Quitters, part 2
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2021
⏱️ ? minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when an entire fast-food restaurant staff quits? Today for our special series on “Quitters,” the story of a McDonald’s walkout, and what it can tell us about the labor market right now.
Read more:
In September, the entire staff of a McDonald’s in Bradford, Pa., walked out and quit their jobs. One of the staff members left a parting note for the customers, written in blue highlighter because he couldn’t find a pen: “Due to lack of pay, we all quit.”
“The signs are…kind of like primal screams,” says reporter Greg Jaffe. “It’s [the worker’s] chance to convey a message: We’re being mistreated. We’re tired of it. This corporation treats us badly, and doesn’t care about us.”
Today on Post Reports, we’re bringing you the second installment in “Quitters,” a three-part podcast series about a few of the millions of Americans who quit their jobs this year. Jaffe takes us inside the fast-food workers’ season of rebellion.
You can listen to the first part of the series here.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Give a helping hand this holiday season with the Washington Post helping hand. |
| 0:04.6 | This is John Kelly and I'm writing about Bread for the City, Friendship Place, and Miriam's Kitchen over the next few weeks. |
| 0:11.1 | Go to posthelpinghand.com to learn more and donate today. |
| 0:16.9 | Hey, it's Martine. |
| 0:18.1 | Today we have the second part of our series on quitters. |
| 0:21.8 | If you have not yet listened to part one, go check it out. |
| 0:24.3 | It's a great story about so many of the existential questions that Americans are wrestling with right now, but what we want to do and the role of work in our lives. |
| 0:33.6 | Today for part two, we have a story about a walk out at a McDonald's and the worker rebellion happening at so many fast food restaurants. |
| 0:43.5 | So I had seen a bunch of signs posted on Twitter and Facebook of people quitting. |
| 0:48.8 | It was a Burger King in Nebraska, a dollar general in Maine. |
| 0:56.8 | Greg Jaffee is a national reporter for the post. |
| 1:00.5 | The signs he's talking about were handmade, sometimes just scrolled on a piece of paper in pen or highlighter, taped to the front door of a business. |
| 1:10.2 | We all quit. Sorry for the inconvenience. |
| 1:14.7 | We put up a sign saying that they all quit and they were sorry for the inconvenience. |
| 1:20.4 | And a note posted on the restaurant's front entrance that they had been working a month straight with little respite WGXA. |
| 1:26.8 | Telling customers they were closed because everyone quit. |
| 1:30.5 | The signs are for the customers, certainly, to let them know that they're closed, but they're also kind of like primal screens or that they felt that way to me. |
| 1:37.7 | Like, I'm going to be seeing this as my one chance to convey a message and so they are a lot of, we've been mistreated, we're tired of it. |
| 1:47.7 | This corporation treats us badly and doesn't care about us. |
| 1:51.7 | They're fascinating little artifacts from this moment. |
| 1:55.6 | Greg decided to uncover the story behind one of these signs, a piece of paper that was taped up outside of McDonald's in Bradford, Pennsylvania. |
| 2:04.4 | It read, Do Too Lack of Pay, We All Quit. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.