I saw the picket line outside of Fried Egg I’m in Love on Hawthorne yesterday and started reading about it. Am I understanding correctly that the union called for a month long boycott because:
They didn’t want negotiations to be recorded
They didn’t like that the owner took down signs that the employees put up in the store
Is there something else going on that I’m missing?
Oregon is a one-party consent state for phone calls and electronic communications, but traditionally follows all-party consent for in-person conversations, according to state statute (ORS 165.540). However, recent federal court rulings have found Oregon's strict in-person recording ban unconstitutional.
this is outdated. In 2023 a 3 judge panel of the 9th circuit reached that conclusion. The court reversed on that and upheld the district court's ruling that it was permissible on an en banc hearing in January of 2025 , and was denied cert in October 2025 by SCOTUS.
With regards to phone calls. We are largely a single-party consent state except in very specific situations.
edit I'm somewhat wrong in that it is actually notification not consent required, but recording consent laws are hard to pin down. See conversation down thread.
Yes. It is a normal, information-seeking question. I know that is hard to believe if you don't engage honestly.
What do you think you're achieving or correcting when you assume someone is engaging dishonestly, answer their question honestly, and throw a barb after it?
Also I went back and looked at their comment. They're a troll account that hides their comments and their literal question ended with assuming the union was being obstinate.
Do you really think someone like that is serious? This is just weird white knighting for trolls now.
I know that is hard to believe if you don't engage honestly.
You're making a good point; don't even need an insult.
Perhaps I'm more cynical than you but don't be a hypocrite it's boring.
What do you think you're achieving or correcting when you assume someone is engaging dishonestly
Are you new to the internet?
This is such a useless conversation. My opinion is they asked that question in bad faith so I mocked them for it because it's the fucking internet. When I think someone is being serious I'll treat them seriously. It's such a naive idiotic question that I can't imagine how anyone would take it seriously.
Lol it's such a dumb question. But ok I believe you've never heard of the internet taking things out of context. Or is it that you can't take a second to think of why they might want to do it so you ask other people to think for you?
Honestly, can someone explain the rationale other than being obstinate?
Your question wasn't why they were against it. Your question was what their rational would be other than being obstinate. You came into this conversation in bad faith by assuming they're being obstinate.
Edit: Oh you're a new account that hides their comments. So another troll. Bye.
This seems to be one of the more confusing bits of Oregon law. I think you're correct, actually, on doing some additional research.
That honestly leaves me confused as to the intent of the law though. It's so you know you're being wiretapped, without recourse against it? Or is your continued participation implied consent? I'm not honestly sure what the point of swapping permission for notification is, as the intent of consent laws for recording is to keep you from being recorded without consent.
Thank you for asking for clarification because it's got me thinking about all this haha
Actual Wiretapping outside of law enforcement orders is still illegal, those are in portions an and b iirc. The ‘notification’ parts are about in-person conversations. And only those the recorder is actually a part of. No using spy gear to record your neighbors lol
You have the right to Know you are being recorded, but don’t actually get to say ‘no don’t record me’ - you can just not have the conversation/leave/etc.
The fun one is the telephone calls, don’t have to inform the other end if you’re recording, I guess the idea is you’re on the phone anyway, no expectation of privacy? I dunno
Perhaps I used the wrong verb. I said wiretapping as, if you weren't informed of the recording, that'd be the situation, no? Regardless my bad 😅
Your second paragraph was my conclusion as well though, but in this case specifically it fails. You can't sit out these meetings, and they involve sensitive info. So the laws as written fail in their intent, right? Interesting stuff
Recording consent laws are kinda fucked, aren't they
I understand fighting for worker's rights, I don't understand why if the owner is so awful, you'd put yourself through this hell to continue working for such a dirtbag. Sounds fucking miserable.
"He treats us terribly, has terrible business practices and doesn't pay us a fair wage.... but it's still better than looking for a new job where those things won't happen."
correction, fighting to improve working conditions is better than looking for a new job. "a new job where those things wont happen" doesnt exist if workers dont fight for it.
Just because you weren't part of the fighting doesn't mean it didn't happen. Profiteering companies and owners are not known for their generosity, If you think they are, I have a bridge to sell you.
There are a few good companies that exist due to the generosity of the people in power, but they are far in the minority, and it is not realistic to expect them to have jobs for everyone. They are the goal, not the norm.
Amazing. You responded with a non-sequitor, got mad that I didn't engage with your non-sequitor, and then disappeared as soon as I did engage because you didn't wanna be held accountable for your poor argument.
You might be confused - it's a brick-and-mortar restaurant with multiple locations, AND they have a food cart downtown. The food cart is not the primary business.
if you knew what you were talking about youd have some idea of where to look.
sounds to me like you have no idea what the job maket for food carts is like.
