Fast Food Strike: Workers Walk Out In US Cities

Sky News ^ | July 29, 2013

[kevcol]

Staff at well known chains including McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and Wendy's were due to walk out on Monday in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, St Louis, Kansas City and Flint, Michigan.

They are calling on fast food restaurants to pay $15 per hour, which compares to the New York state average pay of $8.25 per hour and the minimum wage of $7.25.

The action is being organised by Fast Food Forward, a movement of employees from fast food outlets in New York City aimed at raising wages and increasing workers' rights

[yldstrk]

what about the buggy whip company?

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

:: the business ends up like the US automakers ::

The UAW contracts are structured as promises to manufacture a certain amount of vehicles that will sustain the payroll during the contract.

Note, there is little or no thought as to how many of those vehicles are actually sold during the contract.

[OneWingedShark]

Tip of the iceberg.

As the economy continues in Obamastall mode and people don’t see any next rungs on the ladder to grasp, they will inevitably radicalize and turn their energies towards squeezing everything they can possibly get out of their current job.

That may be a fair response for some of them; I know some companies have been taking a lot of advantage of the dearth of work and persuading people to work harder for less (maybe unpaid overtime?) because they're lucky to have a job — granted not all businesses have done that, but I'd b surprised if it was a very rare occurrence.

[lastchance]

Where I used to work I would have people come in and tell us what we required was “a bunch of shit” (stuff like having exit doors). I would calmly reply that I had mucked out plenty of stalls and was well acquainted with shit and I assured them this was not “shit”.

Judging by the appearance of most of those by not paying them $15.00 per hour companies are just saving them from themselves.

[dfwgator]

It cuts both ways, once the economy improves, those will be the first employees that will say, “See ya”, and take all their knowledge and skills with them.

[rarestia]

LMFAO! I love Idiocracy.

[TADSLOS]

LOL. Classic.

[OneWingedShark]

[californian by choice]

remember twinkys

[longtermmemmory]

I am surprised they are not demanding even more money.

Why not $20? Robert Reiiiiiche has advocated such a high minimum wage.

Why not then $50, $100, $200?

Perhaps the minimum wage should equal the President’s legal perscribed federal taxpayer provided salary.

[IMR 4350]

Fast food?

Does that mean taking a deer when it’s running?

[OneWingedShark]

It cuts both ways, once the economy improves, those will be the first employees that will say, “See ya”, and take all their knowledge and skills with them.

Maybe. Though I have noticed something in the past year-and-half od unemployment/underemployment; companies in my field [computer science] want cookie-cutter employees: even an entry-level job wants 2-5 years experience in the language and with the systems they're using (I've seen some that were 10 yrs) — what makes this even worse is that to cater to the wide range of applicants it's usually some sub-par language (C, C++, PHP, even C#^*)

That, in turn, leads to shoddy product-code. So, in the case of industries using programming, [it seems to me] it's very hard to find people who are truly into providing quality product — notable exceptions being safety-critical lives-directly-depend-on-it software [like the Boeing 777, or nuclear reactors].

^* C# does make an attempt to correct some of the mistakes of C-style language [particularly syntax] with things like forcing if-statements to take boolean-types or forcing switch-cases to use goto for fall-through; however, there are a lot of things that they left undone,, like forcing case-coverage on non-string switch-statements.

[nascarnation]

Remember when Pelosi and the Dems snarked at Bush for creating “McJobs”?

Now in the era of Baraq that’s supposed to be a career that supports a family.

[dhs12345]

Wait until Obamacare kicks in. Then, they’ll have something to complain about.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Assuming they can pass the drug test.

I talked with a franchise holder in Western Maryland who said 68% of her applicants fail.

[Boogieman]

That’s cool. Give me a hair net and I’ll throw my whopper in the microwave my damn self.

[Blue Ink]

Why all the contempt for people actually working a job?
Has anyone on this thread ever worked in fast food? I have. It’s physically exhausting.

And you geniuses so dismissive of the brain power of fast food workers would be fired off your first shift, because if you work the drive-through window, you have to be able to make change in your head. Most people in loftier professions can’t. I know this from experience.

Guess people who hate their jobs or are insecure about their own positions in the socioeconomic rat race need to smug it up toward people in hats and poly uniforms. Whatever makes you feel better...

[TexasGunLover]

And you geniuses so dismissive of the brain power of fast food workers would be fired off your first shift, because if you work the drive-through window, you have to be able to make change in your head. Most people in loftier professions can’t. I know this from experience.

Have you seen modern POS machines in the last 15 years? I have, and develop software for them. They all make change automatically, and most chain stores' POS's even eject the correct change.

[Myrddin]

I sometimes stopped at Jack in the Box in grad school. A new hire hottie had a temp Dymo tape name tag: “M Toast”. The permanent engraved tag arrived the following week: “Melba”.

[American in Israel]

I fix robots, and they pay me a lot more than the burger flipper. A whole lot more.