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Sociologist bums□ Book studies impact on organization of work, family lifeTORONTO (CP) — A sociologist who has studied xmpanies like McDonald's and Burger King for a kcade takes aim at the fast-food industry's tebor prae-ices in a recent book.“When you have a workplace that is unprotected rnd union-free and you aren’t happy with your job, wu leave and that’s it,” sociologist Ester Reiter, an tssoclate professor at Brock University in St. Cath-irines, Ont., said in an interview “And if a worker refuses to smile or is insubordinate, the supervisor doesn’t necessarily fire them, they imply leave the worker off the work schedule.1’ Reiter, 50, says fast food giants like McDonald's nd Burger King have designed a technology where xrkers become low-paid machine tenders.She spent 10 years studying the industry, including everal months working at a Burger King franchise, research Making Fast Food: From the Frying Pan ate the Fryer (McGillrQueen’a University Press, S.*).In the book, Reiter examines the impact the fast ■od industry has bad on the organization of work andfast-food industryfamily life. In doing so, she analyses the development and moulding of a cheap labor force (or (be industry and the technology for mass production.' ‘I first attempted to approach McDonald's, since they are the largest chain in Canada,” she says. “I explained that I wanted to know bow McDonald’s managed to take inexperienced teenagers and transform • them into productive workers.” ; •But the president of McDonald’s turned her down.■ 'He responded by sending a letter to the university where i was studying Informing my adviser and the cbair of my department that I was to ceaae and desist from all efforts to enter McDonald’s,” she saidUndaunted, she attended the school of hospitality at George Brown College in Toronto and took the 10-week fast food supervisors course which Jed to field experience at a Burger King franchise.“What I found at toe restaurant was an incredible amount of pressure to work quickly,” Reiter says, You are expected to work at a pace that is really unusual.She says that as their main source of labor, fast food outlets draw in teenagers, new Immigrants, single parents and women trying to supplement the familyincome.
Newspaper Details
Lethbridge Herald
Lethbridge, Alberta, CA
Wed, Nov 27, 1991
Page 23
Full Page
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USA 27 Sep 2019
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