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 The actions are intended to build on a campaign that began about a
year ago to call attention to the difficulties of living on the
federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, or about $15,000 a year for a
full-time employee.
The protests are part of a movement by labor unions, Democrats and
other worker advocacy groups to raise pay in low-wage sectors. Last
month, President Barack Obama said he would back a Senate measure to
raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.
Protesters are calling for $15 an hour, although many see the figure
as a rallying point rather than a near-term possibility.
It's not clear how large the turnout will be at any given location,
or whether the walkouts will be enough to disrupt operations.
Similar actions this summer had varying results, with some
restaurants unable to serve customers and others seemingly
unaffected.
The National Restaurant Association, an industry lobbying group,
called the demonstrations a "campaign engineered by national labor
groups," and said the vast majority of participants were union
protesters rather than workers.
The group added that past demonstrations "have fallen well short of
their purported numbers."
Kendall Fells, a New York City-based organizer for Fast Food
Forward, said demonstrations are planned for 100 cities, in addition
to the 100 cities where workers will strike. He said plans started
coming together shortly after the one-day actions in about 60 cities
this summer.
"They understand they're not going to win from a one-day strike,"
Fells said of workers.
Still, organizers face an uphill battle in reshaping an industry
that competes aggressively on low prices, a practice that has
intensified as companies including McDonald's Corp., Burger King
Worldwide Inc. and Yum Brands Inc., which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and
Taco Bell, face growing competition and slow growth in the weak
economy.
Fast-food workers are also seen as difficult to unionize, given the
industry's high turnover rates. But the Service Employees
International Union, which represents more than 2 million workers in
health care, janitorial and other industries, has been providing
organizational and financial support to the push for higher pay over
the past year.
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Berlin Rosen, a political consulting and public relations firm based
in New York City, has also been coordinating communications efforts
and helping organizers connect with media outlets.
In the meantime, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has
promised a vote on the wage hike by the end of the year. But the
measure is not expected to gain traction in the House, where
Republican leaders oppose it.
Supporters of wage hikes have been successful at the state and local
level. Last month, voters in New Jersey approved a hike in the
minimum to $8.25 an hour, up from $7.25 an hour. California, New
York, Connecticut and Rhode Island also raised their minimum wages
this year.
SEIU President Mary Kay Henry said she thinks the protests have
helped encourage more states and localities to raise their minimum
wage this year. She expects the number of cities and participants in
the protests to grow next year as the union tries to keep pressure
on fast food companies.
"I think we've totally changed the conversation about what these
jobs are worth," Henry said. "These are no longer jobs being done by
teenagers who need extra money. These are jobs being done by adults
that can't find any other work."
While fast food workers tend to be a transient work force, Henry
said her union has had success unionizing janitors and nursing home
workers, which were also deemed too transient to be organized.
[Associated
Press; CANDICE CHOI and SAM HANANEL]
Hananel reported from
Washington.
Follow Candice Choi at
http://twitter.com/candicechoi.
Follow Sam Hananel at
http://twitter.com/SamHananelAP.
Copyright 2013 The Associated
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