Wage Strikes Planned at Fast-Food Outlets

Seeking to increase pressure on McDonald’s, Wendy’s and other fast-food restaurants, organizers of a movement demanding a $15-an-hour wage for fast-food workers say they will sponsor one-day strikes in 100 cities on Thursday and protest activities in 100 additional cities.

Enlarge This Image

Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times

Protesters outside a Taco Bell in Michigan in July.

Related

• Life on $7.25 an Hour (December 1, 2013)

As the movement struggles to find pressure points in its quest for substantially higher wages for workers, organizers said strikes were planned for the first time in cities like Charleston, S.C.; Providence, R.I.; and Pittsburgh.

The protests have expanded greatly since November 2012, when 200 fast-food workers engaged in a one-day strike at more than 20 restaurants in New York City, the first such walkout in the history of the nation’s fast-food industry.

“There’s been pretty huge growth in one year,” said Kendall Fells, one of the movement’s main organizers. “People understand that a one-day strike is not going to get them there. They understand that this needs to continue to grow.”

The movement, which includes the groups Fast Food Forward and Fight for 15, is part of a growing union-backed effort by low-paid workers — including many Walmart workers and workers for federal contractors — that seeks to focus attention on what the groups say are inadequate wages.

The fast-food effort is backed by the Service Employees International Union and is also demanding that restaurants allow workers to unionize without the threat of retaliation.

Can We Pay a Minimum Wage That Makes Everyone Rich?

Last week, fast-food workers staged a one-day strike in 60 U.S. cities to demand a minimum wage of $15 an hour, more than double the current federal minimum of $7.25. The nationwide effort, “Fight for 15,” was organized by the Service Employees International Union.

I feel bad for those who are relegated to a minimum-wage job. I feel worse for those who want a minimum-wage job as a steppingstone to something better and would be denied that opportunity by the imposition of a higher wage floor. A higher wage is great for the workers who keep their jobs; it isn’t so great for those who wouldn’t get hired because McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) starts asking its existing workforce to do a bit more. With a higher minimum wage, the cost of automating certain tasks suddenly becomes more affordable.

Raising the minimum wage to lift people out of poverty has the opposite effect. So why does an idea that violates the most basic principle of economics keep coming back to haunt us? It may appeal to our humanitarian instincts, but as social policy, it fails the test.

Let’s start with the basics. As with any good or service, there is a supply of, and demand for, labor. Supply and demand meet at what’s known as the equilibrium price. The unintended consequences of setting a cap or a floor on prices have been well documented. Many economics textbooks use New York City’s rent-control laws to demonstrate the effect of price caps: a supply shortage as landlords keep apartments off the market rather than lease them at a below-market rate. The lack of supply also gives them the power to charge above-market rates on apartments that aren’t subject to rent control.

Via: Bloomberg

Continue Reading....

Rush Limbaugh: Labor strike should target Barack Obama

While the fast-food strike has drawn much buzz from the media, Rush Limbaugh isn’t going to be swayed, saying that those striking have been “organized” and that the protests are “staged.”

“The question really is: Are these people doing this on their own or have they been organized? The obvious answer is they’ve been organized. Once you see them say, ‘Si, se puede,’ and attacking the minimum wage, you know it,” the conservative radio host said on his Thursday show according to a transcript. “But it’s Obamacare. It’s Obama’s economy that they should be protesting. Obama’s economy, Obamacare is what has led to whatever circumstances make them unhappy.”

Limbaugh said that this type of acceptance of a president with the current state of the nation would not be the case, if the country were being run by a Republican, saying that protesters had been taught to blame Republicans, using a vocal protester, Taisha Backs, as his example.

(Also on POLITICO: Fast food strike takes over 60 cities)

“She’s had the government of her choice for coming on five years now, and yet she’s still mad at people who don’t have any power to affect her at all, at least not in politics,” he said. “This woman’s obviously mad at the Republicans. That’s what she’s been told to be. But the point is that none of them blame Obama. They’re livid.”

Limbaugh also had one more thing for the discontent strikers to think about — immigration, saying it would be “fun” to see the situation the employees would find themselves in if amnesty were given to people who would be willing to do the jobs for less pay.

Via: Politico

Continue Reading....

National fast-food wage protests kick off in New York

NEW YORK -- Beginning a day of protests that organizers say will spread to 50 cities and 1,000 stores across the country, a crowd of chanting workers gathered Thursday morning at aMcDonald's in midtown Manhattan to call for higher wages and the chance to join a union.

About 500 people, including workers, activists, religious leaders, news crews and local politicians, gathered outside the McDonald's on Fifth Avenue. The protesters chanted "Si Se Puede" ("Yes, We Can") and "Hey, hey, ho, ho $7.25 has got to go," holding signs saying "On Strike: Can't Survive on $7.25," referring to the federal minimum wage.

The protesters plan to spread out to other stores throughout New York during the day. Protests are also expected in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, N.C., and other cities.

'UNREALISTIC'? Experts face off on $15 wage

Meanwhile, the Employment Policies Institute, a Washington-based think tank, has placed a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal with a picture of a robot making what looks like pancakes. It explains that restaurants have to reduce their costs of service to keep prices low, which might mean switching to robots if wages get too high.

"Why Robots Could Soon Replace Fast Food Workers Demanding a Higher Minimum Wage," the ad reads.

The fast-food protests began in New York on Nov. 29. There have been three protests in New York since then, and they have spread to Chicago and other cities. Thursday's protest is to mark the first for fast-food workers in Los Angeles and other cities.

Via: LA Times

Continue Reading....