Conyers Waffle House workers strike for better working conditions

Several workers at a Conyers Waffle House extended what was supposed to be a one-day strike into a third day on Wednesday with support from the Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW). 

The workers at the 2020 Flat Shoals Road location are demanding an end to Waffle House’s mandatory meal deduction policy, a $25 per hour minimum wage, a safe workplace, and fair, consistent scheduling. 

Waffle House deducts a “meal credit” of at least $3 from workers’ paychecks every shift, whether they actually eat a meal or not, according to the USSW. That is a significant bite out of workers’ pay, the striking workers said at a March 27 rally in front of the Conyers location. 

“We show up every day and work hard for as little as $2.90/hr before tips, so losing $3 every shift does real damage,” said Cindy Smith, one of the striking Conyers workers, in a thread on the USSW’s X profile. Smith has worked at Waffle House for over 20 years.

Smith and the other workers announced at the Wednesday rally that they’d petitioned the U.S. Department of Labor’s wage and hour division on Monday to investigate whether Waffle House was overcharging employees for the mandatory shift meal deductions. 

According to Smith, workers have to pay the $3 even if they don’t have time to eat the meal. They also have to pay full price for the meal if they want to take it to go. 

Though paying $3 every shift may not sound like much, the policy’s financial impact can grow over time, the workers said. The Union of Southern Service Workers estimates that Waffle House, which owns about 2,000 stores, receives $30 million a year nationally from the shift meal paycheck deduction–but says workers often don’t get a meal break on their shift to eat anything.

Waffle House has not yet responded to Atlanta Civic Circle’s request for comment.

Previous actions for safety, more pay 

Smith and other Waffle House employees in the Southeast started organizing with the USSW last fall to end the shift meal deduction policy, gain safer working conditions, and increase the minimum starting pay to $25 per hour. 

In late September, Atlanta workers staged a walk-out and held a rally outside of the Southern restaurant giant’s downtown store at 100 Piedmont Avenue. They were joined by Waffle House workers from South Carolina and North Carolina.

Several of the employees told Atlanta Civic Circle about dangerous customers, ill-stocked first aid kits, and stagnant wages. They specifically pushed for 24/7 store security and renewed safety plans. 

After the September rally, the workers delivered a demand letter to the restaurant chain. Waffle House responded by saying it would bump up the pay for servers. But instead of increasing minimum pay to $25, as the workers had petitioned, management created a commission system that based pay increases on the number of transactions a server makes per shift. 

At that time, workers were just beginning to circulate a petition to the public listing their top demands for Waffle House: end mandatory shift meal deductions, provide 24/7 security and accept worker input on store safety plans – and pay cooks and servers at least $25 per hour. The petition has garnered over 13,000 signatures so far

Capitol rally 

On Feb. 13,  Waffle House workers rallied at the Georgia State Capitol to demand that Waffle House vice president John Fervier resign from the state Board of Elections and instead focus on improving their pay and working conditions. 

Gov. Brian Kemp had just appointed Fervier as the Election Board’s new chair on Jan. 5. The Waffle House executive oversees workers compensation, security, risk management, and insurance for the company.

“Vice president John Fervier needs to focus on making sure Waffle House workers have A/C in their stores,” said Waffle House cook Gerald Green at the Capitol rally. “Last summer, I had to cook in front of the hot stoves with record temperatures and no air conditioning. I felt sick, I sweated through my clothes, it was awful – and we’re in the middle of downtown Atlanta.”  Green has worked at Waffle House for over five years at multiple locations in Georgia.

The Waffle House workers were joined at the February rally by AFL-CIO union members and other service workers to oppose a bill that labor organizers say will make it harder for employees to join unions. 

But Senate Bill 362, which is championed by Kemp, passed the state House on March 20 and awaits the governor’s signature. The legislation will prohibit employers receiving state economic development incentives from voluntarily recognizing workplace unions, based on a simple majority of employees’ union card signatures. Instead, union organizers must petition the National Labor Relations Board for an election.

What’s next? 

After their rally on Wednesday, the Waffle House workers tried to deliver a copy of their petition asking the Department of Labor to investigate the shift meal deductions to Waffle House’s corporate headquarters in Norcross. But the company declined to receive it and told the workers to mail it instead, according to a USSW representative.

The workers have yet to receive word from the Department of Labor on whether the agency will open an investigation into the mandatory shift meal deductions. 

The Conyers Waffle House workers have not declared how long the strike will continue.