Black Friday: The Employees Strike Back

Many+businesses+busiest+day+of+the+year+is+Black+Friday%2C+making+a+significant+amount+of+their+profits+that+day.+However%2C+CEOs+take+a+majority+of+the+profits%2C+even+when+the+employees+were+the+ones+working+on+their+busiest+day+of+the+year.+Information+from+https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blackfridayblackout.info%2F

Abigail Evers

Many businesses’ busiest day of the year is Black Friday, making a significant amount of their profits that day. However, CEOs take a majority of the profits, even when the employees were the ones working on their busiest day of the year. Information from https://www.blackfridayblackout.info/

This Black Friday, some American employees will be going on strike in retaliation to the overpaid corporate CEOs. They argue that the managers are getting paid too much for the little amount of work they put in and are not giving back to the community and economy. By bringing these opinions into the light, they hope to prevent the general public from shopping at retail stores, online, or dining at restaurants.

Workers have been putting in more work as the demand goes up, but their paychecks aren’t reflecting that.

The inspiration was sparked from the r/antiwork and r/blackfridayblackout subreddits, which hold over 1.2 million and 11.8 thousand members. Also on board with this is the New York Times, in which hundreds of journalists are not going to be publishing advertisements on their website’s busiest day of the year.

Menards, which Junior Lucas Gerst works at, is expecting all employees to show up for their busiest day of the year. “We have to set three sales throughout the entire day. We won’t get home until probably 11 [pm] to 1 am. And we have to stay late to prep the day before Thanksgiving, which I don’t appreciate,” Gerst said.

Junior Ivan Bradley works at Panera Bread, which is open for regular hours because it is a restaurant, which usually doesn’t do anything especially different because of the holiday. Bradley said, “We really don’t get a choice to show up or not because we work in food. We just have regular shifts for Thursday, but I’m not sure how busy we’ll be.”

Gerst argues that participating in the strike, from a worker’s point of view, is not a good idea. “By not showing up, especially without notice, you mess with the other workers who have to cover your shift and make up for your work and absence,” Gerst said. “On top of that, it would wreak havoc on the economy and really isn’t a good idea. Black Friday itself isn’t really a good idea, but there’s not much we can do about that.”

Gerst said, “If I was the manager, there really wouldn’t be much I can change, but I would probably create a better way for employees to time manage because we definitely can’t do that.”

However, Bradley thinks his employer has a good plan for scheduling workers on Black Friday. “I wouldn’t want to change anything because I think the plans that are set are fine.”

On the dedicated website, blackfridayblackout.info, there are more statistics regarding the employee’s and CEOs’ differences in salary and things that you can do instead of Black Friday shopping.

Gerst said, “Black Friday is kind of a scam anyways. It’s our busiest day of the year and we make 60% of our profits from just that day. So, why do we even have to work the rest of the year? Like, if we just have two Black Friday days, wouldn’t we be fine?”