By Deivid Rojas/Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago
Chicago McDonald’s worker Nancy Salgado appeared [Thursday] on the Today Show and demonstrated just how out of touch McDonald’s financial planning site is and discussed what it’s really like to try to make ends meet with two kids on $11,400 a year – not $25,000 as McDonald’s estimated.
The segment also featured clips from the Chicago fast-food worker strikes in April calling for $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation. After the segment, Tamron Hall remarked on McDonald’s fuzzy math, “You’d think one person would have stopped and said, ‘what’s the real world,’ right? If you’re not living in it, ask someone.”
These low-wage workers are a key reason why workers have been joining together for $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation. During April and May, thousands of fast-food workers in seven cities – from coast to coast – walked off their jobs because they work hard, can’t even afford the basics and have to rely on public assistance just to scrape by while these corporations make record profits.
Even while ignoring important expenses like food and gas and suggesting workers get a second job, the budget by McDonald’s assumes a worker needs to make about $15 an hour just to scrape by. That’s an argument its workers have been making for months. In just a few days, a video challenging the site’s fuzzy math has received nearly 90,000 hits on Youtube, and a story on CNN Money on Wednesday looks at the budgets of real McDonald’s workers and shows just how off base McDonald’s is.
–
Meanwhile . . . also from Deivid Rojas . . .
–
TOO HOT TO WORK: DUNKIN’ DONUTS WORKERS TO HOLD PROTEST AFTER GOING ON STRIKE FOR AIR CONDITIONING, $15 LIVING WAGE, AND THE RIGHT TO FORM A UNION WITHOUT RETALIATION
After Being Subjected To Hazardous Temperatures, Workers Walkout On Strike To Demand Safe Working Conditions.
Luis Vargas Jr., one of the striking Dunkin’ Donuts workers explains, “We walked off the job and went on strike because we have been working all week without AC. It has been so hot that we have been feeling light headed, sick, and have not been able to give the quality service our customers deserve”
CHICAGO – At 7 a.m. on Friday, striking Dunkin’ Donuts workers and dozens of members of the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago will converge at Dunkin’ Donuts at 27 W Lake to protest unsafe working conditions and demand air conditioning, a $15 livable wage, and the right to form a union without retaliation.
After working all week without air conditioning and in scorching temperatures, Dunkin’ Donut workers from 27 W Lake walked out on strike today. Even though the workers made repeated requests to have the air conditioning fixed, the issue was not addressed. Today, after feeling light headed, feverish and sick, the workers called their store manager to advise him that they would be walking out and striking if the conditions did not improve. Hours later the workers walked out and closed the store.
Dozens of Dunkin’ Donut workers alongside hundreds of members of WOCC went on strike on April 24 at dozens of fast food and retail locations in the Loop and the Magnificent Mile to demand a $15 livable wage and the right to form an union without retaliation. Workers were enthusiastically welcomed back by their coworkers as they returned to work, accompanied by clergy and community supporters, in the days following the strike. Inspired by their courage and success in winning raises and other workplace victories following the strikes, dozens of workers have since joined the WOCC including many more from Dunkin’ Donuts.
–
See also: Fight for 15.
–
Comments welcome.
Posted on July 19, 2013