RTHundreds of US fast food workers from MacDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and KFC are planning a big protest on Thursday in an effort to boost the minimum wage to $15 per hour. The rally will include acts of civil disobedience.
The rally was announced by Fight For 15, a union of fast food and retail workers, which is seeking a $15/hour living wage.
“It’s official: We’re going ON STRIKE again on Sept 4!” wrote Fight For 15 in Chicago on Twitter.
The hashtag #FightFor15 has already gone viral on Twitter with many internet users pledging support for the protest.
The organizers said the rallies are planned to be held in more than 100 cities across the country. This time workers will be peacefully engaged in acts of civil disobedience, said Kendall Fells, an organizing director for Fast Food Forward.
“They’re going to use nonviolent civil disobedience as a way to call attention to what they’re facing,” Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, one of the sponsors, told the New York Times. “They’re invoking civil rights history to make the case that these jobs ought to be paid $15 and the companies ought to recognize a union.”
The workers involved in the rally are ready to be arrested as they try to get their message across, the organizers of the Fight for $15 movement said, as reported by the Orlando Sentinel.
It's official: We're going ON STRIKE again on Sept 4! http://t.co/Yi8S5JN9ah #StrikeFastFood #FightFor15
— Fight For 15 (@fightfor15) September 1, 2014
The fast food campaign is aimed at bringing attention to the problems fast food workers face, which few customers think about while buying burgers and fries, Catherine Fisk, a professor of labor law at the University of California in Irvine, told AP.
“The goal is to persuade workers that it doesn’t have to be this way. The goal is to persuade consumers that it doesn’t have to be this way,” she said. “This is about getting attention to the issue.”
Douglas Hunter, a fast food worker, who has worked at a McDonald’s for five years, told the Chicago Tribune on Monday that he is “really struggling trying to make ends meet.”
“I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to get McDonald’s to the table to discuss increasing my pay to $15 an hour,” he added.
According to the National Restaurant Association, the protests are the unions’ attempts “to boost their dwindling membership.” The industry lobbying group said it hopes that organizers of the rallies will respect both customers and workers during their demonstrations.
The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour for fast food workers was last raised in 2009. On February 12, President Obama, responding to heat in the fast food kitchen, agreed to raise the minimum wage for federal employees to $10.10 an hour.
It remains to be seen if the president’s political maneuvering, in what promises to be a hostile election year, will force the fast food corporations to follow suit and give their workers an honest wage.
https://twitter.com/15andaUnion/statuses/506532666381172736
Thursday’s strike is the latest in a series of protests launched by labor groups to demand an increase in the minimum wage. In July, more than 1,300 low-wage employees gathered at a convention in Chicago to coordinate their demands for higher wages.
May 15th has been declared a global day of solidarity for fast food workers in the 150 US cities and 33 countries worldwide, who held rallies in an effort to boost the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
Spanning five continents, the global movement brought together thousands of employees from the industry’s heavy hitters, who have not only revolutionized the way the world eats, but are now an integral part of the labor market: McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s and KFC.
“MacDonald’s”? Who edits and spell checks this stuff? The banner with only minority women depicted tells me who is heading this “protest”. More division and heart-strings being pulled upon to distract us from the true puppet masters
If by some trick of fate they get their 15$ an hour, this will only mean corporations will add more questionable by-products and crap into the food we/they eat. Personally I don’t eat fast food, it’s toxic and then again I don’t eat out much anymore either. One never knows what one is eating these days.
Deport ALL the illegal aliens from Latin American and Asia and you’ll see wages clime to what they should be for AMERICAN nationals. That would be over 40,000,000 A_hole invaders GONE!!
H1B visa program? GONE! kick out all the Indians and send them back to BUNGALOR so we engineers can get out careers back.
The strikers are out of luck. They’ll probably all get fired because there are too many people who would love to work at McDonald’s right now, and they may use this story to discourage others from striking in the future.
Most of the people charged with murdering the American public get way more, why not these despicable slugs serving up poison disguised as food? They should find honorable work.
Good luck. I for one no longer eat fast food. I wonder how many people will stop buy fast food when it gets to be too expensive due to increased wages? That money has to come from somewhere and it sure as heck won’t be coming out of the employer’s pocket.
. . .
There would go the budget menus and the only reason why I still eat there at times.
Remember: CEO’s $30million salary does NOT cause fast food prices to rise and add more filler, but somehow only raising the wages of the people on the bottom will.
If you can’t see where this brainwashing comes from, then you can’t see a thing.
When was the last time someone said, “the mcdonald’s CEO just got $30 million, holy crap, that’s going to raise hamburger prices!!!”???