I've heard variations on the argument that $15 per hour is far more
money than most entry level jobs are worth. Like slinging hamburgers
at a fast food joint.
Coming from working class people I'm a bit surprised. "You're talking
more like a boss rather than a wage earner", I tell them. But they
insist that "those jobs" should not be commanding such a high hourly
wage. "Most of those jobs are entry level and people will take them
only until they get experience and move into better paying jobs". I
swear, that's a popular view. So what experience does shoving food
out a window provide? It seems to me that if there is the need for a
job to be done, then it should pay a living wage. At $15 per hour, do
the math. $15 times40 hours per week equals $600 per week, times 52
weeks per year, notice there's no paid vacation, and the annual income
is $31,200. This is before any deductions. Begin by deducting the
basic costs of living, withholding taxes, rent, food, utilities,
transportation to and from the job, clothing. Forget entertainment,
and if that old TV breaks down you'll need to entertain yourself by
making shadow figures on the bare wall in your fifth floor walk up
flat. So the job market is full of these "Starter Jobs", Okay, maybe
you can live at home in your parents fifth floor walk up flat,
sleeping behind the sofa on an air mattress. But after you've proven
yourself to be a hard working employee, you look around for openings
at the next level. Those jobs, the ones that you might qualify for,
have been split into ten, twenty and thirty hour jobs. This is so the
boss doesn't have to shell out for health insurance or for annual
leave time. So now you're making a few dollars an hour more, but
taking home less. You need at least two such jobs to increase your
life style. And don't get the idea that a college degree will help.
But like I say, do the math and see how you could live and save toward
a second hand car, or a second hand TV on $15 per hour.
And if you don't feel insulted and humiliated, then you are just the
kind of person I could use in my business.
Carl Jarvis
On 10/13/17, Frank Ventura <frank.ventura@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The right has been able to keep the conversation around the minimum wage,
thus keeping the thught of a living wage out of the public discourse.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran
Bailey
Sent: Saturday, October 7, 2017 10:40 AM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Fast food workers walked out on Labor Day 2017
https://socialistaction.org/2017/10/05/fast-food-workers-walked-out-on-labor-day-2017/
Fast food workers walked out on Labor Day 2017
/ 2 days ago
Oct. 2017 Labor Day Boston Craig F. Walker : Globe Labor Day marchers in
Boston. Craig F. Walker / Boston Globe
By ANN MONTAGUE
On this year’s Labor Day, Sept. 4, there were more marches and rallies than
in previous years. Several U.S. cities had large labor actions anchored in
fast-food walkouts. Britain saw its first strikes against McDonald’s
Corporation; activists chose U.S. Labor Day as a nod to the birthplace of
the Fight For 15 movement. We highlight some of the actions below.
Chicago: Adam Shils reports that Labor Day started early in the Pilsen
Neighborhood of Chicago, where there was a large strike at McDonalds.
They were protesting Governor Rauner’s recent veto of a bill to raise the
Illinois minimum wage to $15. Around 2200 workers marched in solidarity with
the strikers, and they all marched to the headquarters of the American
Hospital Association (AHA) with a rally focusing on health workers.
Katina Davis, a worker at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, answered the
question of why they were at the AHA headquarters: “The agenda of the
association—just like large corporations—is to maximize the profits and
power of hospitals. They keep wages low for frontline hospital workers and
make it difficult to form unions, denying us our basic rights and voices on
the job. In fact our entire economy is rigged against working people.”
Laura Williams, a fast food striker who has not had a raise in four years,
stated: “As a Black woman, I can speak to the importance of unions for
people of color. Across the country, more than half of Black workers like
me, almost half of women workers like me, and nearly 60% of Latino workers
are paid less than $15 an hour. Governor Rauner just stole raises from
millions of Illinois workers.”
There were also speeches from rank and file nurses, SEIU President Mary Kay
Henry and Rev. William Barber. It was a spirited march and rally with the
largest contingent from SEIU.
Hartford: Fast food workers joined others on Labor Day demanding $15 an hour
and union rights. Cooks and cashiers at McDonalds and Burger King walked off
the job around Hartford, East Hartford, Manchester, New Haven and Waterbury.
At the beginning of 2017 the Connecticut minimum wage went up to $10.10 an
hour. Nayya Malchi, Dunkin’ Donuts worker in New Haven, said, “We need $15
to survive, this $10.10 is not enough.”
Kansas City, Mo.: Hundreds of workers sent a message on Labor Day demanding
a raise in the minimum wage. Many of those were fast-food workers who walked
off the job. The message was not only about raising wages but about their
right to a union. Fran Marion, who works at Popeye’s, said, “We deserve 15
and a union. Someone to have our back.”
She emphasized the need for health care, retirement benefits, and sick days.
Kansas City voters approved a raise in the minimum wage in August, but the
state legislature passed a law to stop its implementation.
Portland, Ore.: There is only one fast food chain in Oregon that anyone has
organized. The IWW has been organizing the 47-store regional restaurant
chain Burgerville for the last six months. The Portland workers have been on
strike twice before. On Labor Day they walked out to demand holiday pay.
Previously, the Burgerville Workers Union has been on strike for a $5 an
hour increase and affordable health benefits.
Burgerville management has refused to recognize their union and community
members have picketed their headquarters.
Chris Merkel reflected the history of the day when she said, “Labor Day
exists because workers went on strike in the 1880s. The Burgerville Workers
Union is taking our fight to the next level, marching with the millions of
workers that have fought before us.” Their organizing campaign has been
endorsed by the Northwest Oregon Labor Council, Oregon AFL-CIO and other
labor organizations. The strikers received a standing ovation when they
arrived at the main stage of the annual Labor Day Picnic.
London: British McDonald’s workers went on strike for the first time on U.S.
Labor Day. The restaurants in Crayford and Cambridge in southeast London
walked out for the first time since they opened in 1974. Before the strike,
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, backed the strike. He spoke on
behalf of the working-class party: “Our party offers support and solidarity
to the brave McDonald’s workers, who are making history today. They are
standing up for workers’ rights by leading the first ever strike at
McDonald’s in the UK. Their demands—an end to zero hours contracts by the
end of the year, union recognition, and a 10 pound per hour minimum wage—are
just and should be met.”
Over 100 union and Labour Party members joined the strikers outside the
McDonald’s headquarters in East Finchley, London. Ian Hodson, the national
president of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU), one of the
oldest of Britain’s trade unions, said that the strike may spread. Suzanne
Moore, a columnist for The Guardian, supported the
strike: “It is about class, of course, but it is also about young people
refusing to be disposable. They are not lovin’ it and they are not havin’
it. All power to them.”
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October 5, 2017 in Labor, Connecticut, Chicago, Britain.
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