After 30 years, Taco Bell didn't even offer her any hot sauce

[babylonsister]

After 30 years, Taco Bell didn't even offer her any hot sauce

By Nick Coleman, Star Tribune


Nine years ago, Winnie Shilson stopped a bullet for Taco Bell. Last Friday, the company that owns Minnesota's Taco Bell restaurants emptied the other barrel.

It fired her.

Shilson will be 64 next month, and her story may illustrate how a fast-food society treats workers, especially its most experienced ones. After 30 years working for Taco Bell and the chains that preceded it, Shilson was fired Friday as manager of the Edina Taco Bell, dismissed without severance pay or medical benefits.

"Not even a taco," says her husband, Doug. "They didn't give her a thing."

Shilson believes she was the oldest Taco Bell store manager employed by Border Foods Inc., a Golden Valley-based firm that owns 175 Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC and other eateries. Her firing followed a highly praised 30-year career that crashed and burned after two recent failed performance reviews.

Those reviews ordered her to fix problems ranging from building maintenance to food handling procedures.

"People come first," Julie Pung, the human resources manager for Border Foods said in an e-mail. "In the best interest {of} our customers, we take great care in our people selection and make employment decisions, including terminations, very carefully. Beyond that, we do not disclose confidential employee information."

Shilson thinks her dismissal was engineered in order to get rid of a veteran worker whose base salary was $45,000.

"I bawled for three days after I got fired," she says. "I was the most loyal, dedicated employee they could have. In 30 years, I never called in sick or was late to work. Not once! And I was good at my job. Damn good."

more...

http://www.startribune.com/357/story/1538641.html

[Chipper Chat]

1. Sue for age discrimination.

They don't call it "Taco Hell" 4 nuthin.

[Rick Myers]

2. Just read that article in the paper

And it disgusts me... Let's face it, you hit 50 in Amerika today and you are a disposable item to the Korporate Overlords!!!

:grr:

[sharp_stick]

3. Ahhh classy corporate America

Sometimes I'm just disgusted by my fellow man and this is one of those. Corporations don't give a shit about the people that work for them. No wonder nobody gives a shit about the corporation they work for anymore.

The companies show no loyalty to their workforce, dumping thousands at the first inkling of a whine at the annual meeting and then they wonder why someone would quit to work somewhere else for an extra day off or $1/hour.

[Selatius]

4. They don't care about loyalty anymore. They care about generating profits for the shareholders.

She was an expensive labor cost as far as the bean counters go. In the 1950s it was pretty common for folks to have life-time guarantees of employment with one employer, but there is no longer that sense of loyalty either from employees or from employers, much to the fault of employers.

[Mnemosyne]

42. The corporations care about loyalty,

to them.

[cali]

5. This just makes me furious

fuck taco bell bigtime. Curse taco bell bigtime. I wish Winnie the best, and hope she successfully sues the fuck out of them.

[Adsos Letter]

14. And all the congregation said "AMEN!!!"

:mad:

[ecstatic]

6. The first line of the article really threw me off

I kept looking to see the details of how she was shot.

[SoCalDem]

7. Probably a robbery.. Decades ago, I was robbed at a fast food place

The guy did not shoot me, but he pointed the gun at me.. It happens all the time at fast food places..

Those drive thru windows are like drive-up banking for criminals :grr:

[leftchick]

10. here....

Shilson rose rapidly, working 60-hour weeks and becoming general manager at the W. 7th Street store and, later, at the Richfield Taco Bell. She was robbed at gunpoint twice, including the time she was shot while opening the W. 7th restaurant one morning in 1998.

A gunman made her open a safe, but there was a 10-minute delay on the lock. The impatient robber started shooting the safe. A ricocheting bullet hit Shilson, wounding her in the left knee.

When the cops came, she was in shock and called Doug, asking him to bring her a clean uniform. Why, he asked. "Because the one I'm wearing has holes in it and there's blood all over."

Paramedics intervened and took her to the hospital. She had two operations, but the knee still hurts. Other than a severe car accident that required a year's recovery, nothing kept her from work again.

[Arugula Latte]

58. Aah, America. Fast food and guns and corporate overlords.

Makes you proud to be a 'Murkin, doesn't it? :patriot:

[charlie]

12. She was shot

Ricochet bullet from an antsy robber in 1998. It's in the article.

[DemBones DemBones]

34. She was shot in the knee during a robbery, and

she called her husband and asked him to bring her a clean uniform because there was a bullet hole and blood on the one she was wearing. Paramedics convinced her she needed more than a uniform change.

[laylah]

8. Well, DUers,

let's do it!

Contact Information

Border Foods Companies
965 Decatur Ave N
Golden Valley, MN 55427

PHONE:
763-559-7338

FAX:
763-559-2077

[eridani]

44. Phone tree at the main number

#4 gets you Human Resourses, and on that submenu #4 gets you employee relations. I left a demand for reinstatement on the message machine. #9 is the "all other matters" option, but it just disconnects your call.

