Making good on promises made last week, thousands of fast food and low wage workers went out on strike on Tuesday. They are looking for a raise in the minimum wage and expect to make it an issue in the presidential election.
On Tuesday morning fast food workers all across the country made good on promises they made last week to go on strike in support of raising the minimum wage. Fast food workers officially went on strike this morning at 6 a.m. Eastern time in well over a dozen American cities. Protests and strikes are expected to take place in nearly 300 cities and towns all across the country.
Fast food and other low wage earners in the country are fighting for an increase in the minimum wage. They want to see it raised to $15 per hour, according to USA Today. There are approximately 64 million low wage earners in the country who are looking to assemble the power, and the votes, to make their conditions and concerns issues in the upcoming presidential election.
This is the largest show of force made by workers in the three years since they launched their campaign. The campaign is overseen by their organizational arm, Fight For $15, and their efforts are supported by the powerful Service Employees International Union. Strikes began outside of McDonald’s restaurant’s in Philadelphia, Boston and Brooklyn. The union has 270 cities and towns targeted but are hopeful it will spill out into at least 700 other places.
Hundreds of cities and town across the country will also see work stoppages by such low paid workers as those in home health care, farm workers, nursing home and assisted living facilities staffs, and even FedEx is in support of the nationwide strike. Many of the strikers include baggage handlers at the nation’s international airports and workers say it is a matter of respect and dignity.
Unlike other previous work stoppages, the strikers look to make this one as highly political as possible. After lunch, many city halls throughout the country will be mobbed with protesters and there will be a strong presence among the strikers at this evening’s Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee. The Republicans, for the most part, stand against the hike in the minimum wage. They say it will hurt businesses, especially small businesses who may no longer be able to compete if they have to raise wages. The Democrats support the hike.
What the strikers are counting on the most is registering an estimated 48 million people who are not registered to vote. They believe that if a candidate comes out in favor of the minimum wage hike, those unregistered voters will register and create a powerful voting block whose leverage can’t be ignored.
