What is Diedrichs Coffee House?
Larry Hales: It’s a franchise store in Denver owned by Rob Krast, Inc. The company owns three other Diedrich’s and all the Burger King restaurants in the city. What were working conditions like at the store? When Krast bought the chain, the stores had not been refurbished in a long time. We were told they were going to go down the line and fix them all up. That was in May. In my store, the roof was leaking. The bathroom was closed because the roof had caved in. We had to go up to the building’s seventh floor every time we needed to use the bathroom. During the summer, new equipment was brought in for sandwiches and soups that had been added to the menu. The new equipment, along with a malfunctioning air conditioner, caused temperatures to get as high as 107 degrees some days. We complained for weeks about the temperature and were told they couldn’t do anything about it. The owner said there was nothing wrong with the temperature. One of my co-workers had to leave a couple of times beca
