From the Washington Post:
Emboldened by an outpouring of support on social media, low-wage fast-food and retail workers from eight cities who have staged walkouts this year are calling for a national day of strikes Aug. 29.
The workers — who are backed by local community groups and national unions and have held one-day walkouts in cities such as New York, St. Louis and Detroit — say they have received pledges of support from workers in dozens of cities across the country.
The workers are calling for a wage of $15 an hour and the right to form a union. Organizers of the walkout say cashiers, cooks and crew members at fast-food restaurants are paid a median wage of $8.94 an hour….
The planned August walkout — timed for the immediate aftermath of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the lead-up to Labor Day — is expected to touch 35 or more cities and involve thousands of workers, organizers said. The walkouts have not led to widespread changes, though some workers say they have gotten small pay increases and better hours in the wake of previous strikes….
The fast-food workers are expected to be joined by retail workers from stores such as Macy’s, Dollar Tree and Sears. Many of them said they have received pledges of support on Facebook and through the Web sites of local organizing groups.
Although he has not commented on the fast-food walkouts, President Obama has called on Congress to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 a hour. The idea has broad support from voters, but opponents say it would further hurt job creation. A recent Public Religion Research Institute survey found that nearly three of four Americans favored raising the minimum wage to $10…
Ahh says fywp
So they repeat the job creation canard, a counter factual in the face of evidence that unemployment drops when min wage and benefits like sick days rise?
News by Koch.
fuckwit
A general strike?? Really? A European-style General Strike? Maybe it’s just retail only for now, but I see it spreading. This seems to be what this is leading up to.
I’ve heard people suggesting it since at least Seattle 1999, but never thought I’d see it here in the USA. But I see it coming now.
Just wow.
Ben Cisco
There’s that number again…
Hunter Gathers
But, but if you raise the minimum wage one red cent then people will have to pay eleventy billion dollars for their bacon and cheese anus burger! Sociamalism!
Ben Cisco
@Hunter Gathers:
I knew someone that called all things Angus that. Hilarity ensued.
Yatsuno
@fuckwit: What is old is new again. I see a new labour movement fomenting just like the labour movements in the late 19th Century came from the low wage high risk jobs of that era formed. This could get entertaining.
Belafon
@Ahh says fywp: Do you, or anyone, know where I can get data on this?
J.Ty
San Jose, CA voted to raise the minimum wage by I think 25% last year by a fairly wide margin. It was sad watching the business lobbies fighting so hard and lying so much to try and stop it–not that I’d expect them to do anything else, but Christ, what a bunch of assholes.
Arclite
A few thoughts here.
1. The min wage in 1976 was $2.70. That would be more than $13 today.
2. It’s not a bad thing if the extremely unhealthy food sold at fast food restaurants was more expensive b/c wages were higher.
3. The fastest way to boost the economy is to get money into the hands of people who will spend it. Low income earners fit that to a tee.
Arclite
@J.Ty: That is kind of crazy, given the cost of living in San Jose. Even that 25% won’t go far there if you’re only hearning $10/hour.
hildebrand
@fuckwit: I think it will take an actual general strike before anybody wakes up to the income disparity issue. I would love to see it. I would love to participate in it.
Of course, participating in a general strike would be about as frightening as anything that I can imagine – all due to the fact that my job security is absolutely zero. Great peer reviews of teaching, excellent student evaluations, very solid publication record, a great deal of community outreach – you name it, all exceptionally positive. Yet, because I am not tenure-track (they lovingly call us contingent faculty), I am in constant fear of being summarily dismissed for no good reason, because they can. And I have it good, as a full-time lecturer, compared to the adjuncts. It is just an awful system, but it simply seems to reflect the reality that grips the vast majority of the general work-force.
dedc79
Speaking of walk-outs, is it too much to hope this is the beginning of a trend?
gbear
$9/hr isn’t nearly enough to get a family out of poverty. The minimum wage should at least try reach that mark.
Roger Moore
@dedc79:
If that’s a trend, I need to invest in popcorn futures.
Lawrence
It’s time for Labor to ‘Stop the Motor of the World’. But with better messaging. That phrase only polls well in focus groups that are +12 douchebag.
ruemara
I’m all for it. I think laws that clamped down on strikes were a death blow to unions and associations. I’ve been telling my association they needed to do a sick-out. I wish them the best and I support their endeavours.
