Jimmy Johns Employee on the Chopping Block for Refusing to Serve Rotten Meat

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.iww.org/en/node/5205

Submitted by intexile on Sun, 09/26/2010 - 2:03pm.

Sandwich Workers and Customers Unite in Support of Working Class Hero

Press Conference and Delegation: 1pm Sunday September 26, Calhoun Square Jimmy Johns, 3001 Hennepin Ave. S.

MINNEAPOLIS– When Shift Supervisor Margaret Brickely began her morning prep work at Jimmy John's last Monday, she noticed that all of the meat and produce she pulled out of the cooler was warm and beginning to rot. The coolers had broken, leaving the meat at room temperature overnight. Margaret refused to serve the meat. Now, Jimmy John's is threatening her job in retaliation.

“The vegetables were shriveled, the meat hot, and the bread dough semi-cooked. This is not something I was willing to serve” says Margaret. “I called my District Manager Jason Effertz to inform him that the meat was rotten, and he ordered me to slice it and serve it. When I refused, Effertz came in and sliced the meat himself, preparing to sell it to customers.”

With the support of the newly-organized Jimmy Johns Workers Union, Margaret and her coworkers called the City of Minneapolis Health Department. A City Health Inspector came to the store, condemned the meat as unfit for human consumption, and forced management to throw it all away.

Had Margaret not taken a stand for proper sanitation, hundreds of customers would have been served rotten meat.

FULL story at link.

[hobbit709]

1. safety be damned, profits are more important.

:puke: I wonder how much the lawsuits would have cost them if people got sick.

[icnorth]

4. District Manager Jason E should have

his ass secured in a court room seat answering to a charge of public endangerment. I would think inducing botulism onto the public should be taken as seriously as anthrax. Not only is the potential victim unaware of the danger he is expected to pay for it. :grr:

[jmowreader]

59. It wouldn't have been botulism, but it would have been bad

Botulism is anaerobic; it won't grow on anything exposed to air.

My bet is probably campylobacter, which is lethal under the right circumstances.

[tclambert]

64. What happens to the courageous whistle-blower?

She should get a huge reward. The corporation ought to make her a safety compliance manager, out-ranking the District Manager who tried to fire her. If the company won't reward her, the government should give her a big cash reward.

The sad truth is most whistle-blowers get fired and have trouble finding jobs after that. What manager wants to hire someone who ratted out her last boss, who got him thrown in jail, just for following good business practices?

[malaise]

2. Remember the free market regulates itself best

WTFF?

[Canuckistanian]

5. EXACTLY

If these "Free-market Mousketeers" had their way, there wouldn't even BE any health inspectors - and that rotten meat would have been sold.

[malaise]

11. Somewhere else

the rotten meat was sold. These fuckers only count profits - basic standards be damned. :hi:

[Puzzler]

60. In a "perfect" libertarian world, it would regulate itself...

... the restaurant would serve the rotten meat:

1) many customers would get very sick, and possibly die.

2) less customers would patronize the restaurant because of the deaths.

3) the restaurant would either mend its ways or close down.


Simple eh? Unfortunately, the "free market" model in this case overlooks those pesky little things like deaths. How dare the government get involved and stop the "natural" order of things! (said with extreme sarcasm).

[tclambert]

63. "It's more unnecessary government interference in the marketplace."

"Efficient markets regulate themselves."

How would customers know it was THIS restaurant that sickened and killed so many people? Who would investigate the illnesses? Who could inspect the facilities? Who could test the remaining contaminated meat? The restaurant would deflect blame, say it was some other restaurant, bad milk from the local grocery, or improper handling by the customers. They might pay for a few ads showing how strictly they observe the rules of good hygiene (all lies with paid actors pretending to do what the restaurant pretends they do.) How could CUSTOMERS break through to the truth? Without government health inspectors with the authority to make them open the kitchen door, they could put off repairs to their cooler for a long, long, deadly time.

If it's all about minimizing costs, that's the morality they'd follow, as that manager proved.

The way to get compliance with safety regulations is to make the penalties far more costly than the potential profits from cutting corners.

[ixion]

3. Poor food quality is one of the reasons I stopped going out to eat

when you make it yourself, you know exactly what's in the food you're eating.

[Scuba]

6. We don't need no stinkin' regulations...

...let the invisible hand of the free market take care of it. If people get sick and/or die, they'll no longer go to Jimmy Johns. They can eat at Johnnie Jims (same location, under "new" management).

