'Fast Food Strike Tomorrow [29 August]: They're Asking Baristas to Walk Out With Them

[Popular Front of Judea]

Two hundred fast-food workers in New York City walked off the counter in a one-day strike last November, in some cases joining picket lines on the sidewalks in front of the restaurants. They were asking employers for a wage they could live on—$15 an hour—along with the right to organize. They walked out again in April, doubling their numbers. Soon, workers in Chicago were walking out. Then Saint Louis. Then Detroit. By May 30, Seattle was the seventh city to join the wave.

Seattle's strike was extraordinarily successful: Rather than employees leaving while the restaurants remained open, at least eight—and as many as 14—restaurants had to shut down completely. Then on August 1, eight people were arrested demonstrating in front of a McDonald's downtown.

If there is a ground-game battle under way in America between the low-wage worker and the corporate fat cat, this is it. Last year, McDonald's reported $5.5 billion in profits; Burger King profited $652 million; and Taco Bell's parent company, which also owns Pizza Hut and KFC, reported a 73 percent growth in profits for a $458 million haul.

If just a fraction of those profits were used to pay better wages, workers could each make thousands of dollars more a year. But in reality, workers say their wages and hours are still too low to cover basic living expenses.

So this week, organizers are supersizing their plans: On Thursday, August 29, they're calling for a national strike of low-wage workers. Specifically, says Caroline Durocher, who was the very first striking worker locally, they are also asking "coffee workers in Seattle to walk off their jobs to demand a fair wage."

Catch that, Emerald City?

They're asking your barista to walk off the job—equating corporate coffee giants like Starbucks (which profited $2 billion last year) to fast-food behemoths like McDonald's, Burger King, and Taco Bell.

There are 33,000 fast-food workers in the Seattle region, according to federal statistics that were mined by pro-labor group Working Washington, which is helping organize the strikes with other labor-backed groups. That number grows when you factor in coffee workers. But the long-range goal is to incorporate low-wage workers from sectors outside the fast-food industry, says Working Washington spokesman Sage Wilson, "and baristas are one of them."

Fast Food Strike Tomorrow: They're Asking Baristas to Walk Out With Them | Seattle Stranger Blog (http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/08/28/fast-food-strike-tomorrow-theyre-asking-baristas-to-walk-out-with-them)

[GiantMonkeyMan]

I've been trying to organise in the UK to pull off something similar, especially in light of all the zero-hour contracts that workers in McDonalds and Sports Direct etc have to suffer in. What sort of stuff are the comrades in the US doing to make it so successful? I got kicked out of Sports Direct twice and am now banned for life (what a crying shame) for handing out leaflets to staff encouraging them to come along to a meeting about organising against shitty conditions but no-one came along or contacted us (except the usual suspects). As a person working in a shitty minimum wage job, this stuff hits home to me and is a great inspiration but I'm struggling to emulate it over here. :crying:

Good luck today for all comrades involved and solidarity to the striking workers!

[Nancahuazu camp fun]

I support this wholly.

People like to shit on fast food workers, but it is a hard job! You have to deal with irritable people while getting burned all day. The money you make is shit...

Saw a McDonalds close. Glad they are standing up against greedy corporations.

[Popular Front of Judea]

Check out the #829strike twitter feed to see the results.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BS3_CzjCUAAr6a6.jpg

[Nemo]

This is great. I hope to see it continue expanding. Kudos to Seattle workers for taking the lead.

[Achronos]

I've been trying to organise in the UK to pull off something similar
After looking at the best rated comments through various websites, and I'll quote a few:

"These workers do not realise they are being paid according to their worth. Once they develop some skills then they can move on to a better paying job. Flipping hamburgers is a very low skilled job."

"Typical. Open your own business then see if you can afford to pay no skill labor that turns over 5 or 6 times a year $15/hr."

"These people are doing a 16yr old kids first summer job. $15 an hour??? Not on this planet."

"You want better wages? You have the right to get a better job."

"I am a trained and licensed medical professional & I only make$10 an hour. Do fast food workers with little education and small skill set really deserve $15 an hour? Working in fast food isn't a career path it's a filler job. If you want more money than get and education, expand your skill base, and accept responsibility for your own life choices!"

"Really? $15.00 an hour to work at McDonalds?"

I think you get the point...

I fear your good intentions may be in vain. Again this ideology of making better jobs available still doesn't solve the issue that the very structure of corporate America requires these low skill jobs.

[Popular Front of Judea]

So you are basing your evaluation of the efficacy of these actions by the comments you find on Reddit?


After looking at the best rated comments through various websites, and I'll quote a few:

"These workers do not realise they are being paid according to their worth. Once they develop some skills then they can move on to a better paying job. Flipping hamburgers is a very low skilled job."

"Typical. Open your own business then see if you can afford to pay no skill labor that turns over 5 or 6 times a year $15/hr."

"These people are doing a 16yr old kids first summer job. $15 an hour??? Not on this planet."

"You want better wages? You have the right to get a better job."

