June 19, 2014
By Stephanie West
Here's the latest news in the fast-food worker fight for $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation.
McDonald's Image Dented by FIght for 15:
A Reuters article on McDonald’s drop in U.S. sales credited “image-denting protests from its minimum wage workers” as a main cause of the sales drop. This marks the seventh month in a row the company has seen sales drop in the United States, but the corporation could soon be facing the same challenges in its growth markets as the fast-food worker campaign has spread across the globe.
Day in the Life of a Fast-food Worker:
A CNN piece tracks a day in the life of 34-year-old Chicago fast-food worker Norma Marin as she shuttles between two McDonald's jobs while raising three kids. Her day starts before 4 am, and she doesn't make it onto the bus home until 12:30 am. "12 am: I clock out and wait for the bus so I can go home. As I'm waiting for the bus, I try and stay awake because I'm so tired," she said. Even with two jobs, she wonders how she's going to afford food and school supplies for her seven-year-old daughter. That's why she's fighting for $15 an hour and the right to form a union.
$15 Continues to Gain Steam:
After Seattle's City Council approved a $15 minimum wage, a New York Times editorial highlighted how minimum wage increases on the local level are putting pressure on the federal government to go beyond President Obama's $10.10 proposal. It concludes, "States, cities and the majority of Americans who support a higher minimum wage are showing Congress where it needs to go. It may not be all the way to a federal minimum of $15 an hour, but it is certainly more than the $10.10 an hour currently on the table."
And San Francisco may be the next city with a $15 minimum wage, as voters will decide on a ballot initiative in November–supported by the Chamber of Commerce– to raise the city's minimum wage to $15 an hour.