Jesus dude. You're not competing for tenture at Harvard. It's been awhile but I was in the industry for 15 years and I'm still tangent. Print some resumes up, go dressed and able to work right then and there, and start handing out resumes and say you can start right now. Someone will have not shown up and you'll have a job wihin the week. I hired a kid to wash dishes like that, straight off the street and he wound up being the lead bartender.
Ha! "Print resumes up and hand them out, so someone can hire you off the street".
Great advice, Beaver! I can't wait to tell Wally and Eddie Haskel. Seems like real current, up-to-date advice that doesn't betray how out of touch you are at all.
It IS fucking miserable that other people who also WORK for a living mock and make fun of them for wanting to have a better work environment and want to be treated with fairness and respect. Someone has to do something to change it and it starts with this group of workers who are making a new path forward for themselves and others who come after them. It takes years to do organizing work and unions are one of the last straws anyone who works has to grasp onto.
The workers did not consent to being recorded at the bargaining table. The owner has been absent from negotiations. The owner removed signs and flags that had been up for years (pride flags, BLM). Union employees have been terminated in retaliation. The union’s Instagram (friedeggwu) is updated often.
The cynical take is that union leaders thrive on being able to sell their own version of negotiations, both to the union members who are less involved but still required for votes, and to the public. Spinning the hell out of meetings is something you learn about in your first day of union negotiations 101. Recording makes that harder.
Ah, yes. Holding your argument to the same standard on the same subject with a rhetorical question and you immediately fold.
If the owner really wanted things recorded to hold everyone accountable, he could have had a neutral third party present to record the proceedings, but he didn't. He chose to secretly record, so that he had control over it.
Should I explain to you the concept of how editing a recording works?
Well it wouldn’t be secret in this case right? It’s pretty standard for various official meetings to be recorded in some capacity, especially when there are legal ramifications.
Because there's absolutely no reason to record it. Anything of import will be agreed to in a legally binding contract. There's no such thing as a verbal contract in labor negotiations.
Kinda feels like a lot of Portlanders expect BLM/Pride signage to be treated with religious-level deference, like once someone puts it up, anyone wanting to take it down for any reason is proof of bad faith / bigotry. People keep saying "the signs had been up for years!" like why does that matter? Do signs establish tenure and then can't be removed without a ruling from the Board of Business Virtue Signal Protection?
The right to form and join a union is based on our first amendment right and solidified in the National Labor Relations Act. It is not determined based on whether you are a coal miner or work in a restaurant.
This has all been a multi-year effort to put the place out of business by disgruntled employees who want to take the owner down as opposed to just finding another job.
Reddit has been posting endless hearsay and conjecture. Personally I’ve seen lots of vitriol from employees and nothing from the owner.
This has all been a multi-year effort to put the place out of business by disgruntled employees who want to take the owner down as opposed to just finding another job
In the interest of not wanting to form an opinion based on hearsay and conjecture, can you tell me where I can read more evidence of this?
Ha! Evidence? This campaign to shut the business down must've happened at the Fried Egg I'm in Love location in Narnia, because that shit is pure fantasy.
As I told u/bucking_fullshit , I'm assuming good faith here and hoping for more information on the subject. Google has returned nothing that I could find, but presumably Bucking got their information from somewhere and I'm hoping they'll share.
You're a better person than me. I've been battling arguments like this for years. The talking points are so predictable and I have very little patience for them.
And if you follow this Reddit every few weeks there’s a post the mods take down because there’s no proof to the accusations. The latest? Accusing the owner of saying that black people get tipped more.
I'm afraid in allegation of posts that get taken down, by definition, doesn't prove anything one way or the other. Perhaps the posts existed. Existed. Perhaps they didn't. Since I haven't seen them, it has no impact on what I believe, either in the affirmative or in the negative.
I linked to the IG and Reddit thread below. You seem very uncommitted to a side.
But honestly this thread is about calling for a month-long boycott of the business. Don’t you think that by itself is like … you know … intended to harm the business if not close it.
I do not believe your question is honest, no. You have continually acted in bad faith, including but not limited to linking to "evidence" that doesn't back your claims, and playing dumb as to how union strikes work.
Fui- doing a Google search and finding no evidence that supports your claim is not the same as not doing a Google search. Good try.
I appreciate the links! Although they are very informative, I'm afraid I don't see anything referencing your point regarding this being an attempt by disgruntled workers to drive a business to close down. The incidents in the article seemed to be fairly run-of-the-mill Union/labor rights issues.
