California Fast Food Workers Union
MEDIA ADVISORY FOR: December 10, 2025
Contact: Joanna Garcia -Cano, (909) 965-9939, joanna.garcia-cano@thefightfor15.org
KFC/Taco Bell Cooks, Cashiers to Strike, Raise Alarm on Age Discrimination
In complaints to the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), workers describe harassment, humiliating comments toward older workers
Managers cut older workers schedules, threaten to call ICE on workers
Striking workers demand KFC/Taco Bell reinstate hours, end harassment, call on Santa Clara County to advance Know Your Rights trainings
SUNNYVALE, CA—Cooks and cashiers at a KFC/Taco Bell in San Jose will launch a three-day strike on Wednesday to protest the company’s unfair treatment of workers. With support from Legal Aid at Work, workers plan to file complaints with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), demanding the company end the alleged discrimination based on age, disability, and perceived immigration status and reinstate their cut hours.
At a noon rally Wednesday, workers will raise the alarm on a pattern of discrimination, including humiliating comments about their bodies and age. Management, for example, allegedly said older workers are “useless” and “worthless”. Management has also cut older workers’ schedules over the years, with one worker going from roughly 32-36 hours per week to just 16. When workers speak up about concerns with the cuts, management has threatened workers with calling immigration authorities. These threats appear designed to coerce workers into silence about poor labor conditions, exploiting the current environment where ICE targeting already creates a chilling effect on workers seeking to enforce their rights.
In addition to reinstatement of workers’ hours, striking cooks and cashiers will also call on county lawmakers to advance solutions to help workers learn and enforce their rights, including regular, mandatory trainings.
According to the complaints before the CRD, one manager constantly belittles older workers with comments made for the entire crew to hear through the headset saying “she thinks that older workers are useless and that we are worthless, and that she wants to bring in younger workers because she says we the older workers are stupid and the younger workers are smarter.”
EVENT DETAILS:
WHO: KFC/Taco Bell cooks and cashiers, Legal Aid at Work, Working Partnerships USA
WHAT: Strike to protest discrimination, working hours
WHEN: Wednesday, December 10 at NOON PST
WHERE: KFC/Taco Bell, 1695 Hollenbeck Ave, Sunnyvale
California Fast-Food Workers Unite to Fight for Industry-Wide Improvements
Following years of strikes and rallies to raise the alarm on widespread issues in the industry including wage theft, dangerous working conditions and retaliation, Santa Clara County fast-food workers are pushing for local solutions to pervasive problems in the industry.
The California Fast Food Workers Union unites workers across brands and locations to advocate for fair pay, safe and healthy workplaces and a voice for all workers in the state’s fast-food industry. Together through their union, workers up and down the state have gone on strike to raise the alarm on issues spanning wage theft, retaliation and unsafe working conditions.
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The California Fast Food Worker Union is a historic statewide union committed to advancing racial and economic justice in the Golden State by fighting for fair pay, safe and healthy workplaces and a voice for all workers in the fast-food industry. The California Fast Food Workers Union, which unites fast-food workers across brands and locations, is the first of its kind in the country.
Legal Aid at Work partners with people to help them understand and assert their workplace rights. We also advocate for employment laws and systems that empower low-paid workers and marginalized communities.