News

QSR workers plan to carry low-wage strikes into year two

December 1, 2014

Quick-service employees, and other workers from a variety of service-sector jobs, plan to strike Thursday in protest of low wages. The workers are planning for the strikes to be widespread – spanning 160 cities across the US – and picked Thursday for a reason: December 4 marks the two-year anniversary of the first organized strike by QSR employees at major chains in New York City.

Since that initial strike, the protests have spread throughout the country and internationally. Employees are specifically asking for $15 an hour, from the current federal minimum wage of $7.25.

According to a news release, Thursday will mark the first time striking QSR employees will be joined by airport baggage handlers, skycaps, aircraft cleaners and others. It will also mark the first time the strikes have taken place in Jackson, Mississippi, Knoxville, Tennessee and Buffalo, New York.

In the two years since the first strike, Seattle and San Francisco have since raised their minimum wage levels to $15. President Obama has asked for the federal limit to be raised to $10.10.

According to Bloomberg, foodservice workers in the US make an average of $9.08.

Industry response ahead of the strikes

International Franchise Association CEO Steve Caldeira called the planned strikes "politically motivated, staged and sponsored" by the SEIU and its affiliates. He said the protests are a way for unions to grow membership after steady declines "for decades."

"What the unions don’t seem to understand, or want to accept, is that the brand company has absolutely nothing to do with setting wages, and these protests are really harming the very same workers the labor unions are claiming to help. There is unequivocally no widespread, organic evidence that employees of any fast food franchises are walking out of their jobs on their own volition and these planned protests are the last thing business owners and the US economy need during this still fragile, uneven economic recovery. Unions should find other ways to grow their membership instead of on the backs of local franchise business owners, the actual hard-working folks who help to create two-thirds of all net, new jobs and career opportunities in America," he said in a press release.

McDonald's spokesperson Heidi Barker told Bloomberg that demonstrators are often paid for their participation in the "organized rallies."

She added that McDonald's and its franchisees support paying valued employees fair wages "aligned with a competitive marketplace," adding that any increase should be implemented over time to manage the impact.