Taco Bell staff walk out of Kansas City restaurant: 'We wanted to be treated like human beings'

Employees at the Taco Bell on Wornall Road staged a walkout in the middle of lunch Thursday, shutting down the store and rallying for a union and higher wages.
Taco Bell employees at one Kansas City restaurant walked off the job Thursday to protest conditions at the store.

Shift leader Fran Marion, who has worked at the 8215 Wornall location for a year, says the group chose to strike just before Labor Day to call attention to abusive customers, short staffing, lack of paid sick days, disrespectful management and low wages.

“A job shouldn’t be this difficult to come to and clock in and try to make a wage, not even a living wage,” she said.

Four workers stepped out of the restaurant at 12:30, in the middle of the lunch rush, to a cheering crowd from the workers' rights organization Stand Up KC. They taped a sign to the door: “Closed due to STRIKE”!