NEW YORK (AP) - Fast-food labor organizers say they're
expanding the scope of their campaign for $15 an hour and unionization, this
time with a day of actions including other low-wage workers and demonstrations
on college campuses.
Kendall Fells, organizing director for Fight for $15,
said Tuesday the protests will take place April 15 and are planned to include
actions on about 170 college campuses, as well as cities around the country and
abroad.
At an event announcing the actions in front of a
McDonald's in New York City's Times Square, organizers said home health care
aides, airport workers, adjunct professors, child care workers and Wal-Mart
workers will be among those turning out in April.
Terrence Wise, a Burger King worker from Kansas City,
Missouri, and a national leader for the Fight for $15 push, said more than
2,000 groups including Jobs With Justice and the Center for Popular Democracy
will turn out to show their support as well.
"This will be the biggest mobilization America has
seen in decades," Wise said at the rally as pedestrians walked past on the
busy street.
The plans are a continuation of a campaign that began in
late 2012. The push is being spearheaded by the Service Employees International
Union and has included demonstrations around the country to build public
support for raising pay for fast-food and other low-wage workers, although
turnout has varied from city to city. Last May, the campaign reached the
doorsteps of McDonald's headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois, where protesters
were arrested after declining to leave the property ahead of the company's
annual meeting.
Fells, an SEIU employee, said April 15 was picked for the
next day of actions because workers are fighting "for fifteen."
"It's a little play on words," he said.
Fells noted that while the push began as a fast-food
worker movement, it has morphed into a low-wage worker movement and is now
shifting into a social movement with the involvement of "Black Lives
Matter" groups joining in in the April protests. Still, he said McDonald's
Corp. remained a primary target.
"McDonald's needs to come to the table because they
could settle this issue," he said.
In a statement, McDonald's said it respects people's
right to peacefully protest, but added that the demonstrations over the past
two years have been "organized rallies designed to garner media
attention" and that "very few" McDonald's workers have
participated.
In addition to the ongoing demonstrations, organizers
have been working on multiple fronts to make the legal case that McDonald's
Corp. should be held accountable for working conditions at its franchised
restaurants. That finding is seen as critical in being able to negotiate on
behalf of workers across the chain, rather than dealing with the thousands of
franchisees who operate the majority of McDonald's more than 14,000 U.S.
restaurants.
McDonald's and other fast-food chains have maintained
that they're not responsible for hiring and employment decisions at franchised
locations.
One closely watched case addressing the matter began this
week, when the National Labor Relations Board began hearings on complaints
filed by worker groups over alleged labor violations at McDonald's restaurants.
The board's general counsel had said last year that McDonald's could be named
as a joint employer along with franchisees in the complaints.
The hearing is scheduled to resume May 26 and is set to
be a lengthy legal battle. Whichever side loses is expected to appeal, with the
possibility of the case eventually heading to the Supreme Court.
In a statement, McDonald's has said the board's decision
to name McDonald's as a joint employer "improperly strikes at the heart of
the franchise system."
"The SEIU put a target on McDonald's back more than
two years ago; the Board has now joined in taking aim, and has done so by
managing the McDonald's case in an unprecedented manner," the statement
said.
Source: Philly.com
No comments:
Post a Comment