Month: December 2013

Rebecca Band

Most every day around noon, the McDonalds on Jackson St in downtown Oakland is filled with customers. Yesterday at noon, it was jam-packed as usual, but it wasn’t the usual crowd. Nearly 200 striking fast food workers and their supporters flooded into the restaurant with a simple demand: “Keep your burgers, keep your fries… we want our wages SUPERSIZED!”

Fast-food is one of the most profitable industries in our country, and yet the vast majority of fast-food workers earn poverty wages, and more than half are forced to enroll their families in public assistance programs just to afford basics like food and housing. Fast-food corporations are some of the biggest contributors to our nation’s growing income inequality, which is why thousands of fast-food workers went on strike in more than 100 cities yesterday.

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Maria Trisler

It’s on – this Thursday, fast-food workers like me are going on strike across the country. And it’s going to be bigger than ever before, with community members joining us at protests and rallies in hundreds of cities across the country!

Find out if there’s a rally near you and sign-up to show up on Thursday. Together, we’ll send the fast-food giants a loud and clear message.

I’m going on strike because I can’t make ends meet for me and my 12-year old boy on the $8.35 I make at McDonald’s – it’s just 10 cents more than minimum wage here in Peoria, Illinois.

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Darren Shiroma

When Dana Wilson was a teenager, she was offered a job at a local supermarket where union members were on strike. She asked her mother, Denver-based United Airlines Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) member Stefani Wilson, what the employer meant when he said she would have to cross the picket line.

Stefani told her daughter the story of honoring the picket line when United Pilots were on strike in 1985 for 29 days, before Dana was born. She impressed upon her daughter that unions are vital to our industry and that, if she took the supermarket job while workers were on strike, she would be harming those workers.

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Rebecca Band

Black Friday is known as one of the biggest shopping days of the year, a day when giant corporations boost their bottom lines in a frenzy of shopping deals and “doorbusters.” Problem is, mega-corporations like Walmart aren’t sharing those huge profits with workers. They’re paying poverty wages to the very workers who make these huge companies successful. But thanks to the bravery and dedication of the Walmart workers and supporters who came out to protests in their communities, Black Friday is no longer just a day for corporations like Walmart. It’s a day for the people.

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