(TheProudRepublic.com) – As the current administration is harming working-class Americans by raising the minimum wage while firing them when they try to provide for their families, former Fosters Freeze Assistant General Manager Monica Navarro has raised concerns regarding the impact of California’s escalating minimum wage on workers.
Navarro was featured on Fox Business’s “The Bottom Line” to discuss the closure of Fosters Freeze, a fast-food chain in Lemoore, California, where she worked.
The restaurant announced its permanent closure on April 1, which caught some employees off guard when they mistook it for an April Fools’ Day joke. Navarro learned about the shutdown from coworkers who arrived for their shifts that day.
The former manager pointed out that employers in California are not legally required to notify employees about closures and expressed her belief that such a notice would have been beneficial.
“Two of my coworkers were actually going in to clock in for the morning and right after that, that’s when I got a phone call that we were closing. So they found out right as they were about to clock in for the day,” Navarro said.
“It’s a shock. I understand that California’s an at-will state, so we don’t really have to have a notice, but it would’ve been nice to have notice so that way we could go get some applications, I could prepare them. The best I can do is honestly give them some references.”
She expressed disappointment about the lack of notice even though she understood California’s at-will state while suggesting it would have enabled them to seek new job opportunities. Despite the closure, Navarro offered references to her coworkers.
When asked about her conversations with management regarding the closure and the minimum wage hike from $16 to $20 for California fast-food restaurants on April 1, Navarro expressed the preference of her fellow employees to remain at their previous wage level.
“I can see their intentions with increasing the minimum wage, thinking that it will attract more people, but I honestly don’t think it’ll work. This is not the first business that’s closing,” she said.
She highlighted the significant impact on their livelihoods, with those in nearby areas experiencing the wage hike having their hours drastically reduced, which makes their jobs more challenging.
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