Hundreds of fast food workers in New York City will walk off the job Thursday to protest low wages.
The move is part of a campaign to unionize franchises in New York and raise wages to $15 an hour.
know people who have been there seven, eight years and they only make about 50 cents more than I do,” said Joseph Barrera, who makes $7.25 an hour at a KFC in Richmond Hill, Queens. “At this point I’m so fed up.”
Organizers with the Fast Food Forward campaign have met with workers at local McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, Wendy’s and Domino’s Pizza locations.
People patronize fast-food joints not just for the speed of service but also for the low cost. Fast and cheap make for a winning combination. Nobody is going to eat at a place and pay the prices a restaurant would have to charge for its food if it had to pay $15-an-hour salaries. When I worked at McDonald's as a grubby little high schooler, I was paid the gigantic sum of 85 cents an hour (yeah, yeah, I know, really dating myself). If anybody had suggested we go on strike to demand $1, I'd have thought they were insane.
But, hey, talk about changing times:
With colleges producing more graduates, and youth unemployment at a sky-high 11.5 percent, even landing a job selling Big Macs is getting competitive.
Consider: A job opening at a Massachusetts McDonald's restaurant for a full-time cashier requires one to two years experience and a bachelor's degree.
At least they'll get somebody who knows how to make change. Maybe.
