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They have the right to protest under the law, just as the owner has the right to pay the wages he chooses, and I would not be surprised if this gets challenged in court under the labor laws.
Nobody denied the employees their right to assemble/protest. But just as the Duck Dynasty guy is finding, the exercise of rights might be free from government interference, but not always from any consequence whatsoever.
If I was restructuring/remodeling my entire business, and I already had an expected slow season as well as a group of employees who have it clear they do not like working for me for the wages I pay them, I would have done exactly what this business owner did. I might have changed how I phrased the fact that all current employees are no longer needed and are free to apply for positions when the business reopens, but besides that minor quibble, it would have been basically the same.
Moral of the story - a job is not a right, it is a voluntary contract between two parties: employer and employee. Like any contract, it has terms and conditions, and I would assume one of those terms and/or conditions would be "when scheduled to work, you are expected to be at work, not at some protest demanding I pay you more while you are not working." So yes, you have a right to protest, but few employees have the right to blow off work for the purpose of making demands of and leveling insults at their employer and retain their job consequence free.
And there is no law that says this employer must remain in business. A lot of the small business workers would do well to learn from this example. For most small business owners, profit margins can be very slim, and the wage cost structiure is what it is. Demand too much, and the owner may decide being in business is simply no longer worth it, cash out and go relax full time instead of putting up with people protesting them.
Okay.....so the store is losing money and needs to close so they can restructure. Yea....it's a bad time of year to do it, but the owner is probably bleeding green and can't stay in business.
I didn't hear a peep out of lefties when Starbucks closed hundreds of stores a few years ago and many of their employees lost their jobs.
This particular business will reopen, will need employees and perhaps the best previous employees will be called back.
What the protesting wave of fast-food "workers" (and I use that term loosely) fail to realize is that if they force a company to pay a high rate, then the company will probably want to replace their staff with people that will PRODUCE for that higher rate!
These current fools will be out on the street WISHING some fast food job was available that would pay someone like them a minimum wage!
You shouldn't get ahead by forcing someone to give you rewards. You need to improve your skillset and make something of yourself so either; a) an employer may want to reward you with better wages, or b) you get a better-paying job because you've made something of yourself.
The owner might just be going under, something like 80% of restaurants go out of business in 2 years. But they run the risk of generating bad public sentiment which will hurt business. They'll probably change names but it looks like a lose lose proposition all around.
Maybe they can collect unemployment.
I can't understand why anyone would want to work for somebody too gutless to fire an employee in person. Email is the coward's way out.
Radio Shack did the same thing several years back, and I know several people (myself included) who will never spend another nickel with them.
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