Fast-food workers prepare to escalate wage demands
JULY 26, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, JULY 26, 2014, 1:21 AM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE RECORD
* Fast-food workers will be asked do “whatever it takes” to win $15 an hour and a union
CHICAGO — Fast-food employees say they’re prepared to escalate their campaign for higher wages and union representation, starting with a national convention in suburban Chicago, where more than 1,000 workers are expected to discuss the future of the effort that has spread to dozens of cities in less than two years.
About 1,300 workers were to attend sessions Friday and today at an expo center in Villa Park, Illinois, where they’ll be asked to do “whatever it takes” to win $15-an-hour wages and a union, said Kendall Fells, organizing director of the national effort and a representative of the Service Employees International Union.
The union has been providing financial and organizational support to the fast-food protests that began in late 2012 in New York City and have included daylong strikes and a protest outside this year’s McDonald’s Corp. shareholder meeting that resulted in more than 130 arrests.
“We want to talk about building leadership, power and doing whatever it takes, depending on what city they’re in and what the moment calls for,” said Fells, adding that the ramped-up actions will be “more high profile” and could include everything from civil disobedience to intensified efforts to organize workers.
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