Fast Food Workers Strike! I’d Like Higher Wages with Those Fries …
Every story is the same. Fast food workers are on strike at “dozens of restaurants in New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Detroit and Flint, Mich.” Monday’s planned walkout had “thousands” of workers demanding higher pay, better hours, and the right to unionize. Pieces posted by the AP, Bloomberg, and Reuters have likely been read by millions today. Ned Resnikoff of MSNBC cited organizers opinions that it could be “the biggest labor action in the industry’s history.”
Really? Anyone care to explain this little gem from Mlive.com:
FLINT, MI – Flint and Detroit fast-food workers won’t strike today according to a representative from the organization who helped organize the May 10 fast-food walkouts in Detroit.
I’ve no doubt there WERE rallies yesterday. I can tell you they weren’t in Detroit or Flint. But it does make one wonder. How many of the “thousands” (if there were thousands) actually worked at the restaurants they are protesting? How many protested on their day off (certainly their right but hardly a walk off). Which restaurants closed as a result of yesterday’s “biggest labor action in the industry’s history?”
Anyone else hear crickets?
Lots of articles bemoaned the big, mean CEOs that dared to earn a large wage for their work. How is it fair that college educated men and women with an eye for business, the ability to handle multi-million or billion dollar corporations, and hundreds of thousands of workers make more money than the person that can’t get my order right at the drive-thru window?
Where’s my marker? I need to make a sign!!
Meanwhile, over at SEIU headquarters, Mary Kay Henry is reportedly making well over $300,000 per year. None of the striking workers and community organizers seem to have a problem with the biggest proponent (and financial backer) of the walk out being a 1%-er.
Maybe Mary Kay would like to invest her own money in a fast food chain that pays its workers $15 per hour and only charges $6 for a hamburger meal. All while ensuring these workers get 40 hours a week with the backing of the SEIU and all of the benefits that go with it like pensions and healthcare. Oh, and daycare would be great too.
She could start by hiring Tamara Green. She told reporters at the NYC rally, “It’s impossible when rent is $700, gas is $50 and a MetroCard is $112. I make $109 a week. Where am I at?”
Apparently not at work. At that rate, you’re working less than 20 hours a week assuming you only make minimum wage.
FoxNews reported, “Robert Wilson, Jr., a 25-year-old McDonald’s employee in Chicago, told the Washington Post that he makes $8.60 an hour after seven years on the job. A previous walkout in April led to “small victories,” he said, including additional hours and slight raises.”
