Let them Eat Fries : Fast food workers take to the streets
Thousands of fast food workers are expected to stage protests Thursday outside of restaurants such as McDonald’s, Burger King and Domino’s in a coordinated push for higher pay.
Backed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), fast food workers in 150 cities plan to walk off the job and pick up picket signs to demand that they be paid no less than $15 per hour. It will be the seventh strike organized by the Fast Food Forward campaign since November 2012, when the campaign began.
“At Thursday’s strike, fast food restaurants will see firsthand that workers are willing to do whatever it takes to win $15 and union rights,” said Kendall Fells, the organizing director at Fast Food Forward, which receives funding from the SEIU.
Business groups and franchises are pushing back on the campaign, arguing an increase in the minimum wage would be bad for the economy and ultimately hurt workers.
Steve Caldeira, CEO of the International Franchise Association, said in a Wednesday statement that the SEIU and other labor groups were putting pressure on the corporations in a callous attempt to grow their membership.
“When you boil this all down, it’s really about the unions being hypocritical and greedy by exploiting proposals meant to support fast food workers to enrich themselves,” Caldeira said in a statement.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s most powerful business group, produced an analysis that says more than 40 of the full-time employees at SEIU headquarters make less than $15 per hour — the same amount that the union says should be the minimum for fast food workers.
Read more: https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/216594-fast-food-workers-take-to-the-streets-for-15-minimum#ixzz3CLvkywmD