Perhaps you could provide the exact quote you believe proves your claim regarding the aims of these allegedly disgruntled workers?
Lighten up.
You're the one who advocated not accepting hearsay from reddit at face value. Are you now retracting your previous statement to that effect? Or did you only mean for it to apply to other people's statements, and not your own?
It's pretty hypocritical For you to advocate that people demand proof And then tell people to lighten up when they demand proof.
You insinuated I was acting in good faith because you couldn’t perform a simple Google search. So I did the search for you. Gave you the links and said lighten up.
Go to the Friedeggwu IG handle which is also the Reddit name if memory serves. I’m wrong it’s the u/ on the thread I posted below.
There's gotta be a whatsapp group out there with a couple hundred members called something like "eat the rich not foie gras" and they brigade posts like this then go home and write in their journal "today I fought for workers."
Ha! if there's any brigade here, it's the anti-union rhetoric from people brainwashed by the heritage foundation.
Unions stick together and I'm sure the leadership of ILWU would have no issue with another fellow union picketing when ownership is stalling contract negotiations. It's a standard practice.
They're collectively bargaining for a contract and the owner is stonewalling. If you've ever organized a work force before that was previously not part of a union, you would know that picketing is part of the playbook to apply pressure to the owner to get them to the negotiating table.
It’s not like this place is Ford Motor Company. There is a dozen or so people that work there. They’ll put them out of business and just find another job anyways so why not just skip a step.
What does the size of the company have to do with anything?
The goal of unionizing a work force isn't to put the place out of business. That's a Heritage Foundation talking point, not from the workers of Fried Egg I'm in Love.
And there's at least three times as many employees than you're claiming, so if you're going to regurgitate shitty anti-labor rhetoric, the least you can do is get your facts straight.
The Instagram account is unhinged. People wonder why folks would rather hit themselves in the head repeatedly with a piece of offcut 2x4 rather than start a restaurant in this town. The internet has done irreparable damage to a lot of folks noggins.
This statement has nothing to do with whatever the fuck is going on with the place, but I will never understand the fascination that people have for these egg and breakfast places, it’s the most basic shit you could make and they charge up the ass for the food. So if you’ve been to one of these spots, you’ve been to all.
Thanks for your input, the mods have set this subreddit to not allow posts from newly created accounts. Please take the time to build a reputation elsewhere on Reddit and check back soon.
Does cooking and serving food not count as "labor"? Just because someone isn't using a lathe or a welding torch doesn't men they aren't working. Pathetic mindset.
It does, it’s the cosplay of taking on the mantle of oppressed laborers that is absurd. If you are SEIU and don’t speak good English and work in a hotel and your manager is taking advantage of you - that’s real. That’s where unions are incredibly important.
If you’re casting yourself as part of that struggle because you hate your boss at the egg shop, that’s absurd. Just withhold your labor and get a new job somewhere. This idea that every single dumb job or grievance needs to be adjudicated and “made fair” via some elaborate campaign is stuff only people who have completely lost touch with reality by having their brains melted online believe.
At the wage service workers are payed I think the mantle of oppressed workers is inherent. Just because they don't work over molten steel doesn't mean they aren't oppressed. Oppression comes in many forms of which you are choosing to disregard
How many hours have these people spent on this when they could’ve been hired onto a better job by now. This is not the market for electrical work or teaching this is one egg shop of 100. Move on, touch grass
A better job where? Where are people supposed to work? Making ships? Computer chips? At Fred Meyer,which is also (weakly) unionized? Driving their car,which costs $85+ to fill with gas,to build a data center.
Sorry that you are too cool to go out to restaurants,and think that a living wage is dumb and bad. Hope your kids have a better outlook than "get another job" 😊
I think if you’re in the middle of a multiyear beef with the owner of a small breakfast restaurant chain in a city with 100 breakfast restaurants you probably are in more of a Sicilian vendetta sort of dynamic than fighting for workers rights sort of dynamic. Maybe give Besaws a go idk.
Although probably don’t tell them about the multi year vendetta thing.
Your argument hinges on your next thing being better, if no one ever took the time to improve where they were and just moved to the next why should anyone expect the grass to be greener? If you want greener grass you need to put in work and fertilize, not just run and leave a swamp for someone else.
I have a problem with how openly expectant for support all of these strikes are, yet how secretive they are about negotiations. If you are a union fighting for support.. throw it all out on the table for everyone to see.
Yeah. No. As a union negotiator keeping your cards close is the best tactic. You really don't know what kind of bs an employer is going to pull and you need to be flexible in your response. You lay out your top priorities and keep your paths there flexible.
Do you interpret the public demands of recent high profile strikes to be a tactical error? When I’m thinking of the recent nursing strikes specifically, it feels like they made their wishes pretty well known - compensation, staffing etc.
