Fast food workers protest in 7 cities

[bemildred]

Source: CNNMoney

Dozens of workers asking to be paid a minimum of $15 an hour and the right to organize without retaliation are expected to protest outside of McDonald's (MCD, Fortune 500) and Wendy's (WEN) locations across New York City on Monday. The rallies will move to Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Milwaukee, Kansas City and Flint, Michigan the rest of the week.

The campaign, organized by a coalition of labor, community and clergy groups called Fast Food Forward, has been building momentum since last fall, when the protests first came into the national spotlight.

Recently, even Washington has caught on.

The White House mentioned the "low-wage worker" protests in a blog written last week by the the National Economic Council director Gene Sperling and Alan Krueger, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. They said that raising the minimum wage was part of President Obama's economic vision.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/29/news/companies/fast-food-protest/

[KamaAina]

1. $15 an hour is a lot

I'm cool with $10, which is the minimum wage here in San Jose. San Francisco has $10.55. And yet somehow the fast-food joints manage to hang on.

[KamaAina]

17. Clarification: It's a lot ALL AT ONCE.

Nearly doubling their salaries in many states.

$15 is probably about where we should be in maybe 5 or 10 years. Maybe it's a good thing they're putting that figure out there.

But it's simply not achievable all at once. $10 is. San Jose did it citywide, and as of this writing, the sky has not fallen in.

[Skeeter Barnes]

18. 5 to 10 years? Where do you come up with that? Wages have been stagnant for decades.

"Simply not achievable". Who says?

That's the goal of organized labor: Big Gains, not "sensible" incremental increases that never keep up with inflation.

Black men picketing with "I AM A MAN" signs and you shit on them. Do you have any idea what those signs mean? I wonder if MLK would say they should settle for $10/hour in this day and age. Good fucking grief!

and what point are you making with this?

San Jose did it citywide, and as of this writing, the sky has not fallen in.

They're still poor! Do you understand? Oh, but you're "cool" with it. As long as the sky doesn't fall and they shut up and go back to work.

[KamaAina]

20. The point I was making

was, in part, that if the ballot measure had called for $15 an hour, instead of $10, it likely would have failed, leaving the workers with nothing.

Yes, wages have been stagnant, but there isn't a way to fix that all at once. Start with $10, then go for $12 (as DC proposes to do for big-box stores), then we can get to $15. Hopefully in 5 rather than 10 years, but these things take time. Look at health care reform.

[Skeeter Barnes]

21. They're not waiting for politicians. This is a work stoppage.

"There isn't a way to fix that all at once". Bull fucking shit.

When I worked as a casual dockworker at Roadway Express, I made $15 per hour because all the full timers went on strike when the company tried to cut us back to $11 per hour. This was in the 1990's. We're 23 years later now so no, $15/hour is not the least bit unreasonable. I was making that much as a part timer back then.

Your posts on this show a serious disregard for these workers. Shameful to see Democrats advocating for people to stay mired in poverty.

[tazkcmo]

22. "It's a lot ALL AT ONCE"

Tough.

[TeamPooka]

25. Yeah, why are people trying to hold others down? The solution in America is to raise the quality of

life for everyone not lowering it for those seen as "less deserving".
And in 10 years it will need to be a bit more than 15 an hour BTW.

[Deep13]

2. There is power in a union...

or so I've heard.

[xchrom]

3. Du rec. Nt

[SunSeeker]

4. Thanks for the post. This is so important for our country, and they need our support. nt

[bemildred]

5. That's what I thought too. nt

[Deep13]

8. +1 nt

[winter is coming]

6. This is probably the most important story on the first page of LBN.

I'm expecting to see serious pushback against the fast food workers. For those lucky enough to have held on to "real" jobs as the employment situation continues to degrade, it could be an eye-opener to realize that fast food is no longer a job for teenagers who need to earn some gas money. And this story has the potential to open up some uncomfortable but long overdue discussions on what our labor is worth, and why corporate CEOs earn vastly more than worker bees.

[azurnoir]

7. K&R Thanks for posting

and there's lots of presumably Republicans in those talkbacks

[bemildred]

9. Hey.

I worked min wage. I know what side I'm on.


Edit: i thought the talkbacks were the most entertaining part. Monty Pythonesque.

[azurnoir]

10. me too not fast food

but janitorial and waaaaay back when I was a teenager as a nursing assistant

[bemildred]

11. Floor crew. I liked floor crew. Running the buffer at 2:00 AM while listening to classical music.

Very stressful.

