Fast food worker hopeful for labor revival (fixed)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.southernstudies.org/2014/07/fast-food-worker-hopeful-for-labor-revival.html

By Thelma Frasier

As International Longshoremen's Association Local 1422 President Kenny Riley told us, organizing the South is important for the good of all workers. The economy is growing faster here than other regions in the country and it is also the most diverse. Unions are weaker in South Carolina than in other places, but hospital, nursing home, telecom, and fast food workers here have organized some very strong movements for better wages, conditions, and respect on the job.

A group of women in nearby Georgetown told us about the struggles they faced in successfully organizing unions at two nursing home facilities through the United Steelworkers Union. Steve Auerbach, president of Communications Workers of America Local 3705, has been part of an exchange program between union workers in Charleston and Germany, where they share ideas and support.

I love what I do. Many of us who work in the fast food industry love what we do. We enjoy the interaction with the customers and knowing that we provide them with a valuable service in their busy lives. Everyone has to eat. But I joined Raise Up! last October because things need to change in the fast food industry. I make only a little more than when I started 10 years ago. The work is back breaking and we rarely get holidays off. We can't afford to miss shifts when we're sick or need to go to appointments.


Thelma Frasier, who has helped lead the campaign to demand a $15 an hour minimum wage and a union for fast food workers, was among the speakers on a July 8 panel in Charleston, South Carolina on organizing the South. (Photo by Kerry Taylor.)

So, I knew from the first time I heard about the union it was something I could get behind, and needed to join for me and my children. I see the union as the only way we workers are ever going to be able to have a fair deal. That is why I took a leadership role. The first thing I did after signing up myself was to sign up my crew at my store. Then I signed up all my friends and family.

FULL story at link.