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Fast Food Workers Will Strike In Los Angeles
Photo by foodforfel via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
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The estimated 3.7 million workers that fuel the fast food industry in the U.S. are fed up. Their wages and benefits aren't livable, they say, and they've been organizing protests across the nation in attempt to change that. And on August 29 they'll be bringing their cause to Los Angeles.
All of this comes after McDonald's created a budgeting site with VISA, suggesting that its employees get a second job and turn off their heat in order to get by. The protesters, on the other hand, believe that getting paid $15/hour would help them make ends meet. They are backed by groups like Fast Food Forward and Fight for 15. (Wendy's and Taco Bell are also potential targets.)
Explains the Times:
Bankrolled by the Service Employees International Union in concert with community groups, the protests are focusing attention on a group of low-income workers whose numbers are growing fast. They are also part of a drive to pressure Congress to raise the federal minimum wage of $7.25, which has not increased in four years. President Obama has supported an effort to raise the minimum wage to $9...
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But former McDonald’s CEO Ed Rensi believes this raise in wages would “absolutely” kill jobs.
Says HuffPo:
Rensi, who was head of McDonald's in the mid-1990s and now runs a burger chain of his own, argued Tuesday that a $15 minimum wage would put 15 to 20 percent of small businesses out of business.
L.A. has been difficult to organize up until this point. But after seeing the success that such protests had in New York in November and the subsequent rallies, the Central American Resource Center and several women's and clergy groups are helping to organize the local effort.
So come next Thursday, be aware that the drive-thru line might be turned into a picket line.
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