Unauthorized Immigrant Workers at Chipotle Mexican Grill Restaurants
In 2015, Chipotle Mexican Grill acknowledged that it was still under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia for possible failure to comply with laws on employee work eligibility. “It is not possible to know at this time,” the company stated in its annual report to shareholders, “whether the company will incur, or to reasonably estimate the amount of, any fines, penalties or further liabilities in connection with these matters.”
Chipotle’s troubles with immigration had begun four years earlier, when federal agents had descended on dozens of Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants around the country, from Los Angeles to Atlanta, interviewing employees and managers. Their purpose was to determine whether—and to what extent—the fast-food chain was hiring unauthorized immigrant workers in violation of U.S. law.
Chipotle was a fast-growing chain of restaurants specializing in burritos, tacos, and salads made on premises from fresh ingredients. Founded in Colorado in 1993 by chef Steve Ells, at the time of the immigration raids the company owned more than 1,200 restaurants in 41 states, Ontario, London, and Paris. Chipotle employed 31,000 people, 92 percent of whom were hourly employees. Operating under the slogan “Food with Integrity,” the chain reported $2.27 billion in revenue and 11 percent sales growth in 2011, despite the struggling economy. Some analysts believed that one of the reasons for Chipotle’s strong performance was, as the news service Reuters put it, its “uncanny ability to hold down labor costs.”
Page 369Under government rules, foreign-born individuals are permitted to work legally in the United States under some conditions. They can obtain a green card, a work permit issued to permanent residents (most of whom are close relatives of U.S. citizens). Highly skilled workers in short supply can apply for an H-1 visa. Low-skilled workers can apply for an H-2 visa for temporary, seasonal work; however, these are available to only about 1 percent of the unauthorized population. When hiring, employers are required to fill out and keep on file an I-9 form, documenting a person’s eligibility to work, and present it to government investigators if asked.
About half a million undocumented immigrants entered the United States every year during the past decade, two-thirds by crossing the Mexican–U.S. border and the rest by overstaying temporary visas. The Pew Research Center estimates there are 8.1 undocumented immigrants in the U.S. workforce, about 5 percent of the total. Three-quarters of them are Hispanic, mostly from Mexico but also from Central and South America. The main reason they immigrate is for economic opportunity; studies show, for example, that a Mexican man with a high school education can make two and a half times as much in the United States as in his home country, even after taking into account differences in the cost of living.
Most take low-skilled jobs in a small number of occupations and industries. Fully a quarter of farmworkers in the United States—and about a fifth of building and grounds maintenance workers—are undocumented immigrants. In the restaurant industry, they make up 12 percent of food-preparation workers and servers nationally—and much more in some regions, such as southern California. A study by the Food Chain Workers’ Alliance found that undocumented workers earned a median hourly wage of $7.60 (compared with about $10 for other workers in the food industry) and were more than twice as likely to experience some kind of wage theft, such as unpaid hours. Forty-four percent of undocumented workers in the food industry were actually earning less than minimum wage.
Over the past decade, government policy toward people working in the United States illegally has undergone a sharp about-face. Under President George W. Bush, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division of the Department of Homeland Security, conducted a series of high-profile raids of factories, targeting foreign workers who were unable to produce authentic work papers. For example, in 2008, ICE agents arrested and deported hundreds of workers at a meatpacking plant in Iowa.
The Obama administration took a different approach, focusing its enforcement efforts on employers. ICE began conducting I-9 audits, checking businesses to make sure their employees’ papers were in order. The Social Security Administration also began investigating situations where Social Security numbers provided by employees did not match their records (in the case of illegal workers, these numbers were often fictitious). If the agents found evidence of problems, they ordered that employers comply with the law—and in some cases imposed fines or even brought criminal charges against managers.
Chipotle was not the only employer targeted by these investigations. For example, American Apparel, a garment company based in Los Angeles, terminated 1,800 undocumented workers after an ICE audit found widespread irregularities. At L.E. Cooke Company, a family-owned nursery in California’s Central Valley, the owner was forced to fire 26 of his 99 employees who had entered the country illegally. Many had worked for the nursery for many years and had specialized skills. “Telling them was probably the worst day of my life,” the owner said. “I don’t just sit at a desk here, I’m actually out in the fields harvesting with them.”
