Fast food strikes hit 150 US cities
Source: MSNBC
By Ned Resnikoff
Thousands of fast food workers across the United States were walking off the job Thursday morning, affecting restaurants in about 150 cities nationwide.
It was just the latest in a series of coordinated strikes that have taken place since November 2012, although Thursdays strike may be the first such action to include large-scale civil disobedience.
Organizers would not confirm on the record whether civil disobedience and arrests would take place in any of the cities affected by the strikes, but fast food workers have repeatedly vowed to take whatever measures are necessary in order to win a $15 hourly wage and union rights.
Thursdays strike is the first to take place since the fast food workers held their national convention in July in the suburbs of Chicago. At the convention, some 1,300 fast food workers agreed to a resolution vowing that they would do whatever it takes to achieve their goals. Workers who had been arrested in May at a protest in front of the McDonalds headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois the movements first major act of civil disobedience spoke to the audience about the experience of getting arrested, and encouraged other workers to take part in civil disobedience if necessary.
FULL story at link.
Protesters demanding higher wages for fast food workers chant during a massive rally on May 15, 2014 in New York City. Andrew Burton/Getty
Read more: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/fast-food-strikes-hit-150-us-cities
At McDonalds we respect everyones rights to peacefully protest. See picture below.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025487186
Scott Olson / Getty Images
Police guard the entrance of McDonald's corporate campus as about 2,000 fast-food workers and activists seeking higher wages march toward the Oak Brook, Ill., complex in May.
What is McDonald's afraid of?
Feral Child
(2,086 posts)riversedge
(69,537 posts)mdbl
(4,972 posts)It takes a lot of courage to make a stand like that.
merrily
(45,251 posts)Even better if you have a sign indicating that you are a customer.
Solidarity.
Omaha Steve
(98,872 posts)(Photo: Paul Sancya, AP)
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/09/04/fast-food-restaurants-strike-mcdonalds-wendys-burger-king-taco-bell/15058943/
Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY
Arrests began early Thursday morning outside a busy McDonald's in New York City as thousands of emboldened fast-food workers coast-to-coast put down their burger flippers and picked up picket signs in a national strike that included civil disobedience as the workers rally for $15 minimum wages and the right to form a union.
Strikers began to gather in more than 100 cities early Thursday, impacting major chains from McDonald's to Wendy's to Burger King. Shortly after 7 a.m. ET on Thursday, police reportedly arrested 19 workers who sat down in the street -- and refused to move -- outside the bustling McDonald's at New York's Times Square. The are unconfirmed reports of some striking fast-food worker arrests in Detroit, as well.
For workers, it's about pushing the major fast-food companies to meet their demands for $15-an-hour minimum wages and the right to form a union. For the fast food giants, it's about trying to keep costs -- including labor costs -- under control in a highly competitive market.
"There has to be civil disobedience because workers don't see any other way to get $15 an hour and a union," says Kendall Fells, organizing director of the organizing group Fast Food Forward, which is financially backed by the Service Employees International Union. "There's a long history of this, from the civil rights movement to the farm workers movement."
FULL story at link.
truthisfreedom
(23,108 posts)marble falls
(56,029 posts)Sun Devil Dave
(1 post)I would hold out and stop eating fast food altogether. Save it for a real restaurant and real food.
Or, if you can't wait,...go have a big mac at McDonald's and slip the cashier a five. That would go a lot further than you not going to Micky D's, cause honestly, there are enough morbidly obese gluttons out there who don't care and will eat the food effectively nullifying your boycott; even if the workers were making a penny an hour.
demigoddess
(6,637 posts)eom
7wo7rees
(5,128 posts)riqster
(13,986 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Congress raise the minimum wage!
olegramps
(8,200 posts)It is impossible for me to accept that Boehner and his fellow
Republicans claim to be Christians. They have more in common with the radical Islamic fanatics than with the teaching of Jesus. The are more than willing to starve children, refuse to help those they are responsible for outsourcing their jobs, along with denying health care to people desperately needing remedial care. They have demonstrated their absolute hatred of those they consider as nothing more than free loaders rather than fellow citizens needing a hand up.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Jack Rabbit
(45,984 posts)We can send the Koch addicts to rehab.
demigoddess
(6,637 posts)they hold the line better than most men. And don't answer with a reply about Hillary's pro business apostasy.
