Fast-food strikes scheduled for August 29, day after March on Washington
theGRIO REPORT - On August 29, the day after the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, fast-food workers around the nation are planning to strike for better pay and better treatment...
On August 29th, the day after the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, fast-food workers around the nation are planning to strike for better pay and working conditions.
Workers going on strike are demanding $15 an hour wages, mirroring the demand for $2 an hour the organizers of the 1963 march made.
The average fast-food employee earns minimum wage.
In New York City minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.
“It’s noisy, it’s really hot, fast, they rush you,” McDonald’s employee Nathalia Sepulveda told theGrio in late July during a previous fast-food walkout.  “Sometimes you don’t even get breaks. All for $7.25? It’s crazy.”
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the average wage for combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast-food, is $8.68 an hour.
“I’ve been spending time with these fast food workers, retail workers,” President of the NAACP Ben Jealous said on MSNBC Sunday. Â “Folks are making $7.25”
“We need to be all in with folks like that when they’re standing up because that is where the movement comes from,” Jealous said. Â “As people at the end of the day who have nothing to lose, saying that they’re going to risk everything to make a better future for their own children.”
Organizers of the strike have started the website LowPayisNotOk.org, which states:
McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, KFC and other corporations are making billions in profits, but they’re paying poverty wages and keeping the entire economy down. We’ve had enough. And we’re not alone.
The website also provides potential strikers with a ‘strike kit’ and gives visitors a change to sign a petition in support of the fast-food workers.
Follow Carrie Healey on Twitter @CarrieHeals.Â
