The call for higher wages and more rights for fast-food workers and others in traditionally low-wage jobs is culminating in a nationwide strike set for May 15, but the effort doesn’t stop there, according to an organization leading the strikes. The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) is trying to bring fast-food workers from around the world into the movement for higher wages and improved working conditions.
“Fast-food workers around the world face the same issues of precarious work, low wages, and fierce opposition to union organization,” the IUF posted on its website. “A handful of giant transnationals dominate the business, so it is only natural that workers and their unions are organizing internationally to change conditions for the millions of fast-food workers around the world.”
A Reuters news agency report says strikes are planned in 150 cities in the United States and in 33 other countries. The May 15 strikes are the latest work stoppages that have been conducted during the past year and a half. May 15 was chosen to emphasize strikers’ call for a $15-an-hour wage.
Among the companies targeted for the strikes are McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, and Yum! Brands, owner of KFC. Targeted employers have said raising wages will lead to fewer jobs and higher prices for consumers.
“This is an important discussion that needs to take into account the highly competitive nature of the industries that employ minimum wage workers, as well as consumers and the thousands of small businesses which own and operate the vast majority of McDonald’s restaurants,” McDonald’s spokesperson Heidi Barker Sa Shekhem told USA Today in a May 7 report.
McDonald’s addressed pressure from the series of one-day strikes that began a year and a half ago in its recent annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), according to a report in Salon. The Internet news site’s article quotes the McDonald’s report as listing the “impact of campaigns by labor organizations and activists” under the “Risk Factors and Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Financial Statements” section of the report.
The May 15 strikes come in the midst of an effort by President Barack Obama to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, a campaign many employers call counterproductive.
“The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that raising the minimum wage would result in significant job losses for the workers who are most in need of a leg-up in this time of high unemployment,” Rob Green, executive director of the National Council of Chain Restaurants, said after a March 12 hearing by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on the proposal to raise the minimum wage.
Green called on Congress to focus on “policies that move the economy forward.” He put job creation “at the top of that list, not mandates that make it harder for businesses to put Americans to work.”