"I am a trained and licensed medical professional & I only make$10 an hour. Do fast food workers with little education and small skill set really deserve $15 an hour? Working in fast food isn't a career path it's a filler job. If you want more money than get and education, expand your skill base, and accept responsibility for your own life choices!"

"Really? $15.00 an hour to work at McDonalds?"

I think you get the point...

I fear your good intentions may be in vain. Again this ideology of making better jobs available still doesn't solve the issue that the very structure of corporate America requires these low skill jobs.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

After looking at the best rated comments through various websites, and I'll quote a few:

"These workers do not realise they are being paid according to their worth. Once they develop some skills then they can move on to a better paying job. Flipping hamburgers is a very low skilled job."
These workers are actually not being paid their worth of their low-skilled labour. Which is roughly $12, I believe.


"Typical. Open your own business then see if you can afford to pay no skill labor that turns over 5 or 6 times a year $15/hr."
McDonalds can afford to double their wages for all their workers (from ~$6 to ~$12) and maintain their profits by simply raising their dollar menu by ~20c. Of course, we're revolutionaries and don't give a shit about their profits.


"These people are doing a 16yr old kids first summer job. $15 an hour??? Not on this planet."
$15 an hour in order to survive a dignified life??? Yes on this planet.


"You want better wages? You have the right to get a better job."
You have the right to fuck off and die. Getting a job isn't so easy, even with a university degree. Workers have a right to organise for better pay and conditions.


"I am a trained and licensed medical professional & I only make$10 an hour. Do fast food workers with little education and small skill set really deserve $15 an hour? Working in fast food isn't a career path it's a filler job. If you want more money than get and education, expand your skill base, and accept responsibility for your own life choices!"
A trained medical professional only getting paid $10 an hour is ridiculous. Organise with your fellow workers and demand better wages!


"Really? $15.00 an hour to work at McDonalds?"
No, the strikers actually want to be paid in bigmacs and french fries. :rolleyes:


I think you get the point...

I fear your good intentions may be in vain. Again this ideology of making better jobs available still doesn't solve the issue that the very structure of corporate America requires these low skill jobs.
Those people sound like fucking idiots trapped in a bubble of their own ignorance. We're marxists and I get that we all develop a degree of cynicism but I asked for some understanding on how these huge protests and strike waves developed not for a bunch of quotes from the fuckwad brigade. If myself, a person who works a shitty minimum wage job at a corporation who makes millions of the back of the surplus value of my labour, can come to an understanding that I'm not paid enough then so can other people. If all these people in Seattle and across the US can come out onto protests and pickets then so can people in the UK to demand a living wage.

[Consistent.Surprise]

If anyone wants read MORE backlash, go to the Detroit subreddit. Almost every post has someone pissing on the poor for being "uneducated" & "lazy". The strike here has been small but in the news & has brought out the bigots in full strength (not like it takes much with Detroit news)

[Questionable]

Why do you all waste your time getting political opinions from reddit? It is the ideological hive of the new generation of petty-bourgeois, those software programmers and upper-middle-class college students who have little or no connection to the working class, the generation that was split evenly in its support for either Ron Paul or Obama. We have nothing to learn from them. A single mother who supports her children with her McDonald's job, a Haitian immigrant who works alongside her, none of these people will be found on reddit. It's demographic is overwhelmingly middle-class white males.

EDIT: Out of morbid curiosity I did decide to visit the Detroit subreddit, and wow. There were people saying that every single striking worker should be fired, as if the thought of them having a higher wage made their blood absolutely boil. It's the kind of ultra-reactionary comments I expect to see on Iron March or Stormfront.

[Consistent.Surprise]

Why do you all waste your time getting political opinions from reddit? It is the ideological hive of the new generation of petty-bourgeois, those software programmers and upper-middle-class college students who have little or no connection to the working class, the generation that was split evenly in its support for either Ron Paul or Obama. We have nothing to learn from them. A single mother who supports her children with her McDonald's job, a Haitian immigrant who works alongside her, none of these people will be found on reddit. It's demographic is overwhelmingly middle-class white males.

EDIT: Out of morbid curiosity I did decide to visit the Detroit subreddit, and wow. There were people saying that every single striking worker should be fired, as if the thought of them having a higher wage made their blood absolutely boil. It's the kind of ultra-reactionary comments I expect to see on Iron March or Stormfront.

Once you visit it, you almost want to poke your eyes out.

I use it for news I might not catch (I hate the TV) or simple happenings in the city itself.

[A.J.]

I've been trying to organise in the UK to pull off something similar, especially in light of all the zero-hour contracts that workers in McDonalds and Sports Direct etc have to suffer in. What sort of stuff are the comrades in the US doing to make it so successful? I got kicked out of Sports Direct twice and am now banned for life (what a crying shame) for handing out leaflets to staff encouraging them to come along to a meeting about organising against shitty conditions but no-one came along or contacted us (except the usual suspects). As a person working in a shitty minimum wage job, this stuff hits home to me and is a great inspiration but I'm struggling to emulate it over here. :crying:

Good luck today for all comrades involved and solidarity to the striking workers!

Even before I read this post I was thinking to myself I can't imagine something as inspiring as this ever occuring in Britain.

What's with this country?