Cacti
If you have In n Out Burger where you live, eat there. They start associates at $10.50/hr and cooks at $12.00.
Calouste
@dedc79:
“Abandonment of libertarian principles?” Really? Has the GOP abandoned IGMFY? I don’t think so.
Tone In DC
I’d love to see that increase happen. Sad thing is, the House does not generate or pass much in the way of legislation, these days. They just bloviate about the debt, the ACA and voter fraud.
Roger Moore
@Calouste:
They’re angry because Boehner is being insufficiently obstructionist. This should tell you how out of touch with reality they are.
Cacti
@ruemara:
Taft-Hartley needs to be repealed for Labor to get its teeth back.
Roger Moore
@Tone In DC:
What do you mean? They’ve passed legislation to repeal Obamacare no fewer than 40 times. Who can argue with that track record of legislative achievement?
The Moar You Know
$10/hr. isn’t just poverty. It’s abject, no hope levels of poverty.
While I agree that it’s better than what we have, and I’ll happily take that, frankly, we as a nation can do better.
MikeJ
@Arclite:
The minimum wage rose to $2.30 in 1976 according to the Department of Labor web site. That would be $9.44 today according to the bls.gov inflation calculator. $2.70 would be $11.08 today.
http://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/chart.htm
http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=2.30&year1=1976&year2=2013
Yatsuno
@The Moar You Know: Australia level minimum wage will work. I’ll take their health care system too.
? Martin
@fuckwit:
Well, there were plenty of calls for general strikes during Occupy. Never happened. Let’s see if this one does – though I must admit this walk out effort is faring better than I would have expected.
Cacti
@MikeJ:
I had always heard that minimum wage peaked in purchasing power in 1968. The $1.60 minimum wage back then would be equivalent to $10.74 in 2013.
Inflation is also useful for when a gasbag like Bill O’Reilly says “My father only made $30,000 a year”. If you put that salary in for 1967, the year Bill-O graduated high school, his pops was making almost $210,000 in 2013 dollars.
Cacti
@? Martin:
Calls for strikes from college students and drum circlers tend not to carry a lot of weight with working class folks.
? Martin
@Cacti: Plus they give part time workers decent benefits – they get holiday pay based on their average hours (work 10 hrs/wk and you’ll get 25% pay on holidays), vacation, etc.
It’s not a labor utopia, but it’s pretty high on the list for part time work.
Punchy
Shooting for the fences is almost certainly going to lead to a strikeout. They expect francise owners currently paying ~$8/hr to suddenly find an additional $7/hr per person in their budget? I’d like to see them get a raise, but that’s just a ridiculous demand, unless it’s over the course of several years.
Who wouldn’t want a ~40% raise? What company is going to provide that across the board? Crickets.
Ted & Hellen
Why haven’t we had a FP post about the WHITE Australian college baseball player randomly killed by three BLACK dudes in Oklahoma?
Is there a epistemilogical, closed-system, informational bias at BJ that this story somehow violates?
Racism!
I am mystified that the BJ Trayvon groupies have not swarmed to denounce this killing…oh wait…never mind…
PopeRatzo
If there ever gets to be a real threat of a general strike, you’re going to see how quickly the government’s surveillance apparatus is going to be turned with gusto on large numbers of regular working Americans.
jamick6000
@Punchy: don’t sully baseball metaphors with your concern trolling.
Punchy
@jamick6000: Didn’t realize honesty was concern trolling. Let’s do it your way then.
ASK FOR $20 PER HOUR! Greedy rich asshole Wendy’s owner driving his Bentley can afford doubling or nearly tripling his labor costs all at once! Of course, they all can! Demand this in every franchise everywhere!
Is that better?
gene108
@Ben Cisco:
It is impressive that such a small fraction of people in this country can hold back the will of the people.
The big thing is to make sure Republicans who oppose the $9/hr minimum wage increase pay at the ballot box next year. Even likely Republican voters support raising the minimum wage.
Another Holocene Human
@J.Ty: business lobby = NRA (no, not the gun guys, the 999 guys)
Basically, our superior American system subsidizes those big chain restaurants with shit food in multiple ways. USA! USA!
schrodinger's cat
@gene108: Small organized minorities can do more than diffuse and disorganized majorities.
Another Holocene Human
@dedc79: Apparently LePage is a Democratic plant, only he doesn’t realize it yet.
