http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fast-food-workers-strike-20140903-story.html
Fast-food workers from Los Angeles to New York City are escalating their fight for better pay with strikes, rallies and acts of civil disobedience..
More than 100 fast-food workers converged on a McDonald's in Exposition Park before dawn Thursday to join a nationwide protest for better wages. They went inside the store for 10 minutes as workers stood stone-faced behind the cash registers.
The protesters held up signs and chanted slogans like "Get up! Get down! Fast-food workers run this town!" near a scrum of media trucks outside the empty McDonald's.
Fanny Velazquez, 36, said she was participating in the rally Thursday to fight for better wages to support her family. A single mother with three children, ages 11, 14 and 16, she said she struggles to make her $9.34-an-hour pay cover all the bills.
The South Los Angeles resident has been working at McDonald's for eight years doing a variety of jobs, usually working 20 hours a week. But lately, Velazquez said, the company has often cut her hours to 15 a week. She also qualifies for Welfare and food assistance.
"It's difficult, it's not enough to pay my bills," she said.
A series of protests funded in part by the Service Employees International Union and local activist groups have sought to spotlight the plight of low-wage workers and push for higher pay.
In New York City, a crowd of about 300 converged outside a McDonald's near Times Square at the height of morning rush hour, briefly blocking West 42nd Street. Police arrested about two dozen of the protesters.
And in Chicago, about two dozen protesters were arrested near a McDonald's where 150 protesters gathered.
McDonald’s said in a statement that it respected “everyone’s rights to peacefully protest” and supported “paying our valued employees fair wages.”
The fast-food chain said minimum wage is a discussion affecting the entire country, not just one company, and should be considered within a broader context of issues, including the impact of the Affordable Care Act.
“We believe that any minimum wage increase should be implemented over time so that the impact on owners of small and medium-sized businesses – like the ones who own and operate the majority of our restaurants – is manageable,” the company said. McDonald’s pointed out that it does not set wages for its more than 3,000 franchisees in the U.S.
Many fast-food chains and independent restaurants have said that a $15 hourly wage would lead to big price increases on their menus or make it impossible to eke out a profit. Some have accused the SEIU of pushing these protests as a publicity stunt.
Organizers say protests will be occurring at other fast-food restaurants in Los Angeles throughout Thursday, part of a nationwide day of walkouts and rallies for better pay for workers.
Edgar Gonzalez, 22, is hopeful that the protests will help ensure a better future for his family. He and his girlfriend both work at McDonald's -- she is a manager, while he works in maintenance. Together, they can still barely afford to cover all their expenses, especially with a 4-month-old daughter, he said.
"Sometimes we find whatever change there is to buy formula, wipes, diapers," the Inglewood resident said. He said they often make the choice between paying rent and buying healthy food to eat.
Burger King workers were also planning to walk out to demand the $15-an-hour wage, organizers said.
Fast-food employees in more than 100 cities around the country were to participate in the protests, the latest in a series of one-day walkouts this year.
"Fast food is an industry that is doing exceedingly well, and workers feel they are in a good position to bargain for $15 an hour," said Marqueece Harris-Dawson, president of Community Coalition, a local advocacy group in South L.A. that is participating in the local protests. "Workers of different stripes have been pressing to raise the conversation about the low end of the wage scale."
Home-care workers are also joining in some Thursday protests in an effort to widen the movement, although none are participating in Los Angeles.
The fight for a living wage and higher minimum pay has gained steam this year as rallies, sit-ins and strikes have raised awareness of the issue.
In June, Seattle leaders voted to raise the city's minimum wage to $15 an hour, the highest minimum of any metropolis in the country. The Los Angeles Unified School District signed a contract in July to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2016, which will boost the earnings of its lowest-paid employees, including custodians and cafeteria workers.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is pushing for a $13.25 minimum wage for all workers in L.A. by 2017. California's current minimum wage is $9 an hour.
On Labor Day, President Obama touched on the fast-food movement during a speech in Milwaukee.
"All across the country right now there's a national movement going on made up of fast-food workers organizing to lift wages so they can provide for their families with pride and dignity," he said Monday. "There is no denying a simple truth. America deserves a raise."
