Fast-food strikes set for cities nationwide

[Olivia]

Fast-food customers in search of burgers and fries on Thursday might run into striking workers instead.

Organizers say thousands of fast-food workers are set to stage walkouts in dozens of cities around the country, part of a push to get chains such as McDonald's, Taco Bell and Wendy's to pay workers higher wages.

It's expected be the largest nationwide strike by fast-food workers, according to organizers.
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The move comes amid calls from the White House, some members of Congress and economists to hike the federal minimum wage, which was last raised in 2009. But most proposals seek a far more modest increase than the ones workers are asking for, with President Barack Obama wanting to boost it to $9 an hour.
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The National Restaurant Association says the low wages reflect the fact that most fast-food workers tend to be younger and have little work experience. Scott DeFife, a spokesman for the group, says that doubling wages would hurt job creation, noting that fast-food chains are already facing higher costs for ingredients, as well as new regulations that will require them to pay more in health care costs.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/fast-food-strikes-set-cities-nationwide

If I eat fast food, I prefer going to Subway where you can watch them make your sandwich.

[Oceander]

Here's the funny thing:  if these "strikes" are effective they will simply drive more people to seek out healthier, if more expensive, alternatives - another goal favored by those instigating these "strikes" - which will most likely result in some number of people not returning to fast-food restaurants once these "strikes" are over.  Reduced demand, of course, is simply going to put more downward pressure on the wages paid to these self-same workers, putting them in a worse position than the one they occupy now.

In other words, those instigating these "strikes" are more likely to do long-term harm to the very same workers they loudly proclaim they want to help.  Irony is a brutal mistress.