I worked at a small chain of movie theaters when I was a teenager (circa 2003). They were called “Madstone”, and they had about 6 locations scattered across the Southeast US. Business model was to show a mix of blockbusters and also classic and artsy movies and serve beer, wine, and sandwiches along with more classic movie theater concessions.
One friday morning, some folks from corporate showed up first thing and told everyone that they were closing our location and that everyone scheduled to work that day would be helping pack things up instead of their normal duties.
I wasnt working that day, so what happened next I heard 2nd hand. The day started off going according to plan. The folks who worked the box office and concessions started packing stuff up and moving it out to some box trucks.
But the projectionists didnt do shit. They sat upstairs in the projector room and did nothing. Eventually management noticed and told them to get busy breaking down the projectors and start packing them up. They said they werent doing shit unless they each got paid $700 each.
These were old film projectors. They were worth thousands of dollars each and you could easily break them if you didnt know what you were doing. Word was after some empty threats and a few desperate phone calls, their demands were met.
It was the first crack in my understanding of the employee-employer relationship, and I think about those guys all the time.