Half-Century Man
(5,279 posts)malthaussen
(17,024 posts)Omaha Steve
(98,872 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)But 'Politics is the hobby of the Leisure Class.'
Those who are hard put to survive on less than $15 now, some making half that much, can't be into politics as they are living hand to mouth.
Their family life and their Future is being hurt in the Now.
When political dogma is willing to wait for a day that may never come, especially if those making less than $15 a hour Now can't get the freedom of that wage, I see that as a product of the Leisure Class.
I want my neighbors to get ahead Now, because life is lived in the Now, not the Future.
marions ghost
(19,841 posts)Together it can be done
Loki
(3,825 posts)Yes!
mountain grammy
(26,553 posts)The corporate Nazi SS there, wow! Just what are they afraid of, indeed!
littlemissmartypants
(22,331 posts)Peace, Love and the Righteous Fight.
geardaddy
(24,923 posts)fNord
(1,756 posts)is it too much to ask that the employees of "Mc Burger Chain" can afford to eat there?
I have a Bachelors degree, as do many fast food employes.
I work as a server.
We, by and large, make $2.15 an hour..... but I also make tips. My paycheck is about $0.0 every two weeks, but in tips, I make enough to pay my bills, enjoy a social life, and support a healthy alcohol habit.
The employs of a fast food chain do not make tips, and are typically capped at a 30 hr work week. Even with some creative w4 marks, your only looking at $192 a week.
Could you pay your rent on $768 a month? Buy food? Pay for the subway? Daycare?
I have the day off, so i believe I may go join this peaceful protest
Pennie109
(128 posts)in Charleston, SC striking fast food workers closed down a major street, causing major problems with traffic.
Hooray for them in this "right to work" state.
gwheezie
(3,580 posts)I just came back from there. They are sitting in the street. Big t storms coming through with lightening. Stay safe people. I admire their courage.
Joe Shlabotnik
(5,604 posts)jtuck004
(15,882 posts)win win.
ymetca
(1,182 posts)Even supposed pro-labor Ed Schultz wants to know whether these fast food quasi-strikes are being organized by unions, or spontaneously erupting from disgruntled workers themselves..
..to which I respond, why does it matter? Is there some reason why the SEIU or the AFL-CIO shouldn't organize these protests?
Why is it okay for corporations to spend billions advertising a constant stream of lies on TV, spy on their workers, steal their wages, demand constant kick-backs and tax breaks, etc., etc., etc., but it's somehow unseemly for labor unions to coordinate with their non-union brothers and sisters?
My, how far we have fallen as a free people..
KansDem
(28,498 posts)So that's what it's come down to? Corporate elites protected from angry workers by militarized police?
I never thought I'd see the day...
deafskeptic
(463 posts)yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)also reminded me of one of the surest expectations of an Obama administration with Labor Secretary Solis, so long ago now.
EFCA and card check.
Organizing and membership with teeth might have made a real difference over last 6 years. Instead, workers remain at the mercy of the bosses. Republicans won't consider. Democrats gave up the fight.
The people are on their own.
gwheezie
(3,580 posts)These folks can't afford to be arrested.
http://www.nbc12.com/story/26452278/henrico-police-arrest-fast-food-protesters-sitting-in-mechanicsville-turnpike
Omaha Steve
(98,872 posts)Earth_First
(14,910 posts)But hey! They've got their union...
...Fuck everyone else!
SOLIDARITY with the FF workers!
Cha
(295,524 posts)47of74
(18,470 posts)And the Fox "News" blow hards and their guests were busy complaining about it, busily spewing horseshit denigrating the union and the strikers. I finally had enough at that point and turned the damn thing off.
TBF
(31,892 posts)Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)Riot Police are so un-called for. Those people aren't going to storm the McDonald's and tear it to the ground, for God's sake. If they only knew how stupid they look. I'm not the least bit impressed.
Denver Progressive
(120 posts)Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)Protests in Ferguson over the militarization of LE and murdering people for breathing while black. And now this people who have jobs want to be paid enough to live on.
AnalystInParadise
(1,832 posts)a bunch of Americans are taking their lunch to work this week. This is playing with fire. Corporations will start using these instead of raising wages. http://www.gizmag.com/hamburger-machine/25159/