#9 is the general mailbox. I left a similar message there.

[vireo]

9. "People come first"

:rofl:

[mitchtv]

11. I blame Hillary.

plain as day. I feel sorry for anyone who can't see it.

[JuniperLea]

29. Hillary AND Bill...

You're delusional if you don't see it!

:silly:

[tabasco]

41. Wasn't there enough stupidity yesterday from the Hillary-bots?

Give it a break.

[quiet.american]

13. Ain't that America. What a damn shame. n/t

[femrap]

15. I fucking hate corporations.

The day is coming when they will atone for their greed.

[maxsolomon]

16. when will that be, pray tell?

"there's a mighty judgement coming, but i could be wrong" - leonard cohen, the future

[redqueen]

27. When dem voters stop electing corporate stooges.

Yeah... I'm not holding my breath or anything.

[femrap]

30. As the financial house of cards begins

to collapse, many will be forced into bankruptcy. As more and more workers lose their jobs, there will be a reawakening to Employee Ownership, small business enterprises, and Unions.

Unless all Americans have turned into sheep....? I hear fewer and fewer BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAs lately.

[kickysnana]

17. 1-800-TACO BELL n/t

[guruoo]

18. I I tell young people that in today's world, you must always have an exit strategy

for work. Doesn't matter how much you love or feel secure in your job,
how much they pay, or how good they treat, and/or have treated you in the past.
Today's workers must continually document everything, and be on the alert for opportunities
and openings elsewhere, to prepare for a potential exit, willing, or otherwise.

[Divernan]

20. No. 1 Rule: Don't sign off on a negative performance review.

When you get a negative review, don't sign it immediately. Write up your response to it, responding to every negative comment with a specific defense of your performance. Include in the written statement the demand that your response be included in your employee file. Include any positive aspects of your job performance which were overlooked in your review. Include comparisons to job performances of other employees with similar jobs if you in any way matched or outperformed them. If you are instructed to take some particular corrective action, document every three months or so what you are doing, and tell personnel/human resources that those written statements are to be included in your personnel file. You can't keep them from firing you if they're bound and determined to do so, but you can protect your right to claim unemployment.

[guruoo]

23. I've refused to sign bogus 'writeups' before

Told them I'd have to think about it.
(MGR hands out writeups like candy, for any little thing)
In every case I've done this they've never come back to push for my sig.
However, they've always refused to provide me a copy.
HR hasn't been any help with this.
But, of course, I ALWAYS document my success, and maintain an exit strategy, i.e.,
moonlighting, saving, looking, networking, barganing, applying, etc.

BTW: Micro digital recorder can come in handy, too.

[libnnc]

24. I did not know you could do that.

Valuable info indeed.

[guruoo]

19. Sounds like what happened to my wife

Worked 33 years for a well known (household word*) company,
led her district in gross margin, flown to company HQ to
receive awards on several occasions, always earned her bonus,etc, etc.
When they decided to get rid of her they simply cut off her leads
and intentionally raised her goals higher than they knew she could meet.
She eventually had to quickly take earily (55) retirement to avoid being canned altogether.

It's been tough. She's just not the same person anymore.
This experience has very nearly destroyed her.

*A clue: "Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back"

[Manifestor_of_Light]

21. Our society throws away its best and brightest.

We're thrown away by the rich. They don't care about our skills, experience or education. They want cheap workers and we're down to feudalism.

I went to college for 12 years thinking it would improve my job prospects, particularly the B.A. in science and the Juris Doctor. Boy was I wrong.

I also committed the cardinal sin of growing older.

Eventually their greed will catch up with them. If there is no middle class to buy their stuff they import from sweatshops in China, who will buy the stuff? Nobody.
The economy is driven by the middle class and demand, not supply.

[arikara]

26. But now they've got a big push on trying to attract retirees back

into the lower paid part time jobs. They say there's a shortage of workers, which there is in the mcjob category. Nobody with a young family can afford to work for slave wages and no bennies.

There was a story on the local news featuring a 67 year old retired executive type who's now working part time in a grocery store as a bag boy to keep himself occupied. He doesn't particularly need the money so the low wages aren't a disincentive.

[iamthebandfanman]

22. i thought pepsi co

was the head company of those resturants(hence why they serve pepsi products)??

[mudesi]

28. No. Yum! Brands is the parent company of Taco Bell and KFC

http://www.yum.com/

[iamthebandfanman]

37. here, i found where they are linked to pepsi

http://www.pepsico.com/PEP_Company/History/index.cfm#

just go to 1977 and 1978 in the history section

1977 Milestones
PepsiCo acquires Pizza Hut, Inc. Pizza Hut was founded in 1958 by Dan and Frank Carney. It is spun off along with Taco Bell and KFC businesses as Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc. in 1997.
PepsiCo passes the $3 billion mark in sales.
PepsiCo stock splits three-for-one.


