Labor is Fighting Back

Burger King cook and cashier Kevin Ford was happy to receive a small goody bag from management as a reward for never calling in sick. But people on the internet were less thrilled. They believed Ford deserved more — over $400,000 more.

While many on social media said they respected Ford's work ethic and positive attitude, they also argued that he deserved more than a bag of treats for prioritizing his job over his health.

As a single father with four daughters, Ford never took sick days because frankly, he couldn't afford to. Ford's job — like more than half of restaurant and accommodation jobs as of 2020 — does not offer paid sick leave, meaning workers typically do not get paid for missing work due to illness unless they dip into their paid vacation time.

Ford said he only ever missed work for medical reasons twice in his Burger King career — once for a surgery related to his sleep apnea, another for a spine procedure caused by working long hours on his feet. Even then, he used his vacation days to take that time off.

FedEx has fired a Black employee for refusing to take another job after he said two White men chased and shot at him while he delivered packages last year.

Four days before D’Monterrio Gibson found out he’d been fired, a Mississippi judge declared a mistrial in the case of a father and son charged with attempted murder after Gibson said they attacked him.

The men allegedly chased Gibson for about seven minutes while he was delivering packages on his route in Brookhaven, Miss., on Jan. 24, 2022. The pair fired at least five shots into his van, according to court records. Gibson, now 25, said that he had not interacted with the men before the shooting.