FAST-food workers in more than 150 US cities walked off their jobs on Thursday, the latest in a series of strike protests demanding a higher minimum wage and the opportunity to unionise.
These labour disruptions were part of a campaign that began two years ago with nationwide strikes and that flared most recently in September.
The walkouts are backed by one of the country’s largest labour organisations, the Service Employees International Union. And organisers say their movement is gaining momentum.
‘Seattle and San Francisco passed laws raising wages to $15 over the next couple of years, and cities from New York to Los Angeles are pushing for higher wages too,’ according to the website of StrikeFastFood, a group involved in planning the walkouts.
‘But there’s still a long way to go before every worker gets $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation. It’s going to be a hard fight, but we know we can do it. We don’t have any other choice.’
McDonald’s was the focus of this week’s work stoppages.
The protests come at the end of a year where the issue of rising income inequality in the US has become a political and economic football.
The call for a $15 an hour wage was also picked up recently by workers at the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart (WMT), who say they struggle to support themselves and their families on their pay at the company.
Many fast-food workers are also finding themselves in a financial bind, even when they work a full weekly schedule.
According to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute, the restaurant industry’s median wage, including tips, is $10 an hour, compared with $18 per hour for non-restaurant work.
‘While there are certainly employers in the restaurant industry who provide high-quality jobs,’ the liberal think tank says, ‘by and large the industry consists of very low-wage jobs with few benefits and many restaurant workers live in poverty or near-poverty.’
Last week, hundreds of people in Portland came out on Black Friday to support striking workers from the Wal-Mart store in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
The striking workers travelled to Portland to deliver a letter to demanding $15 and full-time, and end to unfair labour practices.
While they delivered the letter, supporters marched through the store chanting ‘What do we want? $15! When do we want it? NOW!’
The striking workers spoke to an enthusiastic crowd about the need for worker solidarity. After the rally ended, a small splinter group marched through the parking lot and temporarily obstructed the entrance to the store.
Last month, on Tuesday, November 4th, the fight for a living wage won a number of resounding victories nationwide.
In Massachusetts, residents of Boston’s 10th Suffolk district voted ‘yes’ on Question 5, an advisory question supporting a $15 an hour minimum wage. With a 63% majority, working people have voted to take back the city they can no longer afford.
With Boston’s cost of living on a constant and steep incline, the city’s $8 an hour minimum wage is becoming less and less livable – and Tuesday’s victory proves that working people have had enough.
Campaigners called ‘15 Now’ spent the past few months in the 10th Suffolk district’s West Roxbury neighbourhood rallying support for not only the upcoming advisory question, but for the fair treatment of workers statewide.
The campaign website said: ‘15 Now activists went door-to-door discussing the implications of an increased minimum wage with West Roxbury residents.
‘We held speak-outs and public meetings, and worked to dispel myths about the negative repercussions of a wage increase. Our consistent, and tireless work paid off when Question 5 was passed by an overwhelming majority.
‘The passage of this advisory question will serve as an essential moment for working people in Boston. The city’s cost of living has increased since we began campaigning for Question 5, making a higher minimum wage more essential than ever.
‘Residents of West Roxbury’s call for a $15 an hour minimum wage will serve as a rallying cry city-wide that working people deserve more from their employers and from their city.
‘The working people of Boston deserve better than the poverty wages being levelled against them, and we hope that the momentum created by Question 5’s passage will inspire workers throughout the city.
‘The victory in Boston this Tuesday serves as evidence that when working people mobilise, motivate, and support one another – legitimate, systemic change can be made.
‘The residents of the 10th Suffolk district have unified to demand fair, equal treatment from their legislators and their employers.
‘This victory, in combination with the minimum wage victories in 17 states and in particular San Francisco and Oakland passing $15 serve as incredible proof that working people are fighting back, taking back their cities, and demanding change. Continue to support 15 Now and we can take these successes nationwide.’
In October, campaigners called for support for Minnesota airport workers.
Their statement said: ‘MSP Airport is ground zero for income inequality between the rich and the working poor. On the one hand you have companies like Delta who made $2.3 billion in profit last year and are headed toward $4 billion for 2014.
‘Nearly a third of that profit was earned right here at MSP according to a Delta Vice President. That’s $700 million. Delta CEO, Richard Anderson, made $6,000 per hour last year.
‘On the other hand, many of my coworkers at Delta have to work two and three jobs to make ends meet. Workers at Airserve, who clean Delta aircraft, make $8 and $9 per hour.
‘In fact thousands of workers at MSP who fuel, clean and load aircraft for Delta, United, American and other airlines make poverty wages. Faring no better are those who staff airport stores, restaurants and other services.
‘We know it doesn’t have to be this way. When workers got organised in other airports like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle, they were able to win a $15/hour minimum wage.
‘That’s why some of my coworkers and I have gathered well over 1,000 signatures on a petition asking the Metropolitan Airport Commission (MAC) to raise the minimum wage at MSP Airport to $15/hour. Over 50 of us turned those petitions in to the MAC, a body appointed mainly by Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton.
‘Now we need your support and solidarity. Please sign our petition asking Governor Dayton to take a stand against poverty wages. If Governor Dayton leads, the Airport Commissioners he appoints will follow.
‘A victory at MSP can pave the way for winning $15 in Minneapolis and St Paul. It can begin to reverse the deep economic inequality plaguing our state. It can address the fact that Minnesota taxpayers currently subsidise the profits of highly successful companies, when low wage workers are forced to use public assistance.
‘United and organised we can win.
‘Sincerely,
‘Kip Hedges
‘Delta Baggage Handler’
