[nagdu] Discrimination Under the Golden Arches

[David Andrews]

Larry:

In the mid 1980's I worked for a place that used 
volunteers.  One of the volunteers did worked for 
United Airlines, she did flight attendant 
training.  We were having problems with United at 
the time, and there was training.  She said for 
big companies, two huge problems were getting 
everyone trained, and getting everybody to act properly and consistently.

I am sure this is an even bigger problem with a 
company like McDonalds.  They are huge with 
hundreds of thousands of employees, most of whom 
are only paid minimum wage, many of whom work for 
franchises, and are of widely varying 
abilities.  We are probably lucky this kind of thing doesn't happen more often.

Dave

At 06:23 PM 7/15/2014, you wrote:
>What I don't get is why a lot of places still 
>have this happen! Small family run places I kind 
>of get, but large chaines? I've never had an 
>issue at all of the ones I've been to. No 
>Wendy's, no Burger King, No pizza hut. ----- 
>Original Message ----- From: "Daryl Marie via 
>nagdu" <nagdu at nfbnet.org> To: "Cindy Ray" 
><cindyray at gmail.com> Cc: <NAGDU>; "the National 
>Association of Guide Dog Users" 
><nagdu at nfbnet.org> Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2014 
>6:50 PM Subject: Re: [nagdu] Discrimination 
>Under the Golden Arches >I debated about sending 
>this, but in the interests of discourse... > 
>IMHO, I think this whole situation was handled 
>poorly all the way across. > > 1) The first 
>employee had no right to say that dogs were not 
>allowed in > the McDonalds, and once they were 
>apprised they were guide dogs, that > should 
>have been that. Kudos should be given to the 
>female employee who > obeyed the law and let 
>Mary and Marion enjoy their meal (forgive me if 
>I > read the article incorrectly). > > 2) The 
>run-around between employees and the "manager" 
>(who may or may not > speak English) - say what? 
>I completely understand the frustration here, > 
>largely due to lack of apology and accurate 
>information as to who was > really in 
>charge.  If she was the manager, she should have 
>taken her > employee to task and been respectful 
>and apologetic herself; if she > wasn't, then 
>that's a whole other can of worms. > > 3) Bob 
>Conigliaro, the VP of Marketing for Casper's 
>surprised me; no > matter what, it is the law 
>that service dogs are allowed, period. Unless > 
>Mary and Marion went into the kitchen, no 
>employee had the right to deny > access. Some 
>apology should have been given for the action 
>and poor > leadership of the manager. 
>However... > > 4) I have watched this video 
>several times, and I cannot disagree with bob > 
>Conigliaro's assessment that there was some 
>browbeating going on.  While I > completely 
>understand the frustration, and the fact that 
>education of > employees is clearly needed, when 
>one of the first things said was "I'm > going to 
>educate you" I took a step back and my hackles 
>were raised. I am > not an employee, and fully 
>apprised of the rights of service dog 
>handlers, > and HAVE been discriminated against, 
>and think that perhaps an apology may > have 
>been more forthcoming if a bit more diplomacy 
>was used.  I do think > there is a time to be 
>angry and a time to let things go, but IMHO 
>this > situation as outlined lay somewhere in 
>the middle. > > Getting ready to be tarred and 
>feathered, > > Daryl and Jenny > > > ----- 
>Original Message ----- > From: Cindy Ray via 
>nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> > To: Marion Gwizdala 
><blind411 at verizon.net>, NAGDU Mailing List, 
>the > National Association of Guide Dog Users 
><nagdu at nfbnet.org> > Sent: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 
>15:16:51 -0600 (MDT) > Subject: Re: [nagdu] 
>Discrimination Under the Golden Arches > > Wow! 
>That is so typical. It’s just like on the 
>planes when we are told it > is their policy 
>that (fill in the blank.) That was what I had 
>been told > when I was “browbeaten” to sit 
>in the bulkhead. But that was a mistake > 
>because I could look at their website. 
>Southwest’s website said nothing of > the 
>sort, of course. The point is that you and Mary 
>should never have been > questioned as to the 
>fact that the dogs were there. I am surprised in 
>a > way that your so-called ally turned out not 
>to be one. > > Cindy Lou > > On Jul 15, 2014, at 
>12:41 PM, Marion Gwizdala via nagdu 
><nagdu at nfbnet.org> > wrote: > >> Dear 
>All, >> >>                Well, the person I 
>thought would be our ally at Casper's >> 
>Company, the franchisee of the McDonald's where 
>Merry and I experienced >> our >> issue with our 
>guide dogs, has turned the situation around so 
>that we are >> the ones to blame for their 
>unjust behavior. I want to invite you to read >> 
>my >> blog post that describes my attempt to 
>resolve this issue and my response >> to >> the 
>final outcome. You may do so by going 
>to >> >> >> >> 
>HarnessUp.wordpress.com >> >> >> >> Fraternally 
>yours, >> >> Marion Gwizdala >>

         David Andrews and long white cane Harry.
E-Mail:  dandrews at visi.com or david.andrews at nfbnet.org