Maybe you've heard Sysco @Teamsters are on strike in 3 cities. But unless you work in a commercial kitchen, you probably don't know what Sysco even is, or why so many chefs & small restaurants are *rooting* for the strikers.
Goldman Sachs-spawned Sysco & PE-backed US Foods are tyrants of the restaurant supply cartel. Their service is often shockingly bad.
But they're Kings of M&A. Sysco's acquired more than 150 rivals. Chefs have nightmares about USF swallowing their purveyors economicliberties.us/press-release/ftc-doj-must-step-in-to-stop-dominant-middlemen-ripping-off-independent-restaurants/
During the pandemic Sysco's brand new CEO laid off a third of its workforce. Probably he got the idea from the railroads, which had just laid off a third of their workers without even a pandemic to blame. What could go wrong, right? bizjournals.com/houston/news/2020/05/05/sysco-reveals-size-of-workforce-cuts-due-to-covid.html
No prizes for guessing how Sysco spent the cash it saved axing workers. They went shopping! For small companies & Sysco stock. Also, dividends. Management just boasted to an investor conference that it expects to have "returned" $15 BILLION to shareholders by the end of the year.
Meanwhile in the kitchen trenches, TOTAL CHAOS reigned. Last year restaurants were regularly getting orders 2-3 DAYS late if at all. Whole counties were unilaterally wiped off delivery routes. Because Sysco liked how its "lean" labor force looked on a spreadsheet.
Sysco's failure to deliver even forced a New England summer camp to shut 7 weeks early in a scandal likened to the Fyre Festival.
(more like the inevitable result of 100s of kids who'd never known deprivation in any form experiencing hunger for first time) thedailybeast.com/fyre-fest-of-summer-camps-shut-down-after-parents-spend-thousands
Now, perhaps you wonder, "How do these companies manage to perpetually hike dividends if they're failing their customers in such spectacular fashion?"
That's the magic of INFLATION my friends. Just triple the price of animal proteins, paper products & rubber gloves & we're good!
anyway Sysco & US Foods, like railroads & airlines, are case studies of how monopolies abuse workers & small business almost identically, and that abuse is symbiotic.
That's why @Teamsters opposed the two companies' diabolical plan to merge in 2015 restaurantbusinessonline.com/teamsters-pushes-against-sysco-us-foods-deal
And it's why small business groups like @indprestaurants co-signed our letter demanding an antitrust investigation, even though individually many small restaurants "live in fear" of Sysco subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2022/10/anti-monopoly-industry-groups-blame-foodservice-distributors-for-pandemic-profiteering-00060572
And no one wants Sysco drivers & THEIR WAREHOUSE BROTHERS to get dignified wages, sustainable schedules & regular pay rises (bc experience REALLY matters when delivering 2 our rinkydink backalley loading docks) more than chefs & indie restaurateurs.
Bc the status quo is NOT GOOD
moe tkacik
@moetkacik
investigations editor @TheProspect senior fellow @econliberties maureent at prospect.org