Fast food, Walmart, low-wage workers strike for $15 and a union

NYC Teamsters, JC 16 Pres. George Miranda stand with #Fightfor15 protesters

Low-wage workers toiling at the bottom of the economic ladder are striking back again today. This time fast food, retail and childcare workers -- among others -- are hitting 200 cities and 30 countries all at once, demanding living wages and union rights!

Teamsters and other union members are standing in solidarity with low-wage workers because we know the increase in poverty-wage jobs is a drag on middle-class wages, including those of union members. And most people working low-wage jobs are not high school students -- they are middle-aged mothers and fathers who have been pushed to the bottom thanks to a three-decade assault on workers' wages and living standards.

Today's protests and strikes are expanding the scope of the movement, both geographically and by industry. A USA Today article gives us a snapshot of today's mass protests:

It was an unusual coalition of low-wage workers taking shape on Wednesday, from home care workers in Raleigh-Durham to adjunct faculty members in Chicago. Fast-food workers protested in Miami even as peers in Washington, D.C. announced early Wednesday the filing of a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

There was support overseas, too, as strikes organized in coordination with the U.S. strikes took place in New Zealand along with fast-food worker protests in Antwerp, Helsinki and several cities in Japan, organizers say.

The timing of the strikes on Tax Day is intentional, [Kendall] Fells [organizing director of Fight for $15] said, to focus public attention on the strain that low wages place on public budgets and taxpayers when working families are forced to rely on public assistance. 

#Fightfor15 protests in LA.

Since the "Fight for 15" movement took off two years ago, issues of income inequality and low wages have dominated the national spotlight. A number of states and cities have raised their minimum wages. The protests have pushed Walmart to raise wages for some of its lowest paid workers, followed by McDonald's efforts to head off protests with a very modest increase for a small portion of its workforce.

At the New York Times, former labor reporter Steven Greenhouse explains why today's protests matter:

The more people who get involved, the more pressure that puts on cities and states to raise the minimum wage. It is good for unions and their members because it is bringing back and reinspiring collective action.

Brinks Security workers walk off job in Chicago today.

In a column at In These Times today, United Steel Workers President Leo Gerard underscored why this is such an important fight for labor:

Dominic Flis, whose company owns 18 Burger Kings in central Arkansas, said raising the minimum wage pushes up pay for other workers too.

“If somebody was already making $7.50, and minimum wage goes to $7.50, they’ll have some expectation of a raise as well,” Flis said. “And I have to maintain my workforce.”

IBT VP-At-Large George
Miranda #Fightfor15

The Brookings Institute calls this the ripple effect. The pay increase at the bottom ripples all the way up the pay scale.

[Kip] Hedges, [a] fired Delta worker, put it another way: “a lot of the better paid workers also understand that the bottom has to be raised otherwise the top is going to fall as well.”

If for no other reason than self-interest, join the gutsy minimum-wage workers at a Fight for $15 event Wednesday.

Go to www.April15.org to continue following (and join!) today's Fight for 15 protests.

Solidarity with low-wage workers everywhere!

