Author Topic: Fast-food workers plan acts of civil disobedience  (Read 382 times)

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rangerrebew

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Fast-food workers plan acts of civil disobedience
« on: September 02, 2014, 01:49:40 pm »

Fast-food workers plan acts of civil disobedience
 

By Candice Choi September 1 at 7:09 PM


NEW YORK — McDonald’s, Wendy’s and other fast-food restaurants are expected to be targeted with acts of civil disobedience that could lead to arrests Thursday as labor organizers escalate their campaign to unionize the industry’s workers.

Kendall Fells, an organizing director for Fast Food Forward, said in an interview that workers in a couple of dozen cities were trained to peacefully engage in civil disobedience ahead of this week’s planned protests.

Fells declined to say what exactly is in store for the protests in around 150 U.S. cities. But workers involved in the movement recently cited sit-ins as an example of strategies they could use to intensify their push for higher pay and unionization. Past protests have targeted a couple of restaurants in each city.

The “Fight for $15” campaign is being backed by the Service Employees International Union and has gained national attention at a time when growing income disparities have become a hot political issue.

President Obama and others have said raising wages for those at the bottom of the economic ladder could help strengthen the middle class.


Many fast-food workers, for instance, do not make much more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. That equates to about $15,000 a year for working 40 hours a week.

But workers are often subject to unpredictable schedules and don’t know how many hours they’ll be given from week to week, since restaurants are careful to avoid paying overtime.

The fast-food campaign is designed to bring attention to such hardships, which few customers think about when buying burgers and fries, said Catherine Fisk, a professor of labor law at the University of California in Irvine. Over time, she said, that could help “change the mindset” about fast-food jobs, which have historically been seen as difficult to unionize.
 
“The goal is to persuade workers that it doesn’t have to be this way. The goal is to persuade consumers that it doesn’t have to be this way,” she said. “This is about getting attention to the issue.”

Fisk noted that mining and manufacturing jobs also once were considered low-wage jobs with dim prospects.

That changed in the 1930s, however, after legal protections for unionizing and actions by fed-up workers helped transform the jobs into more middle-class professions.

The National Restaurant Association said in a statement that the fast-food protests are attempts by unions “to boost their dwindling membership.” The industry lobbying group said it hopes organizers will be respectful to customers and workers during the protests this week.


So far, the campaign and a similar effort on behalf of Wal-Mart workers have been effectively handled by BerlinRosen, a public relations firm known for its political work. Since the protests began in late 2012, organizers have kept the issue in the spotlight by switching up their tactics every few months.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/fast-food-workers-plan-acts-of-peaceful-civil-disobedience/2014/09/01/acf4f38e-3228-11e4-a723-fa3895a25d02_story.html?tid=pm_business_pop&wp_login_redirect=0
« Last Edit: September 02, 2014, 01:50:20 pm by rangerrebew »

Offline flowers

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Re: Fast-food workers plan acts of civil disobedience
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2014, 04:03:18 pm »
Good grief. Fools


Offline flowers

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Re: Fast-food workers plan acts of civil disobedience
« Reply #2 on: September 02, 2014, 04:06:10 pm »
They get this most of them will be unemployed the same year it goes into effect. No way fast food places aren't going to jack up prices.


Online mountaineer

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Re: Fast-food workers plan acts of civil disobedience
« Reply #3 on: September 02, 2014, 04:19:02 pm »
I drove by a McDonald's yesterday that had a sign outside advertising starting wages of $8/hr.

Quote
Many fast-food workers, for instance, do not make much more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. That equates to about $15,000 a year for working 40 hours a week.
And that, leftist morons, is why minimum wage jobs generally are for entry-level and unskilled jobs. If you want higher pay, work hard, improve your skills and get an education (no, not women's studies, something applicable to a real-world job).
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Offline rb224315

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Re: Fast-food workers plan acts of civil disobedience
« Reply #4 on: September 02, 2014, 04:30:40 pm »
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acts of civil disobedience that could lead to arrests

This, instead of "acts of self improvement and education that could lead to increased skill and knowledge which would help an employer's bottom line".  These individuals want to improve their own bottom line without giving a second thought to helping the bottom line of the person who generates the economic activity which employs them in the first place.
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Offline jmyrlefuller

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Re: Fast-food workers plan acts of civil disobedience
« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2014, 08:36:40 pm »
Quote
Fisk noted that mining and manufacturing jobs also once were considered low-wage jobs with dim prospects.

That changed in the 1930s, however, after legal protections for unionizing and actions by fed-up workers helped transform the jobs into more middle-class professions.
And where are those manufacturing jobs now? Over in China, where the Red Chinese are more than willing to take the low wage jobs Americans are too good to accept. This, of course, is why these middle-class wannabes are now scrambling for the ever-shrinking pool of low-wage service industry jobs. Gee, what do you think will happen next?

That's right, automation, and the pool of available American jobs will continue to shrink, and the competition will become even fiercer, as if it's not already bad enough as it is.
« Last Edit: September 02, 2014, 08:39:22 pm by jmyrlefuller »
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Online kevindavis007

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Re: Fast-food workers plan acts of civil disobedience
« Reply #6 on: September 03, 2014, 02:01:16 am »
I'm sorry, but if you are 40 and still working at McDonald's (I'm not talking about being a manager), one must look in a mirror and examine life.
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Re: Fast-food workers plan acts of civil disobedience
« Reply #7 on: September 03, 2014, 02:48:42 am »
Bingo. There's alot of unskilled jobs you can do that make more than minimum. Most people don't want to work that hard though, or they can't pass the drug test.
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Offline Atomic Cow

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Re: Fast-food workers plan acts of civil disobedience
« Reply #8 on: September 03, 2014, 02:52:34 am »
It's only a matter of time before they're all replaced by automatic order takers and robots making the food.

The technology already exists.
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