Restaurants keeps complaining they can’t find workers. Maybe this is why

Owners of restaurants, coffee shops, and the like are often at the front of the line to complain about how Nobody Wants To Work These Days. No doubt coincidentally, they often provide some of the worst examples of why nobody wants to work for them. And this one is spectacular.

Boston-area journalist Deanna Schwartz started to apply to work at her local coffee shop, Phinista. Started, but didn’t finish, thanks to an outrageous and illegal line on the application. The story doesn’t end with Schwartz, though, because it turns out that Phinista crushed a union drive earlier in the year, and the workers who organized that have a lot to say about their former workplace. And the abuses at Phinista are not unique to one independent coffee shop, but are widespread across the food service industry.

RELATED STORIES: Wage theft is a huge problem that requires a creative solution