And janitor for a while, and dishwashing in an Italian restaurant. That was work.

I think I would go nuts in a medical office all day just from the stress.

[azurnoir]

12. my nursing assistant days were in a nursing home

back in the days when nursing homes were quite unregulated or I was directed to patients range of motion when I asked exactly how and what I was told "just move their joints around a bit" and that's just for starters

my janitorial career was 'checkered' in that somehow I made supervisor in about 10 weeks, then I started doing buffing ect because as I told my supervisor how can I direct folks to do something I can't

[cstanleytech]

13. Raising the minimum wage helps close the gap in employee vs employer pay how exactly?

All they will do is raise prices to compensate and in the end it will render any minimum wage hike moot.
IMO I say keep the minimum where it is then to get companies to pay workers better make it so the bigger the gap in pay that exists from what the lowest earning worker earns to what the highest person in the company earns the higher the taxes the company pays with no cap on the % and the smaller the gap the lower the taxes the company pays.

[bemildred]

14. I like the idea of tying tax rates to employee compensation.

In the spirit of: they can't keep the money either if they won't give a fair (large) share to the working stiffs.

[tazkcmo]

23. So subsidized wages by the taxpayers?

Is that your solution? We already do that with SNAP and AFDC programs. No, a decent wage is the cost of doing business. I am a professional food service worker, 30 years. I've watched employers knowingly exploit undocumented workers and use their presence against me (lower wages), worked 10-12 hour shifts as a normal occurrence w/o a break of any kind, eaten left over food in a dish pit as I scrubbed saute pans, worked many a Father's?Mother's/Thanksgiving/Easter/Christmas day at straight time...no benefits, no retirement, no security other than the knowledge that their are hundreds of places I can be exploited at in every city so if I get fired for demanding LEGAL working conditions (breaks, over time pay, etc) I can cross the street and start over at some other food labor camp...I can go on. No, what ever we can sell our labor for we should even if it's 20 bucks an hour. If that means a 2 dollar value menu then tough toenails.

"All they will do is raise prices to compensate and in the end it will render any minimum wage hike moot."

I don't buy that argument. Minimum wage has doubled since about 1980 but your cheeseburger is not $3.50 more now than it was in 1980. It's about priorities. Do I remodel my bathrooms or buy new uniforms or maybe give my employees a raise? It's about priorities.

[cstanleytech]

24. More like a carrot and stick approach.

It gives the choice entirely to the company of either paying the workers a more equal pay compared to what those at the top earn or the company pays a higher % tax that increases the bigger the gap is between its lowest paid worker vs its highests paid worker and it also means they are less likely to try and pass most of any worker wage increase to the consumers because there really isnt any point in doing so.

[Omaha Steve]

15. Sorry for the dupe

Thanks for posting!!!!

Great story. K&R!

[Kingofalldems]

19. Kick and Rec for the workers

[Solly Mack]

26. K&R

[DebJ]

27. Thought of them while watching "Springsteen and I" tonight in Harrisburg...

when he played "Shackled and Drawn"
Great morning light splits through the shade
Another day older and closer to the grave
I'm closer to the grave and come the dawn
I woke up this morning shackled and drawn

Shackled and drawn, shackled and drawn
Pick up the rock, son, and carry it on
Trudging through the dark in a world gone wrong
I woke up this morning shackled and drawn

Whoa!
Alright, yeah!

I always love the feel of sweat on my shirt
Stand back, son, and let a man work
Let a man work, is that so wrong
I woke up this morning shackled and drawn

Shackled and drawn, shackled and drawn
Pick up the rock, son, and carry it on
What's a poor boy to do in a world gone wrong
Woke up this morning shackled and drawn

Freedom, son, is a dirty shirt
The sun on my face and my shovel in the dirt
The shovel in the dirt keeps the devil gone
I woke up this morning shackled and drawn

Shackled and drawn, shackled and drawn
Pick up the rock, son, and carry it on
What's a poor boy to do but keep singing this song
I woke up this morning shackled and drawn

Gambling man rolls the dice, working man pays the bills
It's still fat and easy up on bankers hill
Up on bankers hill the party's going strong
Down here below we're shackled and drawn

Shackled and drawn, shackled and drawn
Pick up the rock, son, and carry it on
Trudging through the dark in a world gone wrong
Woke up this morning shackled and drawn

Shackled and drawn, shackled and drawn
Pick up the rock, son, and carry it on
What's a poor boy to do but keep singing this song
I woke up this morning shackled and drawn