NEW YORK -- Workers from increasingly varied workplaces staged strikes and protests in 35 states and 190 cities on Thursday, demanding higher minimum wages. The protests and strikes are backed by unions and mark the two-year anniversary of the "Fight for $15" campaign that began when fast-food workers in New York walked off their jobs at dozens of restaurants including McDonald's and Burger King outlets, reported The Wall Street Journal.
The campaign, planned by Fast-Food Forward, a group backed by the Service Employees International Union, focuses mostly on fast-food workers but is expanding to include others.
A September protest in about 160 cities included home-care aides. This time, some airport workers in a number of cities including New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta were expected to protest, and some convenience store workers in places such as Detroit, St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo., were expected to walk off their jobs.
Dollar Tree, Family Dollar and Speedway gas station workers were expected to participate, said a Detroit Free Press report. Examples were few, however, so the actual level of participation was sketchy.
About two dozen supporters stood outside a Speedway in Detroit and chanted, "Stand up, fight back," after a worker walked off, according to the report.
An employee at a BP gas station in Chicago reportedly closed the doors and walked off the job early Thursday to join a group of fast-food workers, NBC Chicago said. "It was time to fight. It was time to get something done. We need to make a movement to go ahead and get that $15 living wage," Daryel Eatmonds told the newspaper.
Organizers say they have a winning message about economic fairness. While Congress hasn't increased the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour since mid-2009, many states and cities have. Voters in several states approved minimum-wage increases in November's elections. Seattle's City Council in June approved a $15 hourly minimum to be phased in over a number of years, said the report. And Chicago's City Council this week approved a plan to boost that city's minimum wage to $13 an hour by mid-2019.
Owners of fast-food restaurants and other types of franchises have been organizing to counter the worker actions, in part by trying to show the workers that they are employed by small businesses, not multinational corporations such as McDonald's Corp.
The International Franchise Association trade group said nearly half of its franchisee members operate just one restaurant or outlet. A McDonald's Corp. spokesperson told the newspaper that about 90% of McDonald's franchise owners own fewer than 10 restaurants.
"These protests are just another clear example of unions attempting to generate headlines and grow union membership," the trade group's president Steve Caldeira told the Journal. The protests "are the last thing business owners and the U.S. economy need during this still fragile, uneven economic recovery."
"The Fight for $15 movement is growing as more Americans living on the brink decide to stick together to fight for better pay and an economy that works for all of us," SEIU President Mary Kay Henry told the paper.
Click here to view the full Journal report.
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