Enforce (and Change) the Law

Hungry undergraduates seeking to satisfy their sweet tooth at Insomnia Cookies on Mt. Auburn Street during the wee hours of Sunday, August 18 must have encountered a very different scene from the one they anticipated. At midnight that night, four night-shift workers at that well-trafficked cookie franchise decided to go on strike and shut down operations at the store for three hours in what one protester referred to as an “occupation.”

The striking workers, all fired the next day, allege that they have been denied legally mandated one-hour breaks during their eight-hour shifts and that management has failed to ensure that drivers, who deliver cookies, earned the minimum wage. These are serious charges, and, if substantiated, demand remedial action. We have no sympathy for businesses that flout labor regulations, and if these charges prove accurate, the management ought to face the penalties dictated by law.

There are established procedures by which to seek redress for grievances. The workers have said they plan to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, which adjudicates such disputes, but this comes after a controversial foray into direct action. Workers should have stuck with the NLRB tack or sought legal redress, rather than shut down operations at their store. The management could hardly be expected to continue employing workers who shut down business for any length of time.

In addition to citing possible violations of Massachusetts labor laws, the strikers and their supporters at the Industrial Workers of the World have cited low wages as a cause for their continued protest, with one participant saying that the wages did not represent “a livable wage for the area.” Cashiers and bakers at Insomnia Cookies are paid $9 an hour and drivers receive $5 an hour plus commission and tips—wages that the Insomnia Cookies website describes as “above average.” The MIT Living Wage Project calculates that someone living in Cambridge requires $12.62 an hour to meet the basic cost of living, although the Massachusetts minimum wage stands at $8.00.

While we are sympathetic to the workers’ desire for higher wages, we think the matter is best handled by the state legislature, which could increase the state minimum wage, than by business owners, who will inevitably be at a competitive disadvantage if they pay their workers above-market wages.