Today's Teamster News 05.23.14

Have a wonderful holiday, everyone! TeamsterNation will be on hiatus over the Memorial Day holiday. We'll see you again Tuesday morning!
Teamster News
Youngstown Approves Pacts With 2 Employee Unions  Insurance News Net   ...City council approved contracts with two labor unions that provide salary increases for the first time in about four years. The deals with Teamsters Local 377, which represents 30 street department workers...
Trade
TTIP: EU And US Prepare To Enhance Global Corporatocracy With Free Trade Deal  International Business Times   ...Belgian MP Alain Maron, who was one of the 200 arrested in Belgium last Thursday, May 15, as an unauthorized protest against TTIP broke out in Brussels, branded the deal "an erosion of consumer and human rights."...
State Battles
Two Ways Chris Christie Screwed Over Pensioners for GOP Donors  In These Times   ...Christie isn't being forced to renege on the pension payment—he's choosing to spend money on corporate subsidies and investment fees rather than on those pension promises...
EXCLUSIVE: We name the political donors whose firms got $14bn of pension cash from New Jersey  Pando   ...political donors associated with 43 financial firms managing New Jersey pension money have spent a total of $11.6 million on contributions to New Jersey politicians and to major political organizations operating in New Jersey elections...
Koch Brothers' Detroit Abomination: Stunning Avarice And Cruelty Reaches New Low  Salon.com   ...After much controversy and debate, Michigan's Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has agreed to provide $195 million in state funding that will limit pension cuts to no more than 4.5 percent and protect the Detroit Institute of Art from liquidating its collection. "This is a settlement. This is not a bailout." Snyder said. "And I want to be very, very clear about that." Not so fast Gov. Snyder. Americans for Prosperity has built a shiny new website...
War On Workers
Just Released: What Kinds of Jobs Have Been Created during the Recovery?  Liberty Street Economics   ...during the recession, the vast majority of jobs that were lost in the nation and across the region were middle-skill jobs, such as construction workers, teachers, machine operators, and administrative support workers. These jobs have not come back during the recovery...
Students Now Indentured to the Banksters  Truthout   ...Back in January, 31-year-old Tony Muzzatti, who at the time owed around $60,000 in student loan debt to Sallie Mae and always made on-time payments, was told that he had to immediately make a payment of $10,000, or face asset seizures. That's because his grandmother, who also happened to be his cosigner on the student loans, had just died...
Business That Bashed Obama's OSHA Just Had Horrifying Industrial Accident  Huffington Post   ...During the 2012 presidential campaign, Wisconsin businessman Lance Johnson said President Barack Obama's workplace safety inspectors were burdening him and killing jobs with too much red tape. "I've never been audited by more government agencies in my life than I have under Obama." Johnson, president of Johnson Brass & Machine Foundry Inc. in Saukville, Wisconsin, told the Wall Street Journal in a Nov. 2, 2012 campaign story. On Monday, Johnson's foundry was the site of a horrifying industrial accident...
Cutting Off Emergency Unemployment Benefits Hasn't Pushed People Back To Work  Five Thirty Eight   ...Of the roughly 1.3 million Americans whose benefits disappeared with the end of the program, only a quarter had found jobs as of March, about the same success rate as when the program was still in effect; roughly another quarter had given up searching...
Larry Summers: Student Debt Is Slowing The U.S. Housing Recovery  Wall Street Journal   ...Former White House adviser Lawrence Summers said Wednesday that student debt is slowing the housing recovery and the broader economic recovery, adding a prominent voice to the debate in Washington...
Over 100 McDonald's Workers Arrested Protesting Outside Shareholder Meeting  Think Progress   ...More than 100 workers and dozens of other protesters were arrested during peaceful protests outside McDonald's corporate headquarters on Wednesday. On Thursday, a thousand McDonald's workers and their supporters are marching on the company's Oak Brook, Illinois campus...
Sallie Mae Torments Faithful Student Borrowers After Co-Signers Die  Huffington Post   ...Seven borrowers who had been paying their Sallie Mae student loans on time for years were unexpectedly threatened with asset seizures after a Sallie Mae contractor demanded they immediately repay tens of thousands of dollars simply because a family member had died...
Miscellaneous
Ray LaHood Declares U.S. Highways ‘One Big Pothole’ at ALK Summit  Truckinginfo   ...Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood opened the second day of the ALK Technology Summit in Princeton, N.J., on Wednesday by telling attendees that while the U.S. is "the greatest country in the world [our] transportation and infrastructure is a big mess..."
NSA reform bill loses backing from privacy advocates after major revisions  The Guardian   ...A landmark surveillance bill, likely to pass the US House of Representatives on Thursday, is hemorrhaging support from the civil libertarians and privacy advocates who were its champions from the start...

Fast food strikes continue to sweep the nation

Today’s national fast-food workers strike is going strong with reports rolling in from more cities joining the protests.

Organizers say the walkouts have spread to 60 cities:

Alameda, CA; Atlanta; Aurora, CO; Austin, TX; Ballwin, MO; Belleville, Ill; Berkeley, CA; Bloomington, Ill; Boston; Charlotte; Chicago; Columbia, MO; Dallas; Denver; Detroit; Durham; East St. Louis, Ill; Flint; Fremont, CA; Greensboro; Gretna, LA; Hartford; Hayward, CA; Houston; Indianapolis; Kansas City, MO; Lansing; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Madison, WI; Manchester, CT; Memphis; Milwaukee; Missoula, MT; Newark, CA; New Orleans; New York; Northglenn, CO; North Las Vegas; Oakland; Richmond, CA; Peoria; Phoenix; Pontiac, MI; Raleigh; Richmond, CA; San Diego; San Leandro, CA; San Lorenzo, CA.; Seattle; Springfield, Ill; St. Louis; Tacoma, WA; Tampa; Topeka, KS; Wausau, WI; West Haven, CT; and Wilmington, DE.

The workers are not alone. Many Teamsters across the country are standing in solidarity with strikers, including UPS Teamsters in Atlanta this morning.



UPS Teamster David Allen supporting fast food workers

Elected officials are linking arms with fast-food workers on the picket line, too. Rep. Jan Schakowsky joined striking workers in Chicago this morning.

The impact of the strikes is being felt in Michigan: 

It's only 10 a.m. in the Motor City, but striking fast food employees say they've already gained a victory. CBS Radio reports that a McDonald's restaurant located at Eight Mile Road and Lahser closed this morning after workers walked off the job.

