Chipotle closes unexpectedly as workers leave with scathing note

Workers at a Chipotle store near Penn State University managed to shut down the restaurant after they refused to come to work.

A picture of the sign posted at the front of the restaurant was tweeted by The Daily Collegian. The sign reads "Want to know why we're closed? Ask our corporate offices why their employees are forced to work in borderline sweatshop conditions. Almost the entire management and crew have resigned. People greater than profits"

Of course, news outlets did just that and reached out to Chipotle's corporate offices. "Our Penn State restaurant was closed when a few employees quit, locking out a majority of others who are enthusiastic to return to work," a spokesperson for Chipotle wrote to Bloomberg in an email. "We expect the restaurant to reopen shortly."

One of the employees who quit, former manager Brian Healy, spoke with Onward State saying the Penn State store was grossly understaffed and requests to corporate offices for help went unanswered. "We just felt neglected. Working conditions are heinous," Healy said. "I'm not trying to take down the Chipotle corporation, I just want to see people treated better. We're not trying to start a strike or anything like that."

They may not be trying start a strike but the former workers are trying to start a movement. At the bottom of the sign at the restaurant employees called for patrons to join in support by using #chipotle and #chipotle swag. But that may have backfired.

Kyle Hokey summed up what many on social media were echoing tweeting: "Hard to take a note that ends with #ChipotleSwag seriously though..."

Sean Donnely, a very generous burrito fan also took the hashtag in jest tweeting: "#Chipotle#ChipotleSwag burritos on me if they reopen."

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