially been hesitant about the strike because of the risk of retaliation. But “what we are fighting for, the reason for doing it, kind of overrode the fear of doing it.” “Usually the things that are worth it,” she added, “you have to sacrifice for.”

Fast food workers plan surprise strike

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 10:00:00 +0000

Updated, 12:11 p.m.: The Fast Food Forward campaign says hundreds of workers are now out on strike, and that they are on track to have 400 strikers, from about 70 stores, by the end of the day. At least one store was unable to open for lack of employees this morning. Local politicians, including at least three mayoral candidates - City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Comptroller John Liu, and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio - are expected to rally with the fast food workers. Striking workers are currently converging at a Wendy's in Midtown Manhattan, a Wendy's in Brooklyn, and a Burger King in Harlem. At 5:30 PM, strikers and supporters will gather in Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park and march to a McDonald's store for the day's largest event.

Asked for comment on the strike, spokespeople for McDonald's and the National Restaurant Association referred Salon to their statements from yesterday. In an e-mailed statement, de Blasio said, "Fast Food Forward is fighting for solutions for working people right here and now, and it deserves the support of all New Yorkers."

Salon limerick contest

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 15:59:00 +0000

Salon readers dissect Manti Te'O's troubles, the recipes at Burger King and the political scene:

I feel sorry for poor Manti Te’O.

Turns out his sweetie pie wasn’t reo.

It was just his best friend,

Playing those tricks again,

“I’m not gay,” Manti says - oh, pleo.

Mark Childress

Key West, Fla.

Republican Redux

I grew up with William F. Buckley

Well known for his sesquipedality

His rhodomontade

Was oft a charade

But it beat out today’s right-wing sophistry.

Deborah MacFadden

Ridgefield, Conn.

Barack relies more on Joe,

Whose popularity continues to grow,

He’s doing just fine,

With approval fifty nine,

Joe’s catching up, but does Hillary know?

Kiran Parekh

Wayne, Ill.

There once was a "man" named Rand Paul.

Who thought himself Ruler of All.

His mental artillery,

Was pilloried by Hillary.

His sword was revealed to be small.

Deborah Newell Tornello

St. Petersburg, Fla.

As Burger King searches discreet.

For equine in each patty treat,

Consumers can now,

Burger King to DNA test burgers for horse meat

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 22:09:00 +0000

Although Burger King assures customers that it's beef patties are just that, the fast food giant is taking extra precautions. According to Business Week, the King will begin DNA testing its burger for foreign DNA, particularly horse meat, after it was discovered that a former supplier, Silvercrest, had sold meat containing traces equine DNA to other retailers (but never to Burger King). In a statement, Burger King told customers:

As we confirmed on 23rd of January, we transitioned all of our restaurants in the UK, Ireland and Denmark to other BURGER KING(R) approved suppliers from Germany and Italy as a precaution. These suppliers have provided DNA evidence to confirm their products are free of equine DNA. These are the product being sold in our restaurants today.

“We will dedicate ourselves to determining what lessons can be learned and what additional measures, including DNA testing and enhanced traceability controls, can be taken to ensure that we continue to provide you with the quality products you expect from us," said Diego Beamonte, vice president, Global Quality, Burger King Corporation in a statement.

Wal-Mart and McDonald’s: What’s wrong with U.S. employment

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 23:10:00 +0000

What does the drama in Washington over the “fiscal cliff” have to do with strikes and work stoppages among America’s lowest-paid workers at Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Burger King, and Domino’s Pizza?

Everything.

Jobs are slowly returning to America, but most of them pay lousy wages and low if non-existent benefits. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 7 out of 10 growth occupations over the next decade will be low-wage — like serving customers at big-box retailers and fast-food chains. That’s why the median wage keeps dropping, especially for the 80 percent of the workforce that’s paid by the hour.

It’s also part of the reason why the percent of Americans living below the poverty line has been increasing even as the economy has started to recover — from 12.3 percent in 2006 to 15 percent in 2011. More than 46 million Americans now live below the poverty line.

Many of them have jobs. The problem is that these jobs just don’t pay enough to lift their families out of poverty.

So, encouraged by the economic recovery and perhaps also by the election returns, low-wage workers have started to organize.

200 take part in largest strike in fast food history

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:48:00 +0000

As Josh Eidelson reported on Salon early Thursday, "New York City fast food workers walked off the job, launching a rare strike against a nearly union-free industry."

Reports from organizers rallying in Times Square in support of the strike suggest that as many as 200 workers walked out Thursday to demand fair wages. The Huffington Post noted that employees, the majority from McDonald's around the city, continued to walk off the job throughout the day, making official strike numbers difficult to confirm. "At a McDonald’s on Madison Avenue at 6:30 am, 16 workers picketed. According to Raymond Lopez, one of the 16, that was almost half of the store’s total workforce of 40 people," HuffPo noted.

Radio Dispatch host John Knefel and writer Jesse Myerson, both reporting from the Times Square rally, posted the comments and chants of some one-day strikers on Twitter:

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Can a condiment save us from strokes?

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 22:26:00 +0000

To start, some scary statistics. Stroke—the disruption of blood to the brain—is the fourth-leading cause of death among Americans, claiming a life every four minutes, and poses twice the risk to blacks as whites. Stroke inspires few telethons, 5Ks, or NFL awareness campaigns, but a woman is twice as likely to die from a stroke this year as from breast cancer. And stroke interrupts far more lives than it ends outright; the resulting brain damage has terrible human and financial costs.

Worrisome, then, is the news, published recently in Neurology, that stroke is on the rise among younger Americans. “When I first started as a stroke neurologist, we saw a fairly older crowd coming in with stroke,” Brett Kissela, the study’s lead author, says. “A couple years ago, I started to notice that it seemed like we were seeing younger and younger patients. It made me wonder, ‘Is there something happening here?’ ”

Brainwashed by junk food

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 12:50:00 +0000

Do your children light up when they see those golden arches?

Well, they’re surely not alone. A new study released this week showed that brain activity in areas connected to rewards and appetite control increased in children when they were shown well-known fast food logos.

Researchers from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the University of Kansas Medical Center showed children, ages 10-14, 120 popular company logos — 60 food and 60 non-food logos. During this process, researchers used MRI technology to scan the children’s brains and monitor their activity. The study found that fast-food logos triggered an increase in brain activity compared to the non-food logos.

Researcher Dr. Amanda Bruce said that while viewing fast food logos, the children’s increased brain activity was not that much different than when the children saw actual food. She said children’s interest and familiarity with food logos is “concerning,” as the logos are marketing food that is unhealthy.