[hayrow]

7. Last lunch a Jimmy Johns

I often need to eat lunch on the road. Last week at the Jimmy Johns in downtown Oshkosh, WI, usually a reliable place to eat, I ordered a roast beef sandwich and was given a club sandwich instead. Darn lucky. The roast beef in the club sandwich was inedible, all gristle. A roast beef sandwich would no doubt have been nothing but garbage.

[ReverendDeuce]

8. Pre-cooked deli meat doesn't really turn overnight...

And half-cooked bread dough? At room temperature? It probably just dried out. Vegetables though, those can and will break down pretty fast.

A wonderfully sensationalized story, though.

[LynneSin]

10. You're kidding me right?

How about I make you a sandwich with sandwich items sitting out overnight. If it was hot enough in the kitchen that the bread was 'half-cooked' it was probably hot enough to have bacteria growing and festering on the meats and vegetables.

[ReverendDeuce]

14. Bread does not bake at room temperature.

Oxidized produce is one thing. We've all seen what happens to apples and avocados. Produce is very fragile.

Pre-cooked, preserved-to-high-hell industrial "deli meat" is a different thing. This stuff does not spoil overnight.

And bread does not bake at room temperature.

[baldguy]

18. A sealed & insulated refrigerator with a broken condenser or recirculating pump

would get much higher than room temp. The motor has more than enough heat to cook anything stored in it.

[NickB79]

24. Ding ding ding!

The heat put off by a walk-in freezer's motor, combined with the insulation of the freezer itself, would raise temps well above room temp.

After all, the inspector condemned the meat as inedible for a reason.

[alcibiades_mystery]

34. Reverend Deuce knows better than the actual health inspector that observed said meat

After all, Reverend Deice is an expert on deli meats from personal experience, and he deduced the state of the meat from a story on the internet. All the inspector did was get some sort of actual credential for making food safety inspections, and observe the actual meat on the scene.

Clearly, Reverend Deuce is correct!

[Ikonoklast]

36. Said poster is talking out of his ***.

Typical non-expert expounding on a subject he's totally ignorant of.

[rbixby]

21. Regardless of whether it was 'safe' or not

It needs to be maintained at a cool temperature to be considered safe by the department of health.

[Occulus]

27. Hmmmm. Someone's never baked bread.

I have. Very warm temperatures can and will do strange things to dough, and you certainly wouldn't want to eat it.

"Pre-cooked, preserved-to-high-hell industrial "deli meat" is a different thing. This stuff does not spoil overnight."

Which is why grocery delis have their turkey and salami loaves right out on the shelves, instead of in a refrigerated case.

Oh, wait.....

[Tsiyu]

29. You are funny

Except you may not know that there are very strict food safety laws that must be followed. Any food served to the public must be maintained at cold temps for cold food and hot temps for hot food.

Whether it fits your description of edible, the deli meat was inedible according to the laws in every state.

The bread no doubt proofed early and would not have baked properly once the yeast was activated by warm temps.

You've never worked in food service, i assume.

But your post reminds me of the movie about Lizzie Borden, showing her father serving her moldy stew...

[Kalyke]

38. Apparently, you've never heard of Listeriosis.

It can - and does - develop rather quickly on even prepackaged (cooked, cured, etc.) deli meats at a rapid pace and can cause, not only illness in adults, but miscarriage, premature birth and stillborn births in pregnant women.

It does spoil overnight. Read up before you pop off.


http://health.usnews.com/health-news/diet-fitness/infectious-diseases/articles/2010/08/24/health-buzz-deli-meat-tests-positive-for-bacteria.html

[Granny M]

55. Hmmm, I seem to remember people dying from deli meat

a few years ago - e.coli, or something nasty. When it comes to food, better safe than sorry. I'm glad the employee refused to serve it.

[era veteran]

12. You are dead wrong, bacteria never sleeps

Don't eat at corporate chain stores, eat at independents. 33 years in food service. I will post this on my facebook as we have one of these shit dispensers in town.

[TreasonousBastard]

25. When I was in the restaurant computer business, it was the independants who would kill you...

the major chains we dealt with all had strict standards for store cleanliness and quality of ingredients-- they didn't want to be bothered with sick people and complaints about pigsties.

With the worst of the independents, though, I would see unmarked vans show up delivering meat, roaches clogging up kitchen printers, and general kitchen filth, sometimes with a real stench, in every town where the inspectors could be paid off.

