Fast-Food Workers Set for Nationwide Strike
On Thursday, fast-food and other low-wage workers in more than three dozen cities will boost their campaign for a living wage and justice with a nationwide one-day strike. The workers and the faith, community and labor groups that back them are calling for a living wage of $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation.
The mobilization began in November with a handful of walkouts and grew even larger in July. Steven Ashby, a professor at the University of Illinois School of Labor and Employment Relations, tells Time.com :
It’s absolutely going to continue to grow. I see no signs from all the people I’ve talked with that it’s going to falter. At this point, it hasn’t reached its peak yet. The energy of the workers, their passion, their commitment, is very, very high. They basically feel like, ‘We’ve got nothing to lose.’
Fast food is a $200 billion a year industry and retail is a $4.7 trillion industry, yet many service workers across the country earn minimum wage or just above it and are forced to rely on public assistance programs to provide for their families and get health care for their children. The median age in the fast-food industry is older than 28, and more than one-quarter of fast-food workers are raising at least one child .
Learn more at Low Pay Is Not OK .
See The Reality of Who Actually Works for Minimum Wage Will Shock You from Upworthy.
