[Portland] — Workers’ rights advocates including the Service Employees International Union and Portland Jobs with Justice are protesting today at Portland, Salem and Eugene area Burger Kings. The groups are calling on Burger King and Goldman Sachs (one of Burger King’s largest owners) to stop using tax dollars to fund executive bonuses while their workers rely on public assistance for health care.

“Burger King and Goldman Sachs should help rebuild the economy through improvements for workers instead of helping themselves to taxpayers’ hard-earned money for CEO pay and corporate bonuses,” said Barbara Hopkins who handles Workers’ Comp claims for the Department of Consumer and Business Services in Salem.

Burger King chief executive John Chidsey took home $5.4 million in 2008. Late last year, Goldman Sachs accepted $10 billion in taxpayer bailout money—then paid out $6.5 billion in bonuses, nearly double the average bonus on Wall Street.  If Goldman Sachs had used the $6.5 billion it spent on corporate bonuses to help Burger King’s 360,000 workers, each worker could have received $18,000.

While the food service industry is expected to add one million new jobs to the economy between 2006 and 2016, a new report suggests that the growing fast food economy is financially unhealthy for workers and costly to taxpayers. Because Burger King workers struggle to get by on sub-poverty wages with no affordable employer health care, many are forced to seek public assistance. As a result, taxpayers are estimated to be paying more than a quarter of a billion dollars a year to help make up for Burger King’s low pay and poor benefits.

While costing taxpayers billions, both Burger King and Goldman Sachs are fighting legislation in Congress that could help workers. Between 2006 and 2008 Burger King spent $319,648 on lobbying, including lobbying against the Employee Free Choice Act, a measure that would ensure workers the freedom to form a union for a voice on improved wages, benefits and working conditions. Burger King also spent $180,000 on lobbyists to fight pro-worker legislation like increasing the minimum wage.

The SEIU report “King Size Combo: What Burger King and Goldman Sachs Are Costing Our Country” concludes that in addition to assuring sound banking practices on Wall Street, Goldman Sachs must take responsibility for its important economic holdings on Main Street, such as Burger King. The report recommends that regulators demand bailout recipients stimulate the economy by increasing lending and by committing to living wages, affordable health benefits, freedom for workers to choose to form unions, and other worker protections. For a copy of the report, please visit www.ChangeThatWorks.net/bk.

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