ETA: my bad, they’re Rockefeller republicans, but ones without any heart–lowtaxes, now get out of my sex life Republicans. Ehhhh, fuck ’em.
jamick6000
@Punchy: % increase is misleading in this case because the dollar amount you’re starting out from is very small.
schrodinger's cat
Why not index the minimum wage to the cost of living? BTW when was the Federal minimum wage law passed?
Belafon
Ted & Hellen: I’m personally wondering why we haven’t had a FP post about them having the legal authority to kick people off their sites and sue them if they try to get back on.
As for your topic, we kinda discussed it already. Please try and keep up.
? Martin
@Ted & Hellen: Were they black? I’ve seen no reporting to that, and your link doesn’t mention that either.
David in NY
@Cacti: $30,000/yr. was a fuckload of money in the late ’60’s.
BTW, you are all welcome to join the picket lines on the 29th. Lots of workers may not walk out — scared shitless, but that doesn’t mean crowds outside calling for them to come out wouldn’t hurt. Join us!
David
The Moar You Know
@Ted & Hellen: Let me suggest either Chimpout or Stormfront if you wanna get your race hate on. Me, I’m not interested.
@? Martin: Yes they were, and the usual fucktards, see above, are going to say it’s just like Trayvon but backwards, or something. Me, I’m tapped out on outrage.
jamick6000
Changing my slaves’ pay from $0/hour to $0.5/hour will increase my hourly wage costs by infinity, it can’t be done.
Mike in NC
Republicans will counter by offering to lower the minimum wage to $1.50 an hour. Surely there’s room to compromise? And unions are basically forbidden to exist south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
GregB
They are encouraging patrons of fast food restaurants to walk out too, but most seem unable to walk that far.
jamick6000
@Ted & Hellen: you’re good at what you do.
ruemara
I find it fascinating that I posted about this and voting rights, but the main engagement I get on my FB page is morons waxing frothy about a tech analysis of the fallacy that they’re being spied upon based on the amount of data collected, resources required and manpower available. More proof that the civil libertarian crowd really isn’t into actual civil liberties, but egomania is perfectly reasonable.
Another Holocene Human
@? Martin: Unemployed people calling for a General Strike raises a number of imponderables, doesn’t it?
Oakland, CA had one of the most impressive labor actions in recent US history during Occupy. Too bad Black Bloc Greenwaldian Snowjobber attention hoars f*cked up the press. These people shut down the port.
Another Holocene Human
@Punchy: Keep mouthing off, you clearly don’t know anything about Fight for Fifteen.
It’s kind of comical.
Cacti
@Ted & Hellen:
I hope police don’t wait a month to arrest the shooters.
Wait, what? They’re in custody already and had their first court appearance today?
And MSNBC has made them their personal mascots, right. Wait, what? That hasn’t happened?
Wow, it almost sounds like the criminal justice system is handling this one with all due haste and diligence. Why the difference, I wonder.
shelly
Silly me, and I thought Macy’s might have paid a decent wage. Why not take some of their ad money (Near holidays and other sale-type days, the front section of my newspaper is 75% Macy ads. Believe!)
WereBear
I am heartily enthused about how this is rolling. I DREAM of a general strike, but we all must start somewhere.
The Moar You Know
@Belafon: Cole has laid down the law with regards to Special Tim. They are buddies for life, so Tim The Molester Fan gets to stay and shit all over anyone and everyone’s threads, and if you don’t like it you can fuck right off.
Maybe when JC embraces sobriety he’ll figure out this might not be the best of ideas.
Another Holocene Human
@Ted & Hellen: So people gettin’ killed every day for some stupid shit and you’re going to wank hard about a murder in a state you don’t even live in?
Statistics, shmatistics, let’s talk about cognitive biases. Mayor Menino and that one pedestrian killed by a speeding bike courier is greater than all the peds killed by cars and trucks annually because reasons. QED.
gene108
@Punchy:
Minimum wage increases have never been hiked instantaneously. They usually get phased in over a number of years.
The minimum wage is ridiculously low.
The issue with what employers can afford to pay really varies by industry. Retailers struggling to survive – Sears, JCP, etc. – probably could not absorb increases in labor costs.
At some level Sears really should be close to following other retail giants, like Woolworths and Montgomery Wards, into oblivion. Part of this is the competition from on-line retailers, which affects the whole retail sector, and part of it is crappy management strategies at the top, which is compounding Sears’ problems.