Page 370As it awaited resolution of the government investigations, Chipotle’s management took steps to tighten up its employment procedures. In addition to terminating workers it found to be undocumented, Chipotle ordered all its restaurants to use the federal E-Verify system, even in states where this was not required. (E-Verify is an online system that compares information from a new employee’s Form I-9 to social security and homeland security data to confirm work eligibility.) It also adopted an electronic Form I-9 to reduce errors. But the company’s CEO acknowledged that its systems were not foolproof. “Whatever systems you have for anything really, there are always going to be people who try to game the system,” he said. “But I think that we are going above and beyond . . . to ensure that we are complying with the immigration [laws].”
Questions
1.Do you consider being an unauthorized immigrant a form of workplace diversity? How is it similar to and different from other kinds of workplace diversity discussed in this chapter?
2. Do you agree with Chipotle’s response to the government’s enforcement effort? What else should Chipotle’s managers do now, and why?
In: Operations Management
Suppose that the sitting back-to-knee length for a group of adults has a normal distribution with a mean of mu equals 23.4 in. and a standard deviation of sigma equals 1.1 in. These data are often used in the design of different seats, including aircraft seats, train seats, theater seats, and classroom seats. Instead of using 0.05 for identifying significant values, use the criteria that a value x is significantly high if P(x or greater)less than or equals0.01 and a value is significantly low if P(x or less)less than or equals0.01. Find the back-to-knee lengths separating significant values from those that are not significant. Using these criteria, is a back-to-knee length of 25.7 in. significantly high?
In: Statistics and Probability
A cliché that sums up the concept of diminishing marginal returns/increasing marginal costs is:
Question 8 options:
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Question 33 (5 points) Which of the following are examples of price discrimination (select all that apply): Question 33 options:
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You can't have you cake and eat it too. |
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In: Economics
You’ve been monitoring Bletchley Park Corporation and have calculated the following information. The company has a debt to asset ratio of 57.45%, market beta of 1.26, unlevered beta of .82 (at a 40% marginal tax rate), and a cost of equity of 13.67%. The risk free rate is 1.8%. The risk premium due to financial risk is closest to?
In: Finance
As the project manager for a not-for-profit organization, you were notified that your proposal to improve the safety of the Lafayette Park in Los Angeles was approved. You and your team will receive funding for $50,000. Please prepare a positive letter informing your team members and outline the safety improvements you propose to be implemented.
Prepare this into a Positive Letter.
In: Operations Management
For each of the following types of businesses, name the processes that correspond to the traditional manufacturing functions of product design, process design, production scheduling, and production control. (processes involved in the following types of business)
a. Personal computer software developer (for example, Microsoft).
b. New car dealership
c. College or university.
d. Amusement park.
In: Operations Management
Think about industry‐disrupting companies such as Uber (disrupting the taxi industry) and Airbnb (disrupting the hotel industry). Research them if you don’t know much about them. What are the legal and ethical issues facing them? In what ways are they being responsible, irresponsible? How would you evaluate their corporate social responsibility?
In: Operations Management
In: Economics
The design should consist of two things:
(1) a list of every semaphore, its purpose, and its initial value,
and
(2) pseudocode for each function. The pseudocode should be similar
to the pseudocode shown in the textbook for the barbershop
problem.
Every wait and signal call must be included in the pseudocode.
Must use Java Threads and Java Semaphores
(java.util.concurrent.Semaphore).
You may not use the “synchronized” keyword in Java for mutual
exclusion.
You may not use Java data structures that have built-in mutual
exclusion.
Please provide corresponding PSEUDOCODE along with JAVA CODE.
Hotel Simulation
A hotel is simulated by using threads and semaphores to model
customer and employee behavior.
This project is similar to the “barbershop” example in the
textbook. The following rules apply:
The hotel to be simulated has two employees at the front desk to
register guests and two bellhops to handle guests’ bags.
