Low-wage workers fight for $15/hr

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Today, around the world, an insur­ gent movement of low-wage fastfood workers is beginning again to challenge the notion that “unskilled” laborers deserve to be poor. For de­ cades, while wages stagnated across the board, fast-food workers have barely made more than the mini­ mum wage allowed by federal law— which today is $7.25.

While $200 billion is grossed by the fast-food industry annually, the aver­ age worker in New York City makes only $11,000 annually. While profits are being raked in daily off the backs of hard-working people, the average daily salary for most fast-food CEOs is $25,000 a day. That is more than double what the average New York City fast-food worker makes in a year.

This month, Seattle workers won a minimum wage of $15 an hour, albeit somewhat altered by the mayor and his business cronies for their own benefit. This announcement marks a giant step forward in raising the real wages of working people across the U.S. Recently-elected socialist city councilor Kshama Sawant played no small role in bringing national at­ tention to this initiative, but it has been the continued mobilizations of fast-food workers around the world that have made a higher quality of life seem within reach.

Fast-food and other low-wage workers walked off their jobs in some 150 U.S. cities on May 15 to demand a minimum wage of $15 an hour and the right to join a union without retaliation. The action was taken in coordination with strikes and protests by low-wage workers in 150 U.S. cities, and in 30 other countries from Britain to Panama to New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea. Fast Food Forward and other groups supported by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) were the main organizers of the pro­ tests in the United States.

According to Socialist Action reporter Tony Savino, about 200 workers rallied in New York City’s Herald Square before marching through some of Midtown Manhattan’s busiest streets. Latinos and other recent immigrants were heavily represented in the march, one of several actions that took place in the city on May 15.

Bill Onasch writes from Kansas City that “the fastfood actions here involved about 500 people. My guess is that it was about a 60-40 split between fastfood workers and labor/community allies.”

A striking McDonald’s worker told a Channel 9 re­ porter covering a 6 a.m. protest at a Golden Arches in Kansas City: “We’re going to do whatever it takes. We’re going to come out here and fight. We’re going to let them know we want $15 an hour and a union.” This was the first of several Kansas City area events over a 12-hour period. In the early afternoon, another action took place in Shawnee Park, near a McDonald’s in the Armourdale district of Kansas City, Kan. Firefighters donated food and labor to give the activists a hearty lunch.

Ernie Gotta reports that nearly 100 people marched and rallied in Hartford, Conn, one of many actions around the state by striking workers and their sup­ porters.

Hartford strikers chanted, “What’s outrageous? Pov­ erty wages!” as they marched through the parking lots of McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, and Dunkin Donuts. They were greeted with solidarity by a heavy chorus of car horns including blasts from a Teamster tractor trailer, driven out for the action by Local 671’s president, who represents 1100 UPS workers nearby.

Labor and community support has been important to the movement. A fear of getting fired has kept many workers who may support the effort to organize off the picket line. Samuel Velez, a McDonald’s worker in Hartford and a participant in two other fast food strike actions, told Socialist Action newspaper that he tells his coworkers, “Don’t be afraid, join us. You won’t get fired. We got your back.”

Many workers like Velez have children and see building this movement as a way to better provide for their families. When asked about what he thinks the future will hold for the $15 and a union movement, Velez said, “I really think we’re going to get $15 an hour because these stores can’t stop us.”

The strikers in Hartford ended the day by marching (Above) Workers rally in New York City as part of May 15 international strike for $15 an hour.

into Burger King to encourage their coworkers to join the strike. The noise level was so high that customers could not place their order, and police were called in to disperse the strikers. As the restaurant cleared, a strong refrain of “We’ll be back!” filled the air.

Michael Schreiber reports from Philadelphia that about 100 fast-food workers and their supporters, ac­ companied by a young people’s drum corps, marched on May 15. The opening rally, outside a MacDonald’s franchise, was led by Fred Jones of Fight For Philly, a community organization linked with SEIU. The pro­ testers attempted to enter the building to briefly ad­ dress the workers inside but were turned away by city cops.

Strikers who addressed the rally included Glenn Da­ vis, 44, who has worked at a MacDonald’s for more than a year and gets a check for $200 every two weeks. Davis said that later in the day he was due in court in order to try to save his house from foreclosure. “It’s hard when you go home and your electricity is off,” and all the food in the refrigerator is ruined, he said.

Davis told a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquir­ er that several years ago he had a steady job as a re­ gional maintenance supervisor, in which he earned $12 an hour, plus overtime pay. However, his efforts to help unionize his coworkers cost him his job.

(continued on page 5, in “Seattle city council approves $15 wage”)

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(Left) Minneapolis truck drivers battle deputies and scabs in 1934 strike. stitutionally protected speech including street protest marches … political ral­ lies and events, and displaying political signs.”

The letter went on to state, “The pro­ posed Clean Zone imposes a prior re­ straint on speech and would condition licenses and permits for constitutionally protected speech and expressive con­ duct on approval by MLB. … Even worse here, the City of Minneapolis is planning to give that arbitrary unfettered discre­ tion to a private company.”

When the City of Minneapolis was originally named as the site of the AllStar game, Commissioner Bud Selig an­ nounced, “I think I can conservatively say here today that this game will pro­ duce, at a minimum, $75 to $100 mil­ lion just for those five days. … It is enor­ mous.” The Clean Zone was designed to make sure that all those profits would go directly into the hands of the MLB, not second-party vendors.

Jim McGuire, an organizer on the Re­ member 1934 Street Festival commit­ tee, said in a statement to the press, “It

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