About a month and a half ago the owners of my job decided they needed to be more hands-on. This was the Rodizio in Chattanooga at Hamilton Place. They took away our smoke breaks, cracked down on eating food, we started being watched 24/7, etc. I didn't really need the job due to my finances being solid so I decided fuck it, I'll try and unionize. Began talking quietly to people, almost had enough votes, but then our manager found out. He started asking around about my efforts, and it was pretty clear I wasn't long for the job. Tried one final push to consolidate votes, but once management knew most people backed out. Figured it was a valiant effort, but I didn't want to make it my personal cause, so I quit.
Cut to today, I went in to pick up my final check. As soon as I walked in I was barraged with people telling me how the restaurant was falling apart. Like half the staff told me they were leaving soon or I must have seen the writing on the wall. The head manager found his job posted on Indeed this morning. A middle manager is likely getting fired this Monday, apparently. Another middle manager told me they were thinking of leaving. I want to feel bad for them, but before I left I talked to the head manager, explaining my goals and thoughts for leaving. He basically told me it was physically impossible for us to get raises because “how the payroll system works” (obvious BS). He confirmed the owners profited (net) north of half a million from our location alone, and they have a number of other equally profitable businesses. The raises we were looking for would have come out to roughly $110k extra a year, still leaving them with ~$400k profit.
I hope the whole business fails.