A guest will first visit the front desk to get a room number. The
front desk employee will find an available room and assign it to
the guest.
If the guest has less than 3 bags, the guest proceeds directly to
the room. Otherwise, the guest visits the bellhop to drop off the
bags.
The guest will later meet the bellhop in the room to get the bags,
at which time a tip is given.
Threads:
Guest:
1) 25 guests visit the hotel (1 thread per guest
created at start of simulation).
2) Each guest has a random number of bags (0-5).
3) A guest must check in to the hotel at the front
desk.
4) Upon check in, a guest gets a room number from the
front desk employee.
5) A guest with more than 2 bags requires a
bellhop.
6) The guest enters the assigned room.
7) Receives bags from bellhop and gives tip (if more
than 2 bags).
8) Retires for the evening.
Front Desk:
1) Two employees at the front desk (1 thread
each).
2) Checks in a guest, finds available room, and gives
room number to guest.
Bellhop:
1) Two bellhops (1 thread each).
2) Gets bags from guest.
3) The same bellhop that took the bags delivers the
bags to the guest after the guest is in the room.
4) Accepts tip from guest.
Other rules:
1) All mutual exclusion and coordination must be
achieved with semaphores.
2) A thread may not use sleeping as a means of
coordination.
3) Busy waiting (polling) is not allowed.
4) Mutual exclusion should be kept to a minimum to
allow the most concurrency.
5) Each thread should print when it is created, and
main should print when it joins the customer threads.
6) Each thread should only print its own activities.
The guest threads print guest actions and the employee threads
print their own actions.
7) Your output must include the same information, same
wording, and the same set of steps as the sample output. Of course,
each run can be different depending on the order of thread
execution and the random assignments made.
Output
1) Each step of each task of each thread should be
printed to the screen with identifying numbers so it is clear which
threads are involved.
2) Thread output sample for 3 guests. The wording in
your output should exactly match the sample.
Simulation starts
Front desk employee 0 created
Front desk employee 1 created
Bellhop 0 created
Bellhop 1 created
Guest 0 created
Guest 1 created
Guest 2 created
Guest 0 enters hotel with 1 bag
Guest 1 enters hotel with 4 bags
Guest 2 enters hotel with 3 bags
Front desk employee 0 registers guest 0 and assigns room 1
Front desk employee 1 registers guest 1 and assigns room 2
Guest 0 receives room key for room 1 from front desk employee
0
Guest 1 receives room key for room 2 from front desk employee
1
Front desk employee 0 registers guest 2 and assigns room 3
Guest 0 enters room 1
Guest 2 receives room key for room 3 from front desk employee
0
Guest 1 requests help with bags
Guest 0 retires for the evening
Guest 0 joined
Guest 2 requests help with bags
Bellhop 1 receives bags from guest 2
Bellhop 0 receives bags from guest 1
Guest 1 enters room 2
Guest 2 enters room 3
Bellhop 0 delivers bags to guest 1
Bellhop 1 delivers bags to guest 2
Guest 1 receives bags from bellhop 0 and gives tip
Guest 2 receives bags from bellhop 1 and gives tip
Guest 2 retires for the evening
Guest 1 retires for the evening
Guest 1 joined
Guest 2 joined
Simulation ends
In: Computer Science
On September 28, 1994, Disney officials announced the end of the Disney’s America project in Prince William County, Virginia. Two representatives from Disney’s America flew to Richmond to brief Virginia’s Governor George Allen on the decision. The same day, Prince William County officials were notified as well. Peter S. Rummell, president of Disney Design and Development Company, issued a public statement, saying in part: We remain convinced that a park that celebrates America and an exploration of our heritage is a great idea, and we will continue to work to make it a reality. However, we recognize that there are those who have been concerned about the possible impact of our park on historic sites in this unique area, and we have always tried to be sensitive to the issue. While we do not agree with all their concerns, we are seeking a new location so that we can move the process forward. . . . Despite our confidence that we would eventually win the necessary approvals, it has become clear that we could not say when the park would be able to open—or even when we could break ground. The controversy over building in Prince William County has diverted attention and resources from the creative development of the park. Implicit in our vision for the park is the hope that it will be a source of pride and unity for all Americans. We certainly cannot let a particular site undermine that goal by becoming a source of divisiveness.1 Rummell stated that Disney would try to build an