Fast Food Strikes Go Global
By aaroncynic in News on May 16, 2014 7:00PM
Hundreds of fast food workers in Chicago picketed the Rock and Roll McDonald's in River North most of Thursday, calling for higher wages and the right to organize a union. The protest was part of a worldwide day of strikes that took place in some 150 cities worldwide. It was the fifth such strike in Chicago calling for a $15 an hour minimum wage, which has since spread across the nation and now across the globe.
“I’d be able to provide my family some of the most basic things,” said Martina Ortega, a mother of three children who works at two different McDonald’s locations on the South Side. Ortega was one of many fast food workers who participated in the strike, including two who walked out of the McDonald’s on LaSalle and Ontario.
Fast food workers told similar stories at rallies and protests all over. According to organizers with the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago (WOCC), striking workers in St. Louis forced a McDonald’s to close because the entire morning shift walked off the job. In Massachusetts, managers closed down a Burger King where workers staged a strike. Strikes were held in places as far away as the Philippines and New Zealand.
Critics of the movement, which began as a single day walk out in New York, contend a higher minimum wage would force employers to either raise prices or cut jobs. Supporters counter better wages mean a better economy. At a press conference Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a staunch supporter of the movement, said “essentially, taxpayers, customers of McDonald’s, you are subsidizing McDonald’s because their employees have to come to the taxpayers in order to pay for benefits these employees need.” A study released last October showed that low wages cost $7 billion as 52 percent of fast food workers enroll their families in public assistance programs to make ends meet.
Meanwhile, McDonald’s raked in $5.6 billion in 2013. “Don’t you think they can afford to give these workers a raise,” said Schakowsky.
As protesters chanted “hold the burgers, hold the fries, make our wages supersized” and shouts of “fight for 15,” Ortega echoed that sentiment. “I’m demanding the CEO’s of McDonald’s pay us enough to support a family and give us full time hours,” she said.
Jamie Branch, a McDonald’s employee from Rockford who has been working for the company since she was 16, said that workers deserve higher wages because their work is what brings in money to the company:
“They expect a lot from us. We do the work of three people on any given day, but yet our paycheck can’t even cover our rent. We also have utilities and children to take care of. $8.25 an hour is not a livable wage.”