Fast food workers take to streets to demand $15 minimum wage

The Hill ^ | 09/04/2014 | Tim Devaney

[SeekAndFind]

Dozens of fast food workers have been arrested at protests around the country where they are demanding higher pay at popular restaurants such as McDonald's, Burger King and Domino's.

Fast food workers in New York City, Chicago, Detroit and possibly more cities were arrested for blocking traffic in front of restaurants early Thursday morning, while thousands more continued protesting peacefully, according to news reports.

Backed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), fast food workers in 150 cities are walking off the job and picking up picket signs to demand that they be paid no less than $15 per hour. This is the seventh strike organized by the Fast Food Forward campaign since November 2012, when the campaign began. "At Thursday’s strike, fast food restaurants will see firsthand that workers are willing to do whatever it takes to win $15 and union rights,” said Kendall Fells, the organizing director at Fast Food Forward, which receives funding from the SEIU.

The fast food workers started the demonstrations early Thursday morning. At a McDonald's in New York City's Times Square, about 300 people showed up to protest, with reports indicating at least 19 were arrested.

In Detroit, about 200 fast food workers protested outside a McDonald's on the east side of the city with 42 people being arrested, according to reports.

The demonstrations also spread to Chicago, where about 150 fast food workers protested outside a popular Windy City McDonald's with another 23 being arrested.

The fast food workers said earlier this week that some were planning to be arrested during the protests. In many cases, they were arrested for blocking traffic, while people who picketed peacefully were not taken into custody.

The restaurant workers say anything less than $15 an hour is not a livable wage.

[DTA]

>>>>Automation is the answer<<<<<<

Until there is automation, not eating in fast food joints paying slave wages is the answer.

Think about your salad being prepared by $8 hr slave who can not afford calling sick and sneezing and dripping in your salad. Bon apetit!

Think about someone who can not afford enough personal hygiene touching your food.

Last but not least, think about what is really in the soda fountain.

[FlingWingFlyer]

There sure is a lot of “demanding” going on out there these days. Somebody needs their @$$es kicked.

[FlingWingFlyer]

That 15 bucks isn’t going to go very far once the union thugs take their cut. LOL! Idiots.

[Gen.Blather]

In the case of Europe, I don’t think the unemployment driver is the minimum wage. It’s the dole that goes on for years. A Frenchman I know had five small companies and the taxes (which are paid in advance of revenue and estimated for you by the government) were killing him. But if laid off the employees he owed them five years pay and benefits. They were barely working as it was. One Friday, he locked the doors and immigrated to the US.

The problems France and much of that area have is that it’s easier to live on the dole than it is to work. (Then, they work for cash so it doesn’t hurt their benefits and then they drive to Switzerland and convert their money to more solid Swiss currency.)

[rockrr]

At a McDonald's in New York City's Times Square, about 300 people showed up to protest, with reports indicating at least 19 were arrested.

They'll need that $15/hr to pay their bail.

[pfflier]

Dozens. Is that kinda like the million man march?

[thackney]

http://momentummachines.com/

Fast food doesn’t have to have a negative connotation anymore. With our technology, a restaurant can offer gourmet quality burgers at fast food prices.Our alpha machine frees up all of the hamburger line cooks in a restaurant.It does everything employees can do except better:

It slices toppings like tomatoes and pickles immediately before it places the slice onto your burger, giving you the freshest burger possible.

Our next revision will offer custom meat grinds for every single customer. Want a patty with 1/3 pork and 2/3 bison ground to order? No problem.

Also, our next revision will use gourmet cooking techniques never before used in a fast food restaurant, giving the patty the perfect char but keeping in all the juices.
It’s more consistent, more sanitary, and can produce ~360 hamburgers per hour.

The labor savings allow a restaurant to spend approximately twice as much on high quality ingredients and the gourmet cooking techniques make the ingredients taste that much better.

[molson209]

When Obama gets back to the US and hears about this he will demand that Holder investigate ALL Police and then he’ll go on a Minimum Wage Tour

[Organic Panic]

Among those hauled away was Tyree Johnson. He said he earns $8.45 an hour after working at a Chicago McDonald's for more than two decades.