American history theme park elsewhere in Virginia, but that a site had not yet been selected. Many Virginia politicians were disappointed, but some tried to remain optimistic. Governor George Allen’s office issued a statement: “I’m committed to a Disney theme park in Virginia and the jobs that will be created thereby. I’m pleased that the Walt Disney Company shares that commitment.”2 Robert S. Skunda, Allen’s Secretary of Commerce and Trade, commented to reporters, “I think they see the likelihood of long-term damage to their image. No company likes to be publicly bashed when they feel as though they are doing something that is worthwhile. . . . The thing that a company values most is its reputation. It has to. Without a reputation a company cannot continue to exist. I think those things drove Disney away from the Haymarket site.”3 Prince William County executive James Mullen said the county would be forced to go through a time of self-examination following Disney’s exit. He stated, “Mainly I’m disappointed for the people in the community who supported the project and for our staff, who put so much time in on this. Disney certainly hasn’t helped our marketing effort. They’ve made it very difficult for us to overcome the perception that this is a place (where) you can’t do a big project without a hassle.”4 Other local politicians were not as generous in their remarks about Disney. State Senator Joseph Benedetti of Richmond stated, “Promises were made that they’d stay, come hell or high water. Whatever they do is going to have to be written in blood next time.”5 State Senator Charles Colgan of Prince William County stated, “I think they broke faith with us.”6 James McPherson, the Princeton history professor and one of Disney’s most vocal opponents, stated, “I’m very happy. It’s good news.”7 McPherson said that he would be happy to help Disney find another location in Virginia that would be less significant historically. He stated, “Some of us would be quite happy to advise them. This has never been an attempt to bash Disney.”8 Over the next few weeks, scores of municipalities wrote newspaper articles and petitioned Disney directly, stating that they would welcome a Disney park in their areas. Since the decision to halt plans for Disney’s America in Virginia, observers have tried to make sense in retrospect of the park’s failure. In 1998, Eisner issued a memoir, Work in Progress. In a chapter devoted to the Disney’s America project,9 Eisner freely and openly admits that Disney made many missteps, while still arguing for the vision he had for the theme park. Among the missteps Eisner identified were • Naming the project “Disney’s America,” which implied the company’s ownership of U.S. history. He said, “That was unfortunate because we were never interested in a park that merely reflected a Disneyesque view of American history.” • Failing to “recognized how deeply people often feel about maintaining their communities just as they are. . . . There may have been no collection of people [the Piedmont Environmental Council] in America better equipped to lobby a cause, whether with Congress or government agencies or through the media.” • Being “blindsided” by the issue of proximity to the Manassas Battlefield Park. Jody Powell’s advice had been that the distance of three miles would be great enough to avoid controversy. • Believing Disney “could announce the project on [its] own timetable. Our focus on secrecy in land acquisition had prevented us from even briefing, much less lobbying, the leading politicians in the state about our plans as they evolved. The consequence was that we lost the opportunity to develop crucial allies and nurture goodwill.” • Revealing to the public “a plan that looked relatively complete [which] opened ourselves up to every critic with different ideas about what a park based on American history should and should not include.” • Making emotional statements that critics latched on to, including being shocked about not being taken around on people’s shoulders and complaining that history in school was boring. Eisner reflects: “My comments made me sound not just smug and arrogant but like something of a Philistine. . . . Looking back, I realize how much my brief moment of intemperance undermined our cause.” To balance his story, Eisner also recollects his well-meaning intentions for the theme park, describing his motives as the patriotic and socially responsible vision of a son of immigrants. He wanted visiting Disney’s America to be as multimedia intensive and deeply moving an experience as the U.S. Holocaust Museum. In retrospect, Eisner explained “We saw ourselves as storytellers first and foremost,” who needed advice from historical experts to portray American history “knowledgeably and responsibly.” Working with the advisory group of “openminded” historians who critiqued comparable exhibits in Orlando was particularly eye-opening: “In our original plan, for example, we’d envisioned recreating a classic twentieth-century steel. mill and then putting a roller-coaster through it. To do that, we began to understand, could trivialize and even demean the attempt to portray the steel mill realistically.” Of his critics, Eisner complains, “By any reasonable measure, this attack on Disney’s America was dramatically overstated. . . . Much like negative advertising in a political campaign, [their] incendiary claims were effective in influencing public opinion and putting us further on the defensive. I was suddenly the captain of Exxon’s Valdez. . . . By the summer of 1994, opposing Disney’s America had become a fashionable cause célèbre in the media centers of New York City and Washington, D.C. . . . Fairness seemed to have given way to polemics.” In the end, Eisner explains that financial projections made in late August 1994 “showed that rather than the profit we’d previously projected for Disney’s America, we were now facing the prospect of substantial losses.” On the cost side, Eisner attributed the losses to the current and future expense of dealing with opponents’ legal challenges, to the carrying costs caused by a projected two-year delay before breaking ground, and to the modifications to the original plans that increased costs by almost 40 percent. On the revenue side, the Disney’s America team now projected a lower price point for tickets and a shorter season at eight months down from nine. According to Eisner, “Now that a dozen members of our team had spent a year living in the towns adjacent to our site, they had a different view. An eight-month season for the park seemed more realistic.” The revised figures, coupled with the psychic impact of Wells’ death, Eisner’s by-pass surgery, and Katzenburg’s departure led to the decision to abandon plans for Disney’s America. As Eisner concludes, I still believed that it was possible to get Disney’s America built, but the question now was at what cost. . . . [A]fter two weeks of soul-searching, we finally agreed that it wasn’t fair to subject the company to more trauma. The issue was no longer who was right or wrong. We had lost the perception game. Largely through our own missteps, the Walt Disney Company had been effectively portrayed as an enemy of American history and a plunderer of sacred ground. The revised economic projections took the last bit of wind out of our sails. The cost of moving forward on Disney’s America, we reluctantly concluded, finally outweighed the potential gain. Others interpreted the situation as one in which Eisner himself needed better handling. In The Keys to the Kingdom, former Washington Post reporter Kim Masters says Eisner’s dealings with the media had suffered since late 1992 when he lost his chief of corporate communications, Erwin Okun, to cancer. “Okun had a shrewd yet avuncular style that worked well with the press,” wrote Masters. Journalist Peter Boyer said of Okun “‘He somehow pushed that button in all of us that said Disney is an honest, good company that meant well. . . . He packaged [Eisner] well without seeming to do so.’” “Eisner said he relied on Okun ‘to counsel, review, berate, encourage, and protect me,’” Masters writes. Okun’s successor, John Dreyer, however, “came from the theme parks. He lacked Okun’s cordiality and treated the press with suspicion bordering on hostility. At the Washington Post, he quickly alienated the very reporters whose coverage of Disney’s America would prove most influential.”10 Pat Scanlon, formerly an Imagineer, speculated that Wells might have salvaged the Disney’s America project. “There wasn’t anybody at a high enough level to keep Michael in his box, [Scanlon] says. “Michael was making public remarks that weren’t helpful. Michael sounded a bit like an abrasive Hollywood producer coming to town. Frank would have shaped public relations because he would have made Michael more aware. Frank was the consummate diplomat.”11 Whatever the cause, Nick Kotz, a member of the Piedmont Environmental Council and author of the editorial in the Los Angeles Times, observed this about the effects of the Disney’s America theme park controversy: “Undoubtedly Disney had internal reasons for the decision to strike its tent on the Piedmont battlefield. But it had also faced the danger of a Pyrrhic victory. In all probability, it could have prevailed and built its theme park, but it would have suffered serious and perhaps permanent value to its reputation.”12 Despite claims by Eisner and Disney officials to the contrary, as of the writing of this case, no further plans have been announced for a Disney’s America theme park.
Discuss and Anlysis the Case Study.
In: Operations Management