Working for the man, begrudgingly

Every so often at work I am assigned coworkers who complain about having to take breaks. If the stand we are at is busy I just tell them to take it anyway, but if we aren't then I get a chance to rant a bit, which is fun for me.

To be fair, breaks are pretty inconvenient with the job, particularly during sports events where there is a halftime we need to be at the stand for, basically during the first hour or so we are setting up the stand so can't break, also the law forbids it during the first hour, then doors open and we spend one to two hours with people coming in, this is the busiest time for all stands and managers get really pissed if you do a break during that time, when the event starts it's a mad rush to get everyone's breaks done before the halftime or intermission or whatever, this is because after intermission we usually only have a short wait before the stands close and we then spend a half an hour cleaning before going home.
For the regular cashiers it is reasonably simple to get them out, they are scheduled for less than six hours usually, which means they get only one break, but my shifts are long enough that I get two short breaks and one half hour meal break, which can be a challenge to fit in there.

I do it anyway, my company will write me up if I don't, and get fined if they are caught letting people skip breaks, which is why I would get written up. If the shifts are long enough an the cashiers need lunch breaks too then I arrange that as well, if they complain then they get the rant.

That changes a bit, but usually I tell them that things like breaks are something that people literally died to get you, and that they actually do help get through the day faster. Some people want to just write their breaks in and not actually go, which upsets me, then they get the talk about corporations.

I don't personally think a corporation is inherently evil, they do what they do and they don't care about the cogs in the machine at the lowest levels, but I do believe that the only reason we get the working conditions we do, with breaks, our meager pay, and so on is because the law literally makes them,  and that since that message is essentially "The only reason we don't treat you worse is because that is illegal" they don't really deserve anything beyond the job they hired me for on my part.

There are better corporations to work for, and worse ones I am sure, but one should always keep in mind that they don't care about you, and that you should take anything you(legally) can to improve your lot while you work for them, this often isn't much but it always includes taking your breaks and making sure you get paid.

That's it more or less, if we have time I go into conversations about minimum wage and that no, higher wages will not directly turn into higher costs of goods, I haven't started talking about unions... yet.

I am not sure if I am well liked as a stand lead or if people just tolerate me because they are stuck in the same area with me for 6-10 hours a shift, but it passes the time and they can't shout at me because I am the boss there, so that's nice. I don't call it fomenting revolution or anything, mostly just soapboxing really. It makes me feel better though, and like I said: Take anything you can to improve your lot.