New York quick-service workers strike again
Employees picketed at more than 60 restaurants, including McDonald’s and Wendy’s

Making good on their vow to step up the pressure on national quick-service chains, hundreds of New York hourly restaurant workers, led by a group called Fast Food Forward, returned to the picket lines Thursday, repeating their demands for higher wages and the ability to form a union.

Organizers estimate that some 400 New York quick-service workers held strikes at more than 60 restaurants around the city, picketing such brands as McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Domino’s and KFC.

Calling it the largest strike against the quick-service industry ever assembled in New York, Fast Food Forward — a local movement formed by coalition of community and labor groups — said today’s event drew twice as many participants as the original one-day strike did in November, 2012.

At a late morning rally in front of a Wendy’s restaurant on West 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan, scores of workers crowded the sidewalk, holding signs and chanting such slogans as “Hey hey, ho ho, minimum wage has got to go,” “We can’t survive on $7.25,” and “What’s outrageous? Those low wages.”

A steady stream of speakers urged the strikers on, calling for solidarity and protesting that New Yorkers can’t live on poverty-level wages of $7.25 an hour.

Camille Rivera, an organizer with UnitedNY.org, said the workers had walked off the job to demand better pay and more respect. “They’re paid low wages and get no benefits,” she said. “We need to tell these giant companies that enough is enough.”

Linda Archer, an employee at the McDonald’s location on West 42nd Street, said she was picketing for better benefits, a wage of $15 an hour, respect, the ability to unionize without fear of retaliation and job security. She said she had been working for McDonald’s for three years and was only making $8.05.

Archer’s colleague at McDonald’s, Elizabeth Castro, said she had received only one 15-cent raise in the two-and-a-half years she had been working there. “Everything is going up but our wages,” she said.

McDonald’s, however, commenting on the strike, said it offers more lucrative opportunities for hourly workers to pursue a career within the company.

“We value and respect all the employees who work at McDonald's restaurants,” the company said in a statement. “The majority of McDonald’s restaurants in New York and across the country are owned and operated by independent business men and women.

“Both our company and franchised-owned restaurants work hard every day to treat McDonald's employees with dignity and respect. Employees are paid competitive wages and have access to a range of benefits to meet their individual needs.

“In addition, employees who want to go from crew to management can take advantage of a variety of training and professional development opportunities,” McDonald’s said.

Due to the foodservice industry’s high turnover rate, unions have been historically unsuccessful in their efforts to organize restaurant staffs. However, some experts predict that this is about to end as more unions — many of whom have seen their membership rosters decline over the years — step up their efforts to organize foodservice workers.

For example, while Fast Food Forward is New York-centric, restaurants in Chicago are now keeping an eye on a similar organization called the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago, whose website, fightfor15.org, says it is fighting for the same wages and benefits as Fast Food Forward.

Meanwhile, Fast Food Forward expects to continue its local efforts, said Jonathan Westin, organizing director of New York Communities for Change, one of the chief organizers of Fast Food Forward. In an earlier interview with Nation’s Restaurant News, Westin said Fast Food Forward is planning “new actions, rallies and press conferences — all sorts of actions this year.”
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Not for nothin' but a minimum wage job is not a career. The position may lead to a career later, but you have to work for it. While the wage is low, the purpose is to give a person something in order to get some cash so they work harder to excel and gain raises and improve their quality of life. Lower paying work teachs basic responsibilities and skills, promoting higher wages in the future. Forcing a company to give away more money and implementing a higher wage won't fix their low wage earners lifestyles. Dropping premium cable and their smartphone bills will. Television and portable facebook are not standards of living, they're luxury items. There are opportunities to improve your life everywhere, folks don't deserve a reward for being stagnant. A full time minimum wage paycheck WORKS if you live life MINIMALLY.

Raising the wage is just silly. Those cheap, low cost goods and services that folks want and get by on will become more expensive as the companies that have to produce them need to raise prices in order to pay their employees more money for the same or less productivity. Workers must produce more than they are paid. If they don't jobs are cut by the company forced to pay more for employment. If you really want those with the least education, training, skills, and experience suffer the most, make sure that the jobs they are suited for are eliminated.

Might wanna have a chat with the CEO of Costco. Granted they are different types of businesses, but arguing that raising wages will increase the cost of prices and thus negating the increase is not a black and white issue. And I like how you throw the workers onto the tracks...need to keep the peasants in line amiright?

I'm utterly against unions and I'm against paying people that perform unskilled labor a lot of money. With that said, inflation has driven the cost of everything up. So much so that $7.25 is no longer a fair wage. Businesses like McDonalds have a gigantic profit margin...huge. There isn't any reason they can't pay their employee's a few more bucks/hr or at least give employee's fair raises for loyalty and performance.

I don't live in NY, my cost of living is quite a bit less here in Dover. I spend more money on groceries than they are paid before taxes.

If you don't want Unification, pay your fcuking employees.

Have no skills and don't want to improve yourself so you are more marketable? Take your chump change for the chump job you do and STFU. Don't like it? Quit. Starve. Die. In conclusion, **** you.

I love your posts first thing in the morning

CT will be at 10.10 by 2017 and seattle just approved a hike to $15 . with that being said...

themadscientist wrote:Have no skills and don't want to improve yourself so you are more marketable? Take your chump change for the chump job you do and STFU. Don't like it? Quit. Starve. Die. In conclusion, **** you.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconno ... ssistance/
There must be a better way to compensate these low-skill jobs that benefits everybody.

Labor has a set VALUE. The dollar amount is just a function of the labor's intrinsic VALUE and the current dollar index. Set the minimum wage to whatever you like. What's fair? Lets come to a number, $15, $20? If you're using emotion to drive the argument, you're making a mistake. Back full circle, labor has a set value. You don't increase or decrease this value by modifying the price structure. The market will adjust, and you'll once again realize you're labor still has low value. It's a vicious circle. What gets me about this whole deal is, the consumer pool for the products offered by these workers are by and large the workers themselves. So they are inevitably causing their own cost of living to rise. There again, it's a cycle. Sure, for a brief stent they will have a bit more money in their pocket, but once the market corrects, they'll be back to feeling underpaid again. You have to find a way to increase the VALUE of your labor or time, not just artificially increase it's price index.

Good post Stebo!

Wow man, that was pretty awesome and does make a load of sense. This has to be what I agree with most:
"What gets me about this whole deal is, the consumer pool for the products offered by these workers are by and large the workers themselves."
and
" You have to find a way to increase the VALUE of your labor or time, not just artificially increase it's price index."

Addressing the first quote. Setting that value isn't easy though. The value of said commodity isn't going to be the same as its reflected price. Will that minimum wage earning consumer pay for a $12 Micky D's burger or (worse!) a $22 burger from TGI Fridays? The costs of those items are essentially labor costs. However, they also contain value costs- its easier & more convenient to drive through the window and snag a burger than it is to go home, fire up the pan, bland the meat, cook it, and finally consume it. You just paid $12 for a burger with little to no nutritional value that you have been told for years is a poor dietary choice. They're going to put themselves out of business.

The second quote is the American Dream, baby. You don't get nothin' that you don't earn. Make yourself valuable and your labor value will rise. The folks asking for this increase aren't valuable labor and when awarded a higher wage, will diminish the value of the product.

We're headed for an interesting cliff in this country and we're going to go back to only have the basics and essentials to live.