Maribel vs McDonald's: Single mother of two goes on strike against fast-food giant demanding $15 min

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Daily Mail

By SNEJANA FARBEROV

A single mother of two from Los Angeles working as a McDonald's server has boldly taken on the fast-food giant as part of a growing labor movement demanding higher wages.

Earlier this month, the woman known only as Maribel went on a strike against her employer.
In a video released by BuzzFeed last week, Maribel recounts how she was brought to the US from her native Mexico when she was only 7 months old.

Maribel currently earns $9.35 an hour, which she says is not enough to support her one-year-old son, Brandon, and two-year-old daughter, Kaitlin.

‘I need fifteen to buy my babies diapers, their wipies, their clothes,’ she explains. ‘Its hard with nine dollars per hour — you can’t do that. It’s really hard to pay rent.’

FULL story at link. FULL title Maribel vs McDonald's: Single mother of two goes on strike against fast-food giant demanding $15 minimum wage and a union for employees

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2878565/Maribel-vs-McDonald-s-Single-mother-two-goes-strike-against-fast-food-giant-demanding-15-minimum-wage-union-employees.html#ixzz3MG3oIJlK




Movement: Maribel has joined a group of fast-food workers demanding higher wages and union rights

On the same day, fast food workers walked off the job in more than 150 cities, including New York, Chicago and Pittsburgh. Protesters are pictured here givign the Mockingjay salute from the Hunger Games films



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2878565/Maribel-vs-McDonald-s-Single-mother-two-goes-strike-against-fast-food-giant-demanding-15-minimum-wage-union-employees.html

[MADem]

2. I love the enthusiasm and the solidarity. The "Mockingjay salute" not so much.

I haven't seen any of the movies, though I am aware of them. I know there are a lot of people out there who are not aware of these films as they have a rather specified audience. I think those who do not know the films will look at these pics and say "HUH?"

That looks a little Sieg Heil-ish to me, a combination of a Boy Scout oath and a Howdy Mein Fuehrer...

It's just not a good look, IMO. YMMV!

I hope that they get what they're asking for, imagery notwithstanding. Maribel is a very good "face" for this movement.

[Yavin4]

3. I disagree. It's more than appropriate.

It connects to a popular movie/book which gets the attention of young people.

[MADem]

4. While turning off old people who haven't seen the film and only see a bunch of kids doing a nazi-ish

salute.

Like I said, YMMV.

[Yavin4]

7. The future lies with the young

In general, older Americans cannot relate to the people in the story. They cannot relate to a fast food worker as they see those jobs as only temporary positions for young people.

[MADem]

10. Not true--the people who turn out to the polls, and vote, reliably, on referendums to do things like

raise the minimum wage, are NOT kids--and the elderly are at the front of the line. And plenty of old people--who vote--work in those fast food gigs these days. I don't know about you, but when I go to the grocery store, I see RETIREES in the work force, bagging groceries, running the register, stacking the shelves, and slicing the bologna. A lot of these retirees are working these minimum wage jobs on a part time basis to stretch the money to the end of the month.

This is not just a "young people's issue." You are mistaken if you believe that. Minimum wage workers are as likely to be middle aged or older as they are to be younger.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/10/upshot/minimum-wage.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0

Minimum-wage workers are older than they used to be. Their average age is 35, and 88 percent are at least 20 years old. Half are older than 30, and about a third are at least 40.

....They’re split fairly evenly between full-timers and part-timers. Most — 54 percent — work full-time schedules (at least 35 hours per week), and another 32 percent work at least half time (20-34 hours per week).

Many have kids. About one-quarter (27 percent) of these low-wage workers are parents, compared with 34 percent of all workers. In all, 19 percent of children in the United States have a parent who would benefit from the increase.

Much more data at link--worth a look.

[LiberalElite]

16. Yes - when I retire I may

well be behind the counter full-time at Wendy's.

[packman]

5. Damn, thanks for posting that picture

I just KNEW I saw that Mockingjay salute somewhere and it was driving me crazy-the Boy Scout salute.

[MADem]

6. I haven't even seen the movies--I was just going by what the kids in the pic above were doing!!

It's funny how imagery can be influenced by experience!

[avebury]

13. Since you have not seen the movies, have you at least

read the books?

The books are set in a world where the Powers To Be keep the masses almost in a state of perpetual starvation and they use the games to create animosity between the different districts while providing reality entertainment. It is a divide and conquer mentality.

The Mocking Jay becomes the rallying point between masses as they fight back against their overlords.


