Fast-food strikes widen into social-justice movement

[Bakis]

Washington Post: Why the federal government still sometimes doesn’t obey its own minimum wage laws
Adding a twist to the difficulties of even getting private businesses honor the minimum wage agreements with the abundance of loopholes.

[THE Bigzoman]

Strike going on against fast food companies today. Service Employees International is a union that is demanding $15 an hour minimum wage for fast food workers.

IMO, fast food places provide entry level jobs. In addition you can become store manager or even an owner. I'm pro union but I don't think fast food jobs are valuable enough to unionize, people don't work at fast food places for long.

/fast-food-strike-fight-for-15-service-employees-international-union/25787045/

Central to Wednesday's strike is the evolution of its scope. What began two years ago as a fast-food workers movement has propelled into something wider, with Wednesday's protests including a range of workers workers from adjunct professors to home care and child care providers to Walmart employees.

Strikers and protesters were occasionally joined by high-profile officials, such as former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who led a walkout at a McDonald's in Oakland prompting three workers to go on strike.

Organizers called it the largest-ever mobilization of U.S. workers seeking higher pay. That could not be confirmed, but thousands took part in the protests and campus activities in what organizers claim are 226 cities coast to coast. There also was a global element to the protests, with McDonald's stores in Athens, Toronto, Sao Paulo and Hong Kong all hit by protesters demanding higher wages.

"It's something different," said Kendall Fells, organizing director of Fight for $15, which is funded by the Service Employees International Union. "This is much more of an economic and racial justice movement than the fast-food workers strikes of the past two years."

The bolded is just sugarcoating the following phrase: We don't have enough people in the fast food industry to be taken seriously, so we added workers in unrelated professions to appear more powerful than we actually are.

[Maltah]

Yes, how dare we consider raising the minimum wage to what would be a real minimum wage by today's market, thus causing an overall wage increase across the lower and middle class, and finally bringing incomes to a level that might actually start to come close to keeping up with inflation...

[Captain N]

The bolded is just sugarcoating the following phrase: We don't have enough people in the fast food industry to be taken seriously, so we added workers in unrelated professions to appear more powerful than we actually are.

The recent strikes over wages have been backed by the Service Workers Union which would include retail and child care workers. Both which are low paid jobs.

[Kruncholyo]

I can live with that. Fire all the brainless reprobates that couldn't manage to not fuck up an order if their life depended on it, hire some people who have the capacity for sapient thought, and pay them accordingly.

Or, just replace them all with robots. Tough luck, unskilled teens who need an entry level position to build up the skills and experience for all future jobs. Better luck next time.

Automation is going to happen: http://factor-tech.com/robotics/1743...-sale-in-2017/

Lots of people going to end up on BLA (basic living allowance / guaranteed minimum income). Hopefully it comes with LARC (long-acting reversible contraception).

[Daez]

$15/hr won't ever fucking happen. Go learn a god damn skill and stop complaining. Frankly I won't be sad when every fast food worker loses their job to a machine.

Well said, well put and I agree completely. If you are in the bottom basement bargain bin for "employees" (I use the quotes because real employees should add something of value to the company they work for) then you should be paid shit.

[Kujako]

Living wage or welfare state, those are really the only two choices.

[Daez]

$15 is fine as a starting wage. Just because it's an entry-level job doesn't mean the employee doesn't have rent to pay, or even dependents and child support, especially in the abstinence-only sex ed states.

And I'm pretty sure that fast food workers aren't saying they should make more than skilled workers. Skilled workers should be making even more than that.

I could give a rip how someone pays their rent. Maybe they should have thought about that before they moved out of their parent's basement. I think every idiot knows where babies come from. If you have no life and nothing to offer then you should not be having children... period! It seems to me they are saying they are worth $15 an hour... read into it what you will though.

- - - Updated - - -

worthless people with 3 kids to feed and still make minimum wage are a burden on society. Don't fucking nut in every trailer whore you come across and maybe you and your future children will have better lives

Well said. How about we just get trailer whores fixed. Works for me. After all, we spay and neuter animals to contribute to population control.

[Rhine101]

All jokes aside.

I understand people starting at the bottom. It is what it is man. My first job after the Army was min wage food serving. My issue is people who stay there. Even at my place there was a clear ladder for promotion. After a certain level (like 2 promotions) you got benefits and actually made double digits. Then they helped pay for school even.

Yet, there were still folks working the line and talking about retirement coming soon. I have no sympathy for them. If you have no ambition and simply stay your ass at the bottom level then you don't deserve more than the minimum.

hell! I have been at this job here since November and was offered a supervisor slot in January. If I wasn't already planning to be a cop I would be in charge of everyone who had been there for years before me. people like that are just lazy.

