I go to
Panera too much. There is this one guy who works there that gives me hell for
it. He’s awesome, and as such should be my best friend, but instead we talk about man problems. He also doesn’t support the service industry strikes. I asked
him about them last Thursday. I told him I partially expected to walk over and
see McDonalds and Panera shut down due to a picket line. Both chains are across the street from the university. This employee told me
he hadn’t heard anything about the strikes, but that they were paid ok and
that fast food workers are teenagers. I respect his opinion, but fast food
workers aren’t teenagers. The average age is 35, most are women, and people of
color.
Thursday,
fast food workers (and some retailers) went on strike in 60 cities (including in Cleveland, according to my parents). They want a
living wage of $15 per hour from the large corporations making money off of
low-wage workers. This minimum wage would be more than double the national
minimum wage of $7.25. Allison Kilkenny, as always, had an excellent piece for The Nation, entitled, “Courage
is contagious: Fast food workers expected to protest low wages nationwide.”
You may
remember low-wage workers walking off the job last November in New York as a
one day protest. However, by the summer the movement expanded and included thousands
of workers across the country. This included Detroit, Chicago, New York, and
Kansas City. It is important to remember these workers have no labor
protections; they don’t have a union. Every time they walk off they lose money
and possibly their jobs (because of retaliation). However, on Thursday, Los
Angeles, Milwaukee, Memphis, and Raleigh joined this list with the backing of
SEIU.
According
to Kilkenny, there have already been benefits to the strikes. Some strikers in
New York and Chicago saw their wages increase after the strike. Additionally,
these benefits have encouraged other workers to protest for living wages. Some
workers are calling for a union in addition to the living wages. The goal of
action such as these strikes it to send a message to the corporations employing
low-wage workers.
A few
things to remember: these workers aren’t covered by a union so they have few
protections, which makes this all the more amazing and inspiring, and these
workers are “special populations.” Special populations usually refers to
marginalized populations like women, people of color, immigrants, young people,
the elderly, etc. Additionally, because these workers don’t have a union this
movement is union driven (though it is union backed). Also, this being Labor Day, this isn’t the
only labor fight going on right now. Wal-mart’s workers are still fighting
their fight, domestic workers, immigrants, LGBT workers and trans workers
specifically, teachers in Philly and Chicago, and right there in Washington DC
where retail workers are fighting to increase the minimum wage with possible
the help of the Council.
