"workers" news and stories

I posted about McDonald's Talk, a LiveJournal community of McD's employees, back in March, but I hadn't looked at it lately. Fast Food News recently posted an excerpt from a list of "things not to do when visiting a mcdonalds" created by McDonald's employee in Louisiana and recently posted on McDonald's Talk. Perhaps my favorite of the nearly 50 subtle suggestions is: "Does this look like Toys-R-Us? Who cares if your kid's got 10 of the same toy already. That's telling me you don't feed them at home enough!" Some commenters to the original LJ post even included links to their own lists of McDon'ts, like this one.

In the past week, several news sources have run stories about a group of Hungarian builders that drank dry a barrel of rum, only to find a human body in it. Yesterday, MSNBC ran this correction, stating that the story they originally ran, based on a Reuters story, was untrue. Apparently, once the story began to circulate, people recognized it for the urban legend it was. Snopes has several variations on the theme of people (and animals) being pickled in barrels of booze. The current story claimed that the man's body had been stashed in the Jamaican barrel by his wife in an attempt to avoid the cost and paperwork of actually shipping her husband's body home properly.

In response to ongoing talks of change to established pension plans, the Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) union in the UK is considering a five-day strike. If a strike went ahead, the slaughterhouses throughout the country of Scotland, where 150 members of the union are employed, would be forced to close - a move that would definitely hurt small businesses and butchers whose customers look forward to picking up fresh products. There would be no alternative to closing during a strike, because the 900-member MHS union inspects the conditions and quality of meat throughout the production and packaging process. Serious safety and health issues could arise from improperly inspected meat. Sources, according the BBC, are reportedly urging the union to rethink it strike position and keep negotiations open, as business closures could have a long-term, negative impact on the economy. Approximately 200,000 public workers in Scotland went on strike on Tuesday to show solidarity with the MHS.

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