[era veteran]

65. I have never worked in an independent restaurant that

is what you describe. I am sure there are some but I would guess they don't survive long. Chains use the cheapest shit some buyer in an office purchases. I work in Lexington KY, perhaps our standards are higher. MANTRA When in doubt, throw it out. Wholesome is a word we use in our place. A bribe here would be unheard of.

[Generic Other]

13. I pay for fresh food not rubbish

If I want rotten shit, I'll dig in the dumpster. For free.

[Cal Carpenter]

15. Yes it can

Have you ever worked in food service? If so, remind me not to eat wherever you work.

There are reasons for USDA regs. While the USDA has a million things wrong with it, their rules for temperature controls on food being served to the public is not one of them.

[Ikonoklast]

35. Bullshit. You HAACP qualified? Ever write a sanitation protocol for safe meat handling?

I worked twenty-eight years in both the retail and wholesale meat business, in all levels including management and supervision.

At those temperatures, microbial growth on the external surfaces of cooked and/or processed meat items would have been exponential, and potentially dangerous for human consumption.

You are clueless. Health inspectors do not condemn product on a whim.

[Raster]

39. Two choices: (A) you obviously know nothing about food prep and the safe handling of food and are

...just shooting your mouth off; or (B) you do know something about food prep and are intentionally trying to mislead and minimize. Which is it?

[Lucian]

40. You're an idiot.

Really, you are.

So why don't you eat rotten deli meat and shriveled vegetables for lunch if it's okay?

[Hannah Bell]

46. yeah, that's undoubtably why the health inspector deemed it unfit for human consumption.

those sensationalist health inspectors.

[JanMichael]

47. This is why we should be able to do what you can do on Yahoo Sylvester McMonkey McBean

Thumbs up, nope. Thumbs down, yeppers.

[quakerboy]

50. You have clearly never taken

a MicroBio course.

[Tunkamerica]

52. Having worked at Subway and Blimpie in my slightly younger days...

The dough , especially in a humid closed room like a broken walk-in, would start to rise and over night would probably be about the size of a cooked roll if not larger. And it does start to harden if left like that overnight. It wouldn't be cooked... but it would be half-cooked.
And the meat? Turkey especially gets to be pretty gross just sitting out all day in a chilled serving tray. Oh, and Roast beef... congealed fat and blood when it gets warm. It's disgusting. And it would probably make some people sick. Not to mention the smell and texture would be off. It does depend on how they store the meat though. Subway is "factory sealed and only gets opened when used. Blimpie we opened the packages and wrapped in Saran wrap after the delivery, definitely not air-tight.

Please don't make definitive statements about things you obviously don't know about.

[Hissyspit]

56. They had no business taking people's money for shit like that.

Even if you are right. (Though, you are not.)

[LynneSin]

9. Someone should get fired for this - like the manager of that store!

How dare he serve rotting food to the customers. He shouldn't just get fired, he should be fined!

[Scruffy1]

16. Its just business as usual

It's all about the greed. These franchises are sold to the wealthy to make them richer over the backs of low paid employees. Currently JJ workers get the minimum wage, split up work shift, no tips, and have to find their own replacements if they can't be there. Please support their Union Organization. It will make life better and safer for all of us.

[melm00se]

17. I applaud her actions

I also look at the source of this article and know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the entire story is not being told.

[EnviroBat]

19. I will never eat at that fucking place again. n/t

[PJPhreak]

20. The No1 Rule in "Quailty" food service...

If I (The Cook) will not eat it,I will not serve it!! Period.

I got my ass handed to me one thanksgiving Eve a few years ago,my boss made a couple of Turkeys for the "Special". He could not find any room to put them in cold storage,so he left them out on a table for 14 hours...Needless to say when i came on to my shift and lifted the Broiler pan lid the stench about knocked me backwards.

I told the Trons that the Turkey special was Gone.History.Deceased.

the Kitchen Mang.threw a total fit,threatened to fire me,threw pots and pans around and generally had a hissy fit.

It Did'nt Work.

I stood my ground.

If I won't Eat It...I Won't Serve IT,Period!!

[fasttense]

22. Good for you.

It's hard to stand up to a screaming nasty boss who is threatening to fire you for not serving rotting food.

I grow produce that I sell at the Farmer's Market. That's my rule of thumb too. If I wont eat it I wont sell it. Though rotting produce is more easily identified then food on a plate hidden by sauces and breading.

