MOSCOW, September 4 (RIA Novosti) – Fast food workers plan to take part in a non-violent strike in 150 American cities on Thursday as part of a nation-wide campaign aimed at improving working conditions.
“We know this is going to be a long fight, but we’re going to fight it till we win,” a Wendy’s worker who is raising four children alone on $7.50 an hour told NBC News on Wednesday. “I am doing this because I want to be able to work and take care of my children,” the worker said. “It’s a struggle everyday to pay bills, and food, and rent. I skip meals. It’s time we get paid for the work we do.”
The planned strike marks the intensification of a campaign that started two years ago and seeks to increase the minimum fast food worker's to $15 per hour and to let them form a union.
The protests also focus on such long-standing issues as verbal abuse by managers (especially to immigrant workers), unpaid wages, broken equipment, and unpredictable scheduling. The strikers express frustration over their continued struggle to get by despite the improving economic situation of the country.
Although the majority of labor experts doubt that the strikes will yield instant results, they may turn out to be fruitful in the long-term. Seattle, Kansas City and Massachusetts have already seen positive changes.
“The fast food workers have captured the imagination of the nation,” NBC News reports Mary Kay Henry, the International President of SEIU, one of the country’s largest unions, as saying.
Fast food workers’ protests started in New York in 2012 and reached Kansas City in July 2013. As of now, Seattle has raised its city minimum wage to $15, Massachusetts plans an increase to $11, and employees in Kansas City Popeye’s restaurants recently received a 50 percent raise and a free meal during every shift.
