“At 11:30 am on Thursday, the start of the lunch hour rush, 100-some raucous protesters swarmed a Burger King near New York City’s Penn Station, chanting and holding up signs decrying low wages at the restaurant and other New York fast food purveyors.
Standing behind a metal barricade outside the store, the crowd included clergy, union organizers and workers from Burger King and other fast food restaurants who had gone on strike earlier in the day.
Customers were avoiding the chaos. Inside, the usually bustling restaurant was empty save for its cashiers, a security guard and two customers.
“If there’s no workers inside, there’s no money for [Burger King],” said Saavedra Jantuah, a cashier who was scheduled to be working behind the counter. “I make $7.25 an hour and that’s barely enough to live on.”
At McDonald’s, Domino’s, Wendy’s and other fast food restaurants across the city, more workers went on strike Thursday, protesting what they say are wages that keep them in poverty. Strikers hope the walkouts will represent a turning point in the low-wage fast-food industry, where workers typically drift from job to job and the franchise-operated structure creates a hurdle for union organizing. The strikes come on the heels of nationwide strikes at Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, which is widely criticized for its low-paying jobs.”
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Hopefully this will escalate to a point where the affected fast-food chains have to file for bankruptcy.
Then the government can take over those bankrupt fast-food companies and give the jobs back to the workers, like the government did for the Hostess Company.
To obviate this problem for other industries with underpaid workers, I think Obama should push through legislation to triple the minimum wage. As we all know from economics that increasing the minimum wage will form a pretty strong price floor that should help the workers make more money.
Here’s the wikipedia link on Price Floors. Please write your legistlator and ask them to pass more legislation to raise the price floors like minimum wages:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_floor
ultramarine,
if price floors are to be imposed then it should be a living wage that has kept up with inflation created by the fed from currency debasement.
as far as bankruptcy…well i doubt it as there is always another poor soul that must trade their time for slave wages.
i dont know what you two think.ups wants to pay 8.50 an hr. for a part time drivers’ helper………price floor????working @mcd when i was a kid,management used to be the bully types,in a heated argument,a buddy and myself threatened ,with the “union” word. motherfuckers didnt like that.management had to apologize… oh,btw.min wage was 1.30 pr.hr.
$1.30…that was what the sixties ?
we will have none of that anymore…please step in line
lol..no, it was in the early 70’s.when rock and roll was really rock and roll.
true that!