Holding a microphone, Shymara Jones, a fast-food worker
at Popeyes, had a message for the politicians.
"We have to make sure our state representatives are
talking about $15 an hour," Jones, 22, of Philadelphia, said at a rainy
rally outside City Hall. "This is what they need to be talking about 24/7
if they want our vote."
Dubbing it a fast-food "strike," more than 100
restaurant workers in Philadelphia and many more around the nation on Tuesday
held rallies, protests, and marches, seeking a $15-an-hour minimum wage, a
union, and political power.
They were joined by home-care and airport workers,
janitors, and union leaders and organizers as well as advocates for low-wage
workers.
The groups chose Nov. 10 for their protests, a year ahead
of next year's Election Day, in a bid to signal the political potential of 64
million low-wage workers.
They cite a survey indicating that unregistered low-wage
workers would register to vote if a presidential candidate advocated for a $15
minimum wage.
U.S. Senate candidate Kathleen "Katie" McGinty
heard Jones' message. "I'm proud to be here to fight for $15,"
McGinty told a crowd of more than 100 huddled under umbrellas Tuesday
afternoon. A Democrat, she hopes to unseat Republican Sen. Patrick Toomey, who
has said minimum-raise increases will destroy jobs.
Newly elected City Councilwoman Helen Gym and State Sen.
Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery) also spoke.
The day's rallies were set to end in Milwaukee with
protests at the Republican presidential debate.
In general, GOP presidential candidates say that raising
the minimum wage above $7.25, the current federal minimum, would hurt job
growth.
The Democrats disagree. "Fast-food, home care, child
care workers: Your advocacy is changing our country for the better,"
presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton tweeted.
At a Washington rally, Democratic presidential candidate
Bernie Sanders told protesters they should be proud of what they have
accomplished and should continue the fight for $15 an hour and a union.
But "the simple truth is, these protests won't be
about workers or wages at all, but about the labor leaders who are pinning
their own professional hopes on unionizing fast-food workers," U.S.
Chamber of Commerce official Glenn Spencer wrote in a blog post circulated by
the chamber's media group.
"Selling union memberships to this sector would be a
huge revenue boost - worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually - for the
struggling union industry," Spencer added.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has
backed the three-year wage push.
In Philadelphia, the day of labor rallies opened at a
McDonald's at 31st Street and Allegheny Avenue, where some workers left their
jobs.
From there, a roving group moved to restaurants in North
Philadelphia before a Comcast protest at noon. The afternoon rally at City Hall
was capped by a wet march through Center City to a McDonald's at Broad and
Walnut Streets.
McDonald's worker Safiyyah Cotton, 22, didn't report for
her 10 a.m. shift at the McDonald's at 31st and Allegheny.
She earns $7.50 an hour and relies on food stamps to feed
herself and her son, 2.
"I like the fact that other workers - home-care
workers, airport workers, janitors - we have each other's back," she said.
"We all want the same thing."
Although Tuesday's main message was about raising wages
and political power, other groups, such as the Media Mobilizing Group, which
spearheaded the noon Comcast rally, were piggybacking on the day's events.
Security guards and bicycle police stopped about 20
protesters - and lunch-goers - from entering the food court below Comcast's
Center City headquarters.
The group wants Comcast to broaden access to low-cost
Internet for more low-income subscribers and to agree to pay prevailing wages
to its workers.
Comcast said it has connected 70,000 low-income families
to the Internet and provided 3,700 low-income residents with digital training.
SEIU Local 32BJ assembled a group of janitors to protest
at the U.S. headquarters of Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva Pharmaceutical
Industries Inc. in North Wales. The union, which represents janitors who clean
and maintain 170 suburban office buildings and manufacturing plants, is in the
middle of negotiations with a group of the buildings' owners.
The contract, which will expire Dec. 15, covers 1,400
janitors, who now earn an average of $12.35 an hour, the union said.
The union's beef? Teva, the union said, fired its union
cleaning contractor, replacing it with a nonunion employer, putting 10 union
janitors out of work.
Source: Philly.com
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