Tyree my man. God bless you for working a job for 22 years. But dude. After 22 years and you're still an entry level employee at McDonalds you have NO ONE to blame but yourself. After 22 years you passed up every single opportunity McDonalds offers and didn't even bother to climb the corporate ladder. Surely McDonalds offers education programs, training programs, profit sharing, management positions, regional management, franchise opportunities for someone as dedicated as you are. 22 years? Really? Heck. Knowing what a dedicated employee you are I will DOUBLE your pay and train you to be a tool and die maker if I knew I could depend on you for 20 more years. But to be honest Tyree, it doesn't sound like you are the least bit motivated to achieve more than you have. There's nothing wrong with that if you're happy doing an entry level job at entry level pay your whole life. But don't expect to be handed your 15 an hour for doing nothing but sitting on the street, complaining, and getting arrested. And let me let you in on a little secret Tyree. Those SEIU thugs you're protesting with... They're gonna take part of your entry level wage to lobby Obama so that they can fire you and replace you with a lower cost illegal immigrant that just got amnesty.

[faithhopecharity]

an honest union (please don’t spam .. there have been some).......would not try to lead these workers out on strike.

these workers (at least the order takers and cashiers) are so easily replaced nowadays....
any intelligent business person would do so, if faced with a strike....

http://www.fiveguys.com/order-online.aspx

https://orderapp.rrtusa.net/location/thehabit/207/default.aspx?m=414

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Maybe they could bring back these?

http://abeautifulbar.com/automat_1902.jpg

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Sorry with image posted:

[cherry]

I am thankful that I have a better paying job then $9 an hr....

and I appreciate that we are a service econonmy and these "little" people provide so much ease and comfort and convenience for us...the starbuck employees, the McDonalds, the pizza delievery folks....

we NEED them and I certainly appreciate them....

but those are entry level jobs, or second jobs for people that need the money...I don't think anyone thinks you start at McDonalds and expect to stay there your entire life....(btw, managers can make good money)..

don't these people realize that there are machines being investigated that will replace most of them?

[2ndDivisionVet]

Robot hamburger factory makes 360 Gourmet Burgers every hour...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3100817/posts

Watch This Vending Machine Make Pizza
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3159855/posts

[themidnightskulker]

The formula for a successful restaurant expenditures I was taught in college was 30% utilities+ 30% supplies+ 30% wages= 10% profit.

If you increase any expenditure without adding any cost or greatly reducing quality, your profit goes down. (econ 101)

I have worked in restaurants where the profit margin was much lower than 10%.

These places will close when you double the cost of labor.
Of course the big chains wont do so well either.

When all of the businesses go out of business, who will be able to buy the products that no one will be able to sell?

[Quality_Not_Quantity]

They should take it to school. Want a better paying job? Learn a trade or profession.

Better yet, teach them basic economics and make them calculate a pro forma P&L statement based on the new cost structure.

Then, force them to take it up another level to see what tolerance investors have in under-performing companies.

Finally, let them raise prices at the retail level and have them determine how much less business there will be, the overall effects on the economy, etc.

They'd be better off doing what you suggested - and so would we.

[cherry]

yup...two married people making $8/hr get all sorts of kickbacks from the govt.....

some of these people will loose their tax credit for not making much money, maybe it'll affect their food stamps.....

now wouldn't that be rich?

[sickoflibs]

Obviously those cities have too high of employment, or too low of unemployment.

Last time I ate regular McDs or Burger King ws in the 1990s Burger wars when Whoppers and Big Macs were going for $1 per.

They almost bankrupted each other.

But I can see who bringing the kids to those places instead of cooking seems attractive. My parents used to do it sometimes.

[themidnightskulker]

My favorite line from Demolition Man is “now all restaurants are Taco Bell.”

[faithhopecharity]

Not only are the cashiers, order takers so EASILY replaceable.
They can be replaced by a mere sign,
“please order at our website , or using our app, on your cellphone”

(possibly with a couple of courtesy ordering machines just for the very few visitors without cell phones)

BUT it is not only the cashiers and order takers that are replaceable. Most of the kitchen staff can be replaced now, too, and the investment cost is looking far more attractive every day (and will be a NO BRAINER if the minimum wage is raised even higher)....

http://singularityhub.com/2013/01/22/robot-serves-up-340-hamburgers-per-hour/

any union that leads these workers out on strike is a very very irresponsible outfit.... all the union will accomplish is to have these people replaced by automation

since the technology is already here