Raise the min wage and replace them with actual good workers.

[Wildtree]

worthless people with 3 kids to feed and still make minimum wage are a burden on society. Don't fucking nut in every trailer whore you come across and maybe you and your future children will have better lives

people with three kids are a blessing to society, they ensure the continued existence of the society...
something that can't be said about someone single with no kids and wasting their and others time on the internet.

see what I did now?

[Independent voter]

Google says: The nation's 38,790 locomotive engineers made $52,940 per year, or $25.45 per hour, as of May 2011, states the BLS. Salaries fell to less than $35,730, or $17.18, for the lowest 10 percent of engineers or rose to more than $79,340, or $38.14, for the highest 10 percent.

It's a good job if you can get it, definitely union.

[Bakis]

Frankly I won't be sad when every fast food worker loses their job to a machine.

Unless the access to cheaper alternatives to a GOOD education would shift that work force to be able to start to work in a new niche that require human labour I would not really wish for that if I were you.

Somehow you come across like "screw them not my problem"-type of person but it will impact you, perhaps you can foresee the impact and increased economic costs the social security nets would devour in order to cover for all those people unable to get another 'no-brainer' job in its pool of steadily decreasing amount of available jobs.

[Lenonis]

I'll say my usual bit in these minimum wage threads:

Anyone who is against workers of any type working a full time 40 hours a week making a living wage (which fundamentally needs to not be national but tied to the standard of living in various areas) is for using tax dollars to subsidize labor for companies to increase their profits.

That's all it comes down to for me. The floor should be a living wage. No one, regardless of how basic the job, should have to use welfare if they work a full time job. Period.

[Xandrigity]

It sounds all rainbows and unicorns but what about all the people not in entry level jobs who make 15 and hour, do we then increase their wage on a scale and so on and so on? Where will it stop and who is supposed to pay for all this? I realize people need to pay for housing and so on but a blanket across the board raise to 15 doesn't work on paper when you think about it. Expanding housing assistance and being more creative with social programs will go further fixing the problems. Create some decent higher paying skilled jobs and stop sending al the U.S. work over seas by lowering taxes, there fixed it for you.

[Daez]

People should go get real meaningful high tech jobs in all of the stable industries America has to offer, in the Steel Industry, The automotive industry, the dotcom sector, in real estate finance and the oil and gas industry.

Oh wait.

Steel industry jobs were never high tech. The automotive industry is THRIVING in American made plants. The vast majority of American made autos are returning to the United States because of the quality of the work our workers do, and most of the "foreign" car companies never left. Most of the high tech automotive jobs also never left. The dotcom sector is also still going well, have you heard of Amazon (and other companies)? The real estate market has been returning steadily. The oil and gas industry are huge employers of American labor. Most of these jobs require an associates degree or less... TRY AGAIN! Plus, how about they get their education and get real, real jobs. We are in a country where education is EASILY obtainable for the masses if they work for it.

[Wildtree]

I'll say my usual bit in these minimum wage threads:

Anyone who is against workers of any type working a full time 40 hours a week making a living wage (which fundamentally needs to not be national but tied to the standard of living in various areas) is for using tax dollars to subsidize labor for companies to increase their profits.

That's all it comes down to for me. The floor should be a living wage. No one, regardless of how basic the job, should have to use welfare if they work a full time job. Period.

the people opposing this have....
1. no damn clue about the country's minimum wage vs living wage situation in the nations timeline.
2. no damn clue what an economy is, and how it works.

[Deleted]

Heaven forbid people work a living wage eh?

[Rabblexthree]

Minimum wage should probably be increased but if they think they should get $15 per hour they are just stupid. When they can manage to get orders right they can talk about $15 per hour. I have worked fast food and it in no way is worth $15 per hour. I worked fast food while I was going to school so I could have a job that paid more. Not making a career of fast food.

[Daez]

I have a high school diploma and have a six figure income - College Degree =/= High Paying Job

Its not a direct correlation, but it sure the hell helps. You can also be uniquely skilled without have a college degree (which it sounds like you probably are). Or you could take a non-safe job that requires lots and lots of work for the pay (most people that work in the oil fields do very, very well... mostly because they put their lives on the line every single day and work their asses off). A college degree is more often a correlation between work satisfaction and education. Pay and work satisfaction do not always correlate.

[Rhine101]

Google says: The nation's 38,790 locomotive engineers made $52,940 per year, or $25.45 per hour, as of May 2011, states the BLS. Salaries fell to less than $35,730, or $17.18, for the lowest 10 percent of engineers or rose to more than $79,340, or $38.14, for the highest 10 percent.

It's a good job if you can get it, definitely union.

My buddy does that. he is very happy.