Fast Food Strikes Planned for Thursday in 100 Cities
How many of them will be actual employees?
Fast-food workers in about 100 cities will walk off the job this Thursday, organizers say, which would mark the largest effort yet in their push for higher pay.
The actions are intended to build on a campaign that began about a year ago to call attention to the difficulties of living on the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, or about $15,000 a year.
The protests are part of a movement by labor unions, Democrats and other worker advocacy groups to raise pay in low-wage sectors. Last month, President Barack Obama said he would back a Senate measure to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10.
Protesters are calling for $15 an hour, although many see the figure as a rallying point rather than a near-term possibility.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
If it is anything like the 'strikes' several months ago, SEIU-paid picket lines will be outside selected locations answering press questions and not-quite lying bout themselves while the folks who work there will be inside working.
If a company pulled similar fakery to avoid unions, there would be screams heard all the way to East Chicago on the Potomac.
Man this makes me want a quarter pounder.
I wish the media would be a bit more honest in their reporting. We see the press release about what is supposed to happen, and seldom a story that shows that almost no one shows up and that those who do are SEIU shills, not workers. Each protest is supposed to be nationwide! thousands! largest ever! and one of that happens.
And yes, not much makes me want to eat fast food, but I will support the chains against this fakery. Commenter above is right--if an employer tried this, they'd be hung.
Low skill labor should not be encouraged to remain low skilled. Striving for more is the purpose of the lower entry wage.
Unions are in the "death throes" described by Wired's Louis Rossetto in the recent Reason post ? "Wired's Louis Rossetto on the Death of the Mega-State and the Digital Revolution". They are trying to create as much chaos as possible while their membership dwindles.
The UAW just announced they will be increasing their dues by 25% because their membership has fallen off from 1.5M in 1973 to 383K present day.
They have no one to blame but themselves and their boss' stupidity and greed...
I'm betting that most or all of those picketing fast-food restaurants aren't employees of those restaurants, but people that SIEU is paying (far less than $15/hour) to picket. That's SOP for unions and picket lines in DC.