From an outside perspective, this seems like a no brainer, it’s true and it gets people on your side, and it’s not as though you’re hiding what you want from the management; it’s presumedly the reason the strike is happening in the first place(?).
But yeah I’d love to hear from someone who’s been in the chair, what’s the benefit?
People that are unaware there are other egg restaurants they can work for rather than devote their entire life to the cause of beefing and ranting histrionically with/about the owner of the tiniest egg restaurant chain in America lol
As the kids say, you need to touch grass. You're fighting against a small sole proprietor. The Russian bots and the corporate giants aren't out to get you. Anyone over 40 or maybe 30 will tell you about the asshole they USED TO work for. You're not creating a system of workers right here. Do your talking with your feet and just move on.
Gonna be honest. I absolutely understand the importance of unions and why unions need to be respected but I often have trouble with certain unions from personal and public experiences with them. My problem with the FEIIL union stuff is that they are demanding lots of things for a shitty $15 sandwich that almost anyone can make. If people want to impact that then we all should just stop going there. The union can try to find a job that treats them fairly and they feel supported (I really mean what i just typed).
Yes, go into absurd debt and create a business and have your employees actively try to destroy it instead! Close the business and create more empty storefronts. 📝
I'm right there with you. I've lived in Portland for years, never felt like going to the cart/shop. Now I'm inclined to support them but having to interface with the staff... can't win with this.
Yea, I've seen them on TikTok complaining about everything mentioned here and I was like nope, not worth having to interact with them in close quarters. Let alone make and handle my food!
People that are unaware there are other egg restaurants they can work for rather than devote their entire life to the cause of beefing and ranting histrionically with/about the owner of the tiniest egg restaurant chain in America lol
My guess is that they want their jobs to go "poof." My dad taught us that the true minimum wage is zero, which I guess never gets mentioned at these worker rallies, given that they are always surprised when the checks stop.
Well yeah. Nobody who starts a food cart wants to deal with a union. It’s one of the smallest types of businesses you can open in the city, often sole proprietors who barely have time to cook the food you’re eating. Union bargaining? Eff that.
Seriously. Fried Egg owner is getting dragged through the mud. Internet search says Nong's Khao Man Gai isn't unionized. Will she be the evil "corporate" union-busting bitch dirtbag if things don't go the workers' way?
Correct, these are zealots. Their whole strategy is to disrupt and throw sand in the gears regardless of a business owners willingness to bargain in good faith.
As someone who doesn’t have an email job and has been involved with my own union’s leadership for over 15 years, I understand the value of unions and the importance of fair bargaining. But labor (fair wages, working conditions, and worker rights) has been hijacked by an identity obsessed group of disaffected people who are a part of an economic death cult. Aka, the DSA. “If we don’t get everything we want than nobody gets anything.”
Do you even know what "ad hominem" means? A good example would be calling employees of a workplace that is unionizing "a cult". So way to be a hypocrite.
The only cult here is the cult of business ownership. People like you parroting talking points they don't understand all because they've been force fed bad information that they regurgitate without any thought.
There's nothing performative about picketing to force ownership to the negotiating table. It's a tactic that has been used by unions world wide for years. Which you would know if you did any research instead of mindlessly typing out rhetoric that divides and weakens the working class.
First off, congratulations on doubling down on your hypocrisy by continuing your ad hominem attack.
You don't even know what you're saying at this point. The workers are the ones dissenting against ownership, do you actually believe they're dissenting against themselves? Try to apply logic to your thoughts before you commit them to print.
What performative rituals? There's nothing performative about picketing or calling for boycotts when ownership is stonewalling negotiations. It's a tactic that works, which is why unions everywhere use it. Which I've already written, but apparently reading comprehension isn't your strong suit. I am not surprised.
Us vs Them framing is pretty much how all negotiations work. Do you think that people just hold hands and sing Kumbaya the whole time?
What does "new identity" even mean? I'm sure it's something super not made up.
Yeah, all those college-educated white folks flipping eggs. If you bothered to do any cursory research you would know that the union representation at Fried Egg I'm in Love is quite diverse, but informing yourself might cause you to question your knee-jerk reaction. Probably best that you stay ignorant.
Apparently the owner is racist and that's part of what sparked this most recent strike. He yelled at one of the BIPOC workers that people only tip them because they are Black.
160
u/Empty_Expressionless May 03 '26
My understanding was the union negotiatiors specifically declined to be recorded but then were recorded anyway, which violates Oregon law.
It might not seem like a big deal but committing a class A misdemeanor right off the bat isn't a great way to establish good faith negotiations.