1978 Milestones
Taco Bell is acquired. Taco Bell was established in the mid 1960s by Glen Bell. It is spun off along with Pizza Hut and KFC businesses as Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc. in 1997. Later becomes YUM.

[Quantess]

62. Taco Bell and KFC chicken meat factories are known to be abusive to the chickens.

Their chickens live in squalid conditions. Instead of improving the living conditions for the birds, which would reduce the level of filth and disease, the chickens are instead pumped full of antibiotics. Their top beaks are cut off, so they won't fight eachother (if you lived in super-cramped conditions, wouldn't you want to fight, too?)
This is as good a reason as any to not support KFC or Taco Bell.

Here is just one of many articles. http://badgerherald.com/news/2007/10/18/peta_protests_kfc_ch.php

[Rosemary2205]

59. This is a franchise not a corporate store.

[redqueen]

25. Pff... what a whiner... she should have gone to college and got a better job.

/neo-lib dlc scum

[DemBones DemBones]

35. You ARE kidding, I hope. College educated people

get laid off all the time, for no cause, just like this woman. Employers are always looking for somebody who'll work cheaper.

[redqueen]

39. Yeah...

that

/neo-lib dlc scum

means that before that part, I was playing the part of Neo-Lib DLC Scum.

:hi:

[Yael]

31. Hold up people

Those reviews ordered her to fix problems ranging from building maintenance to food handling procedures.

I have to say it. People get lazy. It wasn't all that long ago that TB was on the shit list for eColi. They have to take this seriously and if she wan't adhering to the regulations about food safety, then there is an issue here. More than one review stated this.

I would suggest anyone curious forget about the bla bla bla out of Border Foods and check the local listings for this store to see if there were violations filed with the city/county to see if there is another side to this story.

[Emit]

32. Wrongful termination suit? n/t

[Yael]

36. Meaningless. Settle out of court to avoid the legal expense

Besides, companies of this size have very thorough, documented procedures on this kind of thing. These aren't rank amateurs -- we are talking about a 30 year employee. She sues and, first, they will make her look like satan incarnate (because thats what they do) and secondly, that still doesn't get to the bottom of WHY.

That is why I think anyone cusious enough should research to see if there were safety violations issued against that store.

[tammywammy]

38. It doesn't appear that they have their inspection scores online

I looked up Edina, Minnesota but there's nothing on the city website. :shrug: That would be interesting to know.

[Yael]

45. I would like to know as well, Tannywammy

To all -- I *DO* believe that ageism and sexism exist, please don't get me wrong people.

I just know that there are 3 sides to every story and if the continual writeups were based on CITY/COUNTY violations that weren't addressed, then it is simply time for the 30 year veteran of Taco Bell to find another line of work rather than endanger the general population of Edina, MN.

[Yael]

51. Sorry, TaMMywammy

Apparently I have lost my ability to spell tonight.

[eridani]

43. Maybe, but there are all kinds of bogus "write-ups" prepared--

--when the corporation wants to can somebody for age or similar reasons.

[Yael]

46. So find them and look at the timing

The "victim" thing only works when all sides are presented.

I am no corporate shill. I have been through 3 bouts of eColi (the most recent was the 'explosive' weekend I spent last weekend before finding out that the Cargill ground beef I bought from Weis Market to make tacos with was bad. Don't believe me, search my posts on "Weis").

:puke:

On Edit: spelling

[eridani]

47. They are probably internal documents

Public stuff is results of inspections.

[Yael]

49. Sorry -- updated my post as I had premature sendulation

I agree, and that is what I was suggesting -- that people who have access look for any PUBLIC docs referencing violations (city/county).

I wouldn't trust internal documents as the "final word" any further than I could throw my car.

[Cruzan]

48. Yep, I've seen this happen before

Once whoever was in charge decided they wanted to get rid of her because she was too old, or had accrued a salary too high for her position, or some other reason to cut costs that could've prompted a wrongful termination lawsuit if done directly, they begin to build a paper trail to cover their ass, in this case a couple of bad performance reviews they can point to to justify the firing. This seems to be almost standard procedure in some corporations -- maybe they even teach it in MBA school. The fact that she provided thirty previous years of sterling service and is suddenly now being told her work is not satisfactory makes the call on their bullshit all the more blatantly obvious.

[grace0418]

56. Oh, yeah, something related happened at my office. They wanted to get rid of

a friend of mine because they suspected she wasn't going to come back after her maternity leave (they had NO evidence of this). One of the VP even asked her point blank "So, forget I'm your boss for a moment. Just woman to woman, do you think you'll come back after the baby?" Hello, illegal much? :eyes: She was sooooo pissed that they asked her this, and said that of course she was coming back.