According to reports on social media, employees at other McDonald's locations and a Church's Chicken in the city, as well as a Checkers restaurant in nearby Lincoln Park, Mich. A spokesman for organizing group D15 told The Huffington Post that fast-food employees are also striking Thursday in Pontiac, Lansing and Flint.

A St. Louis activist tweeted this morning:

A 2nd location shut down at 7am RT @LowPayIsNotOK Workers shut down this McDonald's in STL 

New York Times columnist Steven Greenhouse writes on Twitter:

Organizers say fast-food strikes have spread to 60 cities. Here in St Louis, shutdown of a Hardees counter

And Tiffany Hsu from the Los Angeles Times tweeted: 

#FastFoodStrike - dozens march outside a South LA #BurgerKing at the crack of dawn for $15/hr minimum wage

In Chicago, there are reports on Twitter of workers outside the iconic downtown Rock N' Roll McDonald's.

And here’s a picture of a father in New Orleans on strike for his kids.

The Low Pay is Not Okay Facebook page includes comments from workers in more than 30 cities that have joined today’s #829Strike – and the day isn’t halfway over yet!

Today’s labor protests build on walkouts in July that took place in several cities, with dozens of more cities expanding the reach of the strikes to the West Coast and into the South. The momentum of the fast-food workers’ movement and low-wage workers’ struggle in general is growing fast.

Today is shaping up to be a historic day in the labor fight for raises and rights on the job. We’ll keep you posted on strike developments throughout the day.

Keep standing strong, brothers and sisters!

Federal govt. has more low-wage workers than Wal-Mart, McDonald's combined

Today in Washington, D.C.

And today Teamsters are joining hundreds of them in Washington, D.C., rallies to protest their low wages.

The federal workers are on strike for the day and picketing in front of the National Air and Space Museum, the Old Post Office, Union Station and the Ronald Reagan Trade Center. DCist reports,

Groups of workers employed in service jobs at federal buildings around D.C. are picketing this morning outside the landmark sites at which they are employed over their low wages. The protest, organized by a new group calling itself Good Jobs Nation, includes people who work at federal building food courts, loading docks, memorabilia shops, and facilities that manufacture uniforms for the military. 

The demonstration started about 7 a.m. outside the Ronald Reagan Building, with more than 100 participants filling the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and 13th Street NW during the morning rush. 

It's the sixth one-day strike by low-wage workers in recent months. Fast-food and retail employees have walked off the job in New York, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis and Milwaukee to protest poverty-level wages.

A report released by Demos exposes the millions of government jobs that don't pay enough to live on:

...Through federal contracts and other funding, our tax dollars are fueling the low-wage economy and exacerbating inequality. Hundreds of billions of dollars in federal contracts, grants, loans, concession agreements and property leases go to private companies that pay low wages, provide few benefits, and offer employees little opportunity to work their way into the middle class. At the same time, many of these companies are providing their executives with exorbitant compensation. 

We find that nearly two million private sector employees working on behalf of America earn wages too low to support a family, making $12 or less per hour. This is more than the number of low-wage workers at Walmart and McDonalds combined.1 Yet, if anything, this figure underestimates the total number of poorly-paid workers funded by our tax dollars. Our analysis encompasses U.S. workers employed by government contractors, paid by federal health care spending, supported by Small Business Administration loans, working on federal construction grants, and maintaining buildings leased by the federal government. This encompasses the largest share of poorly-paid workers funded by our taxes. However, other streams of funding have yet to be analyzed. For example, loans and subsidies from the Department of Agriculture fund giant agribusinesses that employ more than a million farm workers, while grants from the Department of Education fund low-wage assistant teachers, bus monitors and cooks in Head Start and other programs. Due to lack of data, retail and food service workers for concessionaires of the National Parks Service and other federal agencies also fall outside our analysis.

Josh Eidelson at The Nation also reports:

In September 2010, the Government Accountability Office issued a report concluding that the government had paid $6 billion in fiscal year 2009 federal contracts to contractors who had been cited for violations of federal labor laws. Seven months earlier, The New York Times reported that the Obama administration was planning to issue a “High Road Procurement Policy” that could “disqualify more companies with labor, environmental or other violations and give an edge to companies that offer better levels of pay, health coverage, pensions and other benefits” in securing federal contracts. But such a move never came to pass.

Good Jobs Nation is asking President Obama to sign an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay living wages. You can sign the petition here.

The Teamsters are supporting the strike through the Change to Win federation. Change to Win supports strikes by non-union workers who work in Wal-Mart stores, Wal-Mart warehouses, on sub-contracted cleaning crews in Minneapolis-St. Paul Target stores and in fast food restaurants.