[kas125]

51. It is hard to stand up. In the 70's I worked at a restaurant where I

had to set up the salad bar before the place opened. One day when I opened the five gallon bucket of bean salad it was freaking bubbling as if it had a flame under it and was boiling. I called the boss to look at it and he said, it's okay, I can fix it. He dumped half a bottle of vinegar in it and told me to put it out for people to eat because the vinegar would kill any germs or bacteria or whatever was in it. He absolutely would not listen to me when I said it was unsafe and that I didn't want to serve it and told me I could go home and stay there if I didn't want to do as he said. I spent the rest of the day warning people at the salad bar not to take that stupid bean salad and called the health department when I got home.

[marmar]

23. Jimmy John's seems like quite the questionable company

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6422/jimmy_johns_workers_hope_management_freak_out_over_union_drive/

[Tunkamerica]

54. From your link:

In Minneapolis, worker Jake Foucalt was quoted telling local franchise owner and general manager Mike and Rob Mulligan:

We aren't just hard-working employees, but students and parents; real people with real concerns. These are our lives. We're tired of being ignored and degraded at job after low-wage job. We're tired of being expendable. The pressure will continue to build until we are listened to.

The OP's story happened in Minneapolis.

[CRK7376]

26. I've yet to eat a

good Jimmy John's sandwich. They never taste good to me, although my 16yo loves their sandwiches. He doesn't like Subway's which I prefer if eating subs....

[closeupready]

28. Good on Margaret Brickely!

:woohoo:

[Javaman]

30. It's as if the repukes want to willfully return to the days of The Jungle.

I would have suggested to that district manager to try the meat his or herself.

[Blue Owl]

31. Well then, NO MORE Jimmy John's for me, ever

Bastards.

[Greyhound]

32. West coast K&R

[Jamastiene]

33. She deserves loads of praise and a much better job for that.

If only many others in the food industry were as principled...

I wish there was a way to get her a restaurant that she could run herself and then support that restaurant as much as possible.

[semillama]

37. Reminds me of the only time I've been fired

I was a shift manager at a Little Caesar's pizza joint (note-this is the same place where, after a car accident that totaled my car and could have killed me if the other car had hit me in a slightly different spot, the manager wanted to know if I could borrow my mother's car to continue to deliver pizzas in a blizzard). One day I was to open, I was running a fever and felt like hell - likely had the flu. I went into work (lived a couple blocks away) and tried calling all the other managers, but no one answered the phone. So I put a note up on the door noting we were closed and I went home to bed, rather than risk getting our customers sick. Voila! I was canned. So, add Little Caesar's to the list of restaurants to avoid.

[Omaha Steve]

41. Had the union not been organizing the shop...

Would she still have been brave enough to call the inspector?

[Luminous Animal]

57. Nope.

[ck4829]

42. She should be given a medal, not have her job threatened

Crazy.

K&R.

[smiley_glad_hands]

43. There is a four hour rule for food out of temperature.

After four hours out of temperature, throw it away.

[jmowreader]

61. Some places reduce that to a two-hour rule

The Danger Zone is anything between 41 and 140 degrees.

[Omaha Steve]

44. Thanks to all that read this

Word of mouth will help Margaret keep her job.

[deaniac21]

45. If they did that to Omaha Steaks employees, we'd really have

a problem.

[pleah]

48. K&R

[DeSwiss]

49. K&R

This is one of the main reasons I don't eat out anymore.

[era veteran]

66. Don't give up, there are conscientious operators

I have always run a clean restaurant (not a store) and constantly train and supervise staff. That is what I do and I am damn good at it. Stay away from chain 'stores'.

[Jim Sagle]

53. Obviously the Health Department needs to be privatized post haste.

:sarcasm:

[dem mba]

58. how is her job in jeopardy?

it skims over this rather important issue in the article.

If anyone should be fired, it would be Effertz. What an idiot. He could have cost the company millions in bad publicity and lawsuits if they served bad meat that day. Closing the store for one day would probably cost the company, what, a few hundred bucks?

I can't help but feel like there's more to this story.

[Omaha Steve]

62. She didn't do what she was told by her manager

They will try to fire her for something else, not this incident.

[Tunkamerica]

67. Not just her manager... the regional manager. So all the stores in that area

are suspect until he gets replaced.

[cbdo2007]

68. Hard to tell if this is Jimmy Johns policy or just an idiot district manager.

I know it's easy to blame Jimmy John's but I'm sure the executives at JJ wouldnt' want all the bad press from them serving rotting meat.