They didn't believe her. So rather than pay for her maternity leave (which, at her salary, was not a huge sum of money) they concocted ridiculous negative shit on her performance review, then fired her in her 8th month (yes, 8th month) of pregnancy. To add insult to injury the same VP came around to all of us to explain that my friend had gotten fired because she was soooo bad at her job and they just couldn't keep her around a moment longer even though it "pained" them to lay off someone they "loved so much". Good grief. Even if it was true that my friend was doing a bad job (which it wasn't), it's not like she was embezzling money or dealing drugs from her cube to necessitate a speedy departure. If they liked her so much, they could've let her stay until a few months after her maternity leave or given her severance equal to her maternity leave. Seriously, it really wasn't that much money. I know because she makes considerably less than I do and I make shit.

My friend and her husband looked into a lawsuit but it would've cost them so much time and money with no guarantee of victory that they gave up. It was just too hard with a brand new baby and a toddler. Which I'm sure was exactly what my company was hoping would happen. They KNOW what they did was illegal, they were just hoping it would blow over and it did.

The good news for her is that she may get the last laugh. My company is losing money bigtime because the CEO is such an egotistical fuck and he thinks he knows all there is to know about design and art and what people like (well, he takes *some* advice from his sales people, which is a total crock because they're just as clueless as he is). He has amazingly talented people working for him that ACTUALLY DO know what looks good and what is popular and what will sell, but he never listens to us. Our best designs never even make it to the meetings because the CEO nixes them before anyone else can see them. Then, lo and behold, those same types of designs are all the rage in stores about 6-8 months later and he decides to play catch-up.

[lumberjack_jeff]

55. Someone who worked for a company for 30 years

... and in fact took a bullet in service to that company deserves better than to be fired.

If she wasn't performing her management duties adequately, it is incumbent on the company to find another place in the company for which her skills are suited.

An inadequate employee isn't found out after 30 years.

[AX10]

33. Chuck Schumer is also Anti-Middle/Working class.

F***ING money whore is going to work to keep taxes very low on hedge funds while screwing the middle/working class.

:mad:

[redqueen]

40. Think NYers can get a more loyal-to-the-working-class candidate

to challenge Schumer the next time he's up for re-election?

[mmonk]

50. I'll bet she was hot anyway.

[upi402]

52. "Welcome to the family" they say with those cheezy smiles

I want to vomit when they talk about becoming a "Team Player". Truth is;

They'd rather eat their young than part with a dollar.
(and they relay like their young)

[ironflange]

53. Here's another loyal employee they shitcanned for no good reason

Now he's singing like a bird.

[riverdeep]

54. People wonder why service has gone down in this country.

I don't know to what extent Taco Bell's claims are valid, but I do know that most employees, especially the young, feel no loyalty whatsoever to their employer, and it's not hard to see why.

"Office Space" was more like a documentary than fiction.

[Joey Liberal]

57. Sadly, a lot of companies are like that.......n/t

[steve2470]

60. I hope she gets justice nt

[glowing]

61. Best justice would be for all of us to not eat at taco bell... Since they

did that shitty layoff at Circuit City, I have not stepped foot in there. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I will now stop eating taco bell. Hurt corporate where they feel it the most, in their pocket.

[theHandpuppet]

63. Exactly!

Make that 45,000 look like a pittance compared to the business they will lose, not to mention the shitload of bad PR.

This is definitely Keith Olbermann material!

[Initech]

64. I haven't eaten Taco Bell in years.

Shitty food. But this story, argh, this pisses me off.

Same thing with Circuit City - I don't like that store anyways because every single one I've been in has been horribly organized, but the layoff thing sealed the deal.

[Enrique]

65. what a perfect name for an HR mucky muck

Julie Pung.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

66. Taco Bell, following the lead of auto manufacturers...

..."her dismissal was engineered in order to get rid of a veteran worker whose base salary was $45,000..."

That's what's become of the working class during the reign of King George II. The "haves" and "have mores" have ascended to even greater levels of financial freedom, while three decades of service in a real job won;t even get you a taco on the way out the door.

It's becoming a trend, but hey...as long as their H.R. manager insists that Ms. Shilson was thrown under the bus "in the best interest of their customers," who am I to argue?

:grr:

[Odin2005]

67. More proof of the inherent evil and immorality of the corporate capitalist system.

Corporations only exist to enrich their shareholders, the employees are just another resource to exploit and discard. If THAT isn't immoral I don't know what is. People deserve to be treated AS people above anything else. We are human beings NOT COGS. The needs of individuals should trump profit and notions of "economic efficiency."

[deutsey]

68. Welcome to the Corporate State of America

:evilfrown: