LETTER FROM
THE EDITOR
“speed the transition to more
sustainable sources of energy”
— Zeller’s story shows that, in
many cases, there are simply too
many obstacles standing in the
way of meaningful change.
As Matthew Brown, an attorney with Common Good —
a nonpartisan group trying to
simplify and streamline the approval and rejection process —
puts it, “There has to be a better
way. It shows just exactly how
far away from the purposes of
the process the actual reality
has come.”
Elsewhere in the issue, Dave
Jamieson writes about the bakers of Panera Bread and their
efforts to unionize. It’s a story of
the rapid rise of Panera — one of
the country’s increasingly prevalent “fast-casual” restaurants —
and the bitter battle some of its
employees are fighting to unionize. A year and a half ago, Jamieson writes, a group of Panera
bakers in Michigan decided to
join a union, “to improve working conditions and earn some-
HUFFINGTON
03.10.13
thing a little closer to a middleclass living.” But as Jamieson
writes, they’ve encountered
obstacles, including one of the
chain’s major franchisees, Paul
Saber, who is waging
an aggressive antiunion campaign.
More
We meet Kaththan a
leen VonEitzen, a
dozen
Panera baker who
lawsuits …
spends her 10 p.m.have thrown
dawn shift turning
sand in the
out fresh baguettes,
cookies, scones
project’s
and bagels, and
gears at
who earns $10.45
every turn.”
per hour, or about
$21,000 per year
— just enough to pay the bills,
but not enough to cover her husband’s heart medication. And
Kyle Schilling, a Michigan union
hopeful, who says, “I came into
this thinking we had the right
to bargain collectively. They
make it so that it’s almost impossible. They just wear
you down.”
ARIANNA