New Orleans restaurants open but starved for help

[question everything]

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

New Orleans restaurants open but starved for help

Many, including some owned by Orange County companies, are struggling to find employees.

By NANCY LUNA and MICHELE HIMMELBERG
The Orange County Register

Orange County-owned restaurant chains including Taco Bell, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and Chevys are struggling along with other eateries in storm-battered New Orleans to find enough employees to run their restaurants. As a result, some companies have boosted wages, cut restaurant operating hours and are devising creative recruiting methods.

(snip)

Only about one-third of New Orleans' half-million residents have returned since Hurricane Katrina struck Aug. 29, and parts of the city still lack electricity and other vital services.

(snip)

Many employees want to return but can't find a place to live. A handful of returning employees are traveling daily from Baton Rouge to get to work, the equivalent of driving from Los Angeles to San Diego.

(snip)

Even fast-food restaurants such as Taco Bell are offering incentive bonuses, particularly for managers, as the newly opened units rebuild their teams. Six of 12 Taco Bells have reopened as New Orleans comes back to life. Two are being rebuilt and expect to open by June, but at least three will remain closed or relocate unless they see more business, said Will Bortz, a Taco Bell spokesman in Irvine.

(snip)

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/money/abox/article_973799.php

[donheld]

1. Is there any place for the "help" to live?

:shrug:

[pitohui]

2. no that's the problem

i saw a taco bell offering $11 an hour plus benefits near slidell

all fast food restaurants have to offer bonuses to get any employees to stay at all

if you can stay w. friends or family then there are opportunities here, don't begrudge us please, people worked for $5.40 in such jobs for it seems like almost 2 decades now

there is no housing to spare, many workers are living in tents

[donheld]

14. pitohui I certainly have no intention of begrudging you

My heart bleeds for all affected by this. You are the only one I really know with a sense of what is going on in NOLA. Please know we are pulling for you.

[Warpy]

4. Nope, guess they're gonna have to rethink that plan to rebuild

only the "right" parts of the city. It turns out they need the slums and the people who live there, if not for the underpaid restaurant and hotel help, but also for the pool of musicians and other performers that gave that city its reputation for excellence in jazz musicianship.

Who knew?

[pitohui]

8. that is getting pretty borderline, warpy, please rephrase that

no we don't need slums


in fact work is better done by people who are free and properly paid, not by slaves

shouldn't the civil war have settled that issue?

we are actually getting good pay here in new orleans now, for the first time ever

i'm shocked that anyone would want slums rebuilt, you would not be willing to live in such a slum or to be a slave, but it's ok for somebody else to do it to give you a more authentic tourist experience?

ya'll don't see how that's just a little...non progressive? the minstrel show is closed and it won't be missed

think, people, to have us in a slum forever for your cheap vacation once or twice every 10 years, that is just so not thinking about the other guy

[wakeme2008]

11. The slums were gotten rid of per

Barbara Bush.

[donheld]

16. The slums are what Barbara Bushes brain is made of

:banghead:

[donheld]

15. You do not need slums indeed

What you need is affordable housing for those who do the everyday actual work. IMHO those are the best of what makes any city run. You cannot have a city with out those who clean the city, serve the people their lattes, launder their clothes etc. That is the heart of a city whether it's New Orleans, San Francisco, Denver, or any other city.

[Mithras61]

3. My wife keeps asking if there're any habitable homes...

in NOLA. We keep hearing about how "they" plan to turn NOLA into a rich person's paradise, and she keeps asking "so where will the people who do the work live?"

[pitohui]

5. we'll get paid better, that's what is happening now

there is a certain element on DU that would have us poor and in slums forever, i don't understand that attitude, it seems rather cruel and heartless to me

did you know that london and paris, w. their strong wage laws and good pay/benefits, have a huge tourism industry?

you don't need slaves in the slums

that attitude should have gone out of date in the civil war era

well-paid people do the best jobs and promote a stronger economy for all of us

lincoln should have freed the slaves but apparently not in some minds

[ninkasi]

12. I agree...

What is needed is decent, affordable housing. When people are able to find a good place to live, and able to find a decent paying job, that's when they will return. People shouldn't have to live in slums, or get paid slave wages...that's Republican thinking. Our thinking is that there is enough money in this country to sustain every citizen in dignity, with decent housing, living wage jobs, and universal health care.

The problem is that while we are trying to figure out ways to achieve this, the Republican party, especially now under Chimp, looks at every situation that comes up as a way to funnel money back to their cronies, and to wealthy campaign donors. It happens every time, and it will continue to happen until we can vote in enough progressive Democrats to change it.

We can see what direction this country is headed in; it's going to be like living in Nazi Germany, combined with the economic tragedy of the Great Depression. We are headed for the worst of all possible worlds, unless people wake up and start making politicians accountable for their actions. The Republican culture of corruption has got to stop.

The people of New Orleans have already suffered enough...in this, the richest country in the world, we should be able to make rebuilding New Orleans, and the other ravaged areas of the Gulf Coast a priority. I guess I don't think like other people, because when I read polls showing that some Americans think Bush will "keep us safe," I feel like screaming, "Oh, yeah, like he keep the people of New Orleans safe?" They knew the hurricane was coming, and that it was going to be bad, and should have been mobilizing transportation out of the city well before Katrina's landfall.

The problem was that the President couldn't see what was in it for him, so he ate cake and played guitar instead. When he thought it would please his fundy base, he was willing to take precious time off to fly back to Washington to get a photo-op of him signing a bill when Terry Schaivo's condition was getting his supporters whipped into a religious frenzy.

Until enough progressive Democrats are elected, who will listen to the will of the people, nothing will change. I believe we can see which ones are the ones we can count on after yesterday's vote on cloture. The rest should be challanged in their primaries, and we're going to have to be extremely selective in our donations now. Get enough control back, and maybe we can begin to rebuild New Orleans for the ones who had to leave, and roll back the wealthy's tax breaks so that we can afford it.

[kineneb]

13. ooo- just had great sticker ideas from your post

Republicans: the "Let them eat cake" party! (Bring back the Guillotine)

Bush keeps America safe, just ask New Orleans!

[Benhurst]

6. They could build a prison nearby and let the inmates

do the dirty work for the rich folks living in New Dubya.

[question everything]

7. Far away and commute - like all gated and otherwise wealthy

communities.

Once, in Orange County, CA, I took a bus to meet with my spouse for dinner. No point in having two cars. And I was surprised to see it travels through some very ritzy neighborhoods. Until I realized that it was for the "domestic help."

I've read that in many places even the bus stop is too far from the MacMansion, so once the "help" is there, she (mostly) uses her cell phone to call for a ride.

Welcome to the Two Americas.

[pitohui]

9. this is a funny post, never been to new orleans, have you?

the more expensive, wealthy, and gated communities have the more distant commute in this area

no, resentful as some college-educated folks may be of the very idea, what is happening is that people are actually being paid more money and being offered more benefits

imagine that!

[wakeme2008]

10. LOL those Dems workers have a job in Houston

:rofl:

[fishnfla]

17. Until they repair the levees, it will be so

The city will be devoid of businesses, homes and people, including workers, unless they rebuild the levees, and rebuild them right.

And that ain't gonna happen in 5 mos.

Mark my words. The first hurricane that hits the gulf of mexico this summer will clear that town out. A hurricane that hits the city before the levees are repaired will wipe it off the face of the earth, forever.

end of story. Anyone with any common sense can see that.