June 20, 2014
By Stephanie West
Greensboro, North Carolina – Seven North Carolina fast-food workers were arrested Monday evening June 16th along with about a dozen community and faith allies as the fight for $15 in North Carolina joined forces with the growing Moral Mondays movement. Armed with signs and banners that read "Jobs & Freedom" and "Tillis Don't Thrill Us," the fast-food workers and Moral Monday supporters marched, chanted and sang spirituals — disrupting the business of the legislature and leading to the arrests of some participants.
While fast-food corporations continue to pay their workers so little they can't afford the basics and have to rely on public assistance to get by, the North Carolina legislature is making matters even worse — eliminating the Earned Income Tax Credit, opposing the expansion of Medicaid and refusing to increase the minimum wage.
Among those arrested was 24-year-old Greensboro Wendy's worker Amber Matthews, who is a mother and makes $7.50 an hour. She said, "I hardly have enough money to put gas into my car and get to work. I came to Moral Monday to have my voice heard. Elected officials need to see the faces of those they are hurting. Where's the tax break for my family? We give the richest families in North Carolina a tax cut but do nothing to help families like mine that struggle every day? I'm here to say we matter too."
