NEW YORK, Aug 29: Fast-food workers across the United States are expected to stage their largest strike to date today in an almost year-long campaign to raise wages in the service sector.
Employees of McDonald’s Corp, Wendy’s Restaurants LLC, Burger King Worldwide Inc and others have pledged to walk off their jobs in 50 cities from Boston, Mass, to Alameda, Calif., organizers say. They are expected to be joined by retail employees at stores owned by Macy’s Inc, Sears Holdings Corp and Dollar Tree Inc in some cities.
The strike follows a similar protest last November, when some 200 workers walked off their fast-food jobs in New York City. Groups in Chicago, Kansas City, Detroit and other cities followed their lead in April and July.
The workers are demanding that the federal minimum wage be raised to 15 dollar per hour from the current 7.25 dollar. They also want to form unions without facing retaliation from franchisees or their parent companies.
The median wage for front-line fast-food workers is 8.94 dollar per hour, according to an analysis of government data by the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for lower-wage workers. Virtually all private-sector fast-food jobs are non-union, and organizers say retaliation against workers who try to organize is common.
Martin Rafanan, a community organizer in St. Louis, Missouri, where the minimum wage is 7.35 dollar, said local employees of McDonald’s and Wendy’s were inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement’s discussions about income inequality. But he added that the main reason for their frustration is financial.
“If you’re paying 7.35 dollar an hour and employing someone for 20, 25 hours a week, which is the average here, they’re bringing home about 10,000 dollar a year. You can’t survive on that.” Rafanan said.
“Unless we can figure out how to make highly profitable companies pay a fair wage to their workers, we’re just going to watch them pull all the blood, sweat, tears and money out of our communities.” (AGENCIES)
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