It is not just appropriate but highly relevant in the times that we are living in.

[MADem]

14. Of course not!

And I'll wager most reliable voters (those who would vote on a minimum wage hike) haven't read the books either--that's my point. I'll also wager that a very small minority of minimum wage workers have read the books (they're working overtime trying to keep their heads above water, and books are a luxury), further, two-thirds or more of those workers are adults, and many of them are at least middle-aged or older adults--this isn't a tale written to appeal to that demographic.

I'm not saying it's not relevant to the people who have read the books or seen the films, my point is that most people in the minimum wage milieu, as well as most likely voters, have NOT read/seen them. Thus, when people look at people doing that salute thing, they think--like I did--Boy Scout Oath meets Nazi salute. That is what that pic looks like to me, and it has a quirky bit of dissonance to it, since most of the people in the picture don't look like either Nazis OR Boy Scouts.

[avebury]

15. Given the country we live in today,

I don't think that most people watching the movie would get that hung up on how the "salute" looks because it is clearly a statement by the masses against their oppressive overlords. It is similar to people standing around shouting hands up, don't shoot. I tend to think people are smart enough to get it and understand the movie. More and more people are aware that we are becoming a nation of overlords with the masses having fewer and fewer rights as time goes by.

[MADem]

18. I'm not talking about the movie goers, though--I am talking about voters.

Those kids are out there protesting because they want a fifteen buck an hour living wage. It's a great idea, I agree with them--the wage scale has been stagnant for too long. However, the people who will vote to GIVE them that wage are by and large older Americans who have no interest in seeing a distopian film geared towards young audiences based on books for young people. They won't "get" the references that are so ingrained with you and your peers.

These older people think that Katniss sounds like cat piss and it's a horrible name -- "Why would anyone want to name that lovely girl Catpiss? What's the matter with people today? And what's with that Boy Scout/Nazi salute?" They haven't seen the movies, the haven't read the books, they're unlikely to ever watch/read them, and they just don't "make the connection" you see.

People aren't going to "get" the reference if they have not seen the movie. And believe me, when I go out today, I'll say hello to this one and that one, probably see/wave to upwards of fifty people, and I'll bet none of them will have seen the film or know anything about the salute or the plot or anything that resonates with you and the fans of the movie. And these will be the people voting on raising the minimum wage....

[DesertDiamond]

8. I don't think they look the same at all. The sieg heil salute is straight arm with hand flat and all

fingers straight ahead. The Mockingjay salute is bent arm with three fingers up. It's closer the salute used when swearing in when about to testify in court.

[MADem]

9. It's closer to boy scout than nazi, then? That's not what those kids in the top pic are doing....

It still looks sketchy to me....as I said, YMMV.

Swearing in at court (or in the military) doesn't involve that affectation with the three fingers. Otherwise, it's similar to the boy scout routine...




Bizarre little finger, there...

[Odin2005]

19. Oh for fuck's sake.

Hitler liked animals, too, so is it bad to like animals?

[MADem]

21. What does that comment have to do with the point I made?

If you want to rally people (i.e. voters who will change the law) to your team, don't do things that are off-putting to them--that's my point.

And don't expect them to read a young peoples' book series, or see fantasy movies that are geared to teens and young adults in order to suss out the symbollism.

The "Oh for fuck's sake" doesn't add to the conversation, nor does the "Hitler liked animals" comment. Neither Hitler nor his German shepherds would vote for a fifteen dollar an hour minimum wage, now, would they?

[DeSwiss]

11. Not going to happen.

Trying to goose this moribund system into working properly is wasted effort that could be best used re-inventing ourselves.

- This shit is DEAD.

K&R

[Imajika]

12. McDonald's and other fast food companies are just as likely to automate these jobs..

At $15/hr, my guess is McDonald's would just automate most of these jobs as fast as they could.

Seen it happen at banks, increasingly at grocery and other stores, etc.

I will always remember working at a bank in college and the company announcing to us tellers how wonderful the new smart ATM's were going to be and how that would reduce lines in the lobby. Pretty much no teller sitting in that meeting grasped what was really going on. This wasn't going to make our jobs easier, it was designed to make them redundant - and sure enough the bank simply began cutting teller jobs as the ATM's became more popular, and the workload on the actual tellers that remained stayed the same.

[LiberalElite]

17. I grasped it as soon as I

saw an ATM, also the NYC MTA Metrocard machines. There go the jobs. That's why I don't use self-serve checkouts.

[Odin2005]

20. You go, Maribel!