CHICAGO (AP) — Fast food workers say they’re prepared to
escalate their campaign for higher wages and union representation,
starting with a national convention in suburban Chicago where more than
1,000 workers will discuss the future of the effort that has spread to
dozens of cities in less than two years.
About 1,300 workers are
scheduled to attend sessions Friday and Saturday at an expo center in
Villa Park, Illinois, where they’ll be asked to do "whatever it takes"
to win $15-an-hour wages and a union, said Kendall Fells, organizing
director of the national effort and a representative of the Service
Employees International Union.
The union has been providing
financial and organizational support to the fast-food protests that
began in late 2012 in New York City and have included daylong strikes
and a protest outside this year’s McDonald’s Corp. shareholder meeting
that resulted in more than 130 arrests.
"We want to talk about
building leadership, power and doing whatever it takes depending on what
city they’re in and what the moment calls for," said Fells, adding that
the ramped-up actions will be "more high profile" and could include
everything from civil disobedience to intensified efforts to organize
workers.
"I personally think we need to get more workers involved
and shut these businesses down until they listen to us," perhaps even by
occupying the restaurants, said Cherri Delisline, a 27-year-old single
mother from Charleston, South Carolina, who has worked at McDonald’s for
10 years and makes $7.35 an hour.
Delisline said she and her four
girls live with her mother, but the family still has difficulty paying
utilities and the mortgage while providing for her children. She said
she has not been to a doctor in two years and does not get paid if she
stays home sick.
"To have a livable wage, it’s going to need to be
$15 an hour," said Delisline.
"We make the owners enough money that
they have houses and cars and their kids are taken care of. Why don’t
(they) make sure I can be able to do the same for my kids and my
family?"
The campaign comes as President Barack Obama and many
other Democrats across the country have attempted to make a campaign
issue out of their call to increase the federal and state minimum wages.
The
current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour translates to about
$15,000 a year for someone working 40 hours a week, though many
fast-food workers get far fewer hours. Obama and others have called for
increasing it to $10.10.
Fast food workers say even that’s not
enough because most people working in the industry now are adults with
children, rather than teenagers earning pocket money. The restaurant
industry has argued that a $15 hourly wage could lead to business
closings and job cuts, though the Seattle City Council recently voted to
raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, phased in over several
years.
A McDonald’s spokeswoman did not return a message seeking comment.
The
National Restaurant Association said Thursday that increasing wages to
$15 will not solve income inequality and that the campaign was an
attempt by unions to boost dwindling membership.
"Instead of
demonizing an industry that opens doors for workers of all ages,
backgrounds and skill levels, the focus should be on finding better
solutions to lift individuals out of poverty," including policies that
increase education and job training, said Scott DeFife, the
association’s executive vice president of policy and government affairs.
Turnout
for the protests has varied, but they’ve struck a chord at a time when
the gap between the country’s rich and poor has widened. Executive pay
packages also are coming under greater scrutiny, including that of
McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson, who was given a pay package worth $9.5
million last year. Nevertheless, shareholders this year overwhelmingly
voted in favor of McDonald’s executive compensation practices.
Nancy
Salgado of Chicago said she and her two children share a bedroom after
being forced to move into an apartment with two other adults after her
hours at McDonald’s were cut from 40 a week to about 24.
"I don’t
think $15 will make me rich. … I just want an apartment for my family
and be able to have my kids in their own room, to not have to wait for
the washing machine or the bathtub, and I don’t want to be behind on
bills if I take time off or get sick," said Salgado, who earns minimum
wage after 12 years with the company.
"If we’ve got to stop working and shut down (restaurants) to get it, that’s what we’re going to
do," she said.