Target and Wal-Mart, on the other hand, could probably absorb the hike in labor costs, with Target likely being able to pass a good bit of it off on their more upscale customers.
McDonald’s corporate office could probably lower fees they charge for ingredients and whatever else they get, in order for franchisees to survive increased labor costs or bump up prices a bit.
The impact of an increase in the minimum wage isn’t going to be a one-sized fits all scenario.
I wouldn’t be surprised, if teetering firms get pushed over the edge by something like this, but most firms will be able to adapt.
Anoniminous
@David in NY:
Me fodder was one of the top and highest paid aeronautical engineers in the world in 1968. He was pulling in $24,000. The equivalent top salaries today run $200,000 to $350,000.
burnspbesq
@Cacti:
Not to mention that they use all fresh ingredients and their stuff tastes better than just about any fast-food burger and fries available anywhere.
Climate and surf are not the real reasons why people move to SoCal. In”n’Out and Del Taco are the real reasons.
Another Holocene Human
@Another Holocene Human: Hmm, actually they are probably hearing a constant monotone about lowtaxes lowtaxes lowtaxes now because the moderates have fled the GOP in Maine, so it DOES come back to LePage. It’s a bias of who is contacting them–those that quit the party, went Indy or Dem aren’t talking to them any more.
jamick6000
@burnspbesq: for once we agree! I’ve only been there a couple times, but I loved In n Out Burger
Punchy
@Another Holocene Human: Got a link?
? Martin
@burnspbesq:
Wait, what? Isn’t that a bit like going to Italy and only eating at Pizza Hut?
WereBear
Another great thing about this is how it bypasses the usual media, which will ignore it as much as they can. But it’s going on in plain view.
burnspbesq
@Ted & Hellen:
What is there to say beyond “this is a horrible crime that probably wouldn’t have happened if these young men hadn’t had ready access to guns?”
If you wan’t a ragegasm, you’re going to have to suck the rage member better than that.
Villago Delenda Est
What needs to happen is that the militia is called out do deal with this hooligan rabble that actually thinks they should be paid for the work they do, period.
Fucking serfs. Put them in their fucking place.
Amir Khalid
@Ted & Hellen:
This sentence suggests that you know more words than you understand.
As for your point, such as it is, this was apparently a random killing. Nothing has been disclosed so far that suggests a racist motive. Unless, of course, you were there yourself and have firsthand knowledge of the case to share?
Cacti
@David in NY:
Where does one find out where local events are taking place? I’m a union member, and strongly support worker efforts to organize.
The Moar You Know
@burnspbesq: In & Out rocks. Love their fries.
My wife is a Five Guys partisan. Not bad for an East Coast outfit, but I do wonder how well they treat their people. They seem happy, but that could just be singing in the coal mine, God knows I’ve been there.
@? Martin: Out of politeness, I wasn’t going to say anything about Del Taco, which is beyond awful. They rate below Taco Bell in my book, and that means they just ran out of bottom. SoCal has the best Mexican food on the planet, but it’s not sold at any chain.
Another Holocene Human
@GregB: They are encouraging patrons of fast food restaurants to walk out too, but most seem unable to walk that far.
https://www.facebook.com/GvilleRWA
You can’t see it from their li’l FB page, but these brave workers walked out and instigated a successful boycott that forced the owner to come to the table and come to terms with them.
YES it was a STRIKE in the SOUTH. And the workers WON.
Of course they had a serious reason to strike–fucking owner paid them when he damn well felt like it and their checks were bouncing even though the restaurant was making money.
Even though it’s the SOUTH I’ve heard a number of stories of even the most beat down workers staging walkouts when their pay isn’t straight.
Another Holocene Human
@shelly: Not Macy’s. Oh, no, child. They’re the assholes’ assholes.
The Red Pen
I found this inevitable Freeper response:
I’d love to point out that fast food workers in Australia get all of this and their burgers are about the same price as ours.
gene108
@schrodinger’s cat:
Yup.
But the fact they are so organized around their pet issues versus the majority is impressive. At some point, you’d figure those folks (like people in the majority) would have something better to do with their time.
? Martin
@The Moar You Know: Five Guys was okay. Kind of expensive and not clearly better. Although, bacon.
Another Holocene Human
@Punchy: Even better, bro, I gots linkseses:
https://www.google.com/search?q=fight+for+fifteen&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Cacti
@The Moar You Know:
My complaint w/ Five Guys is they don’t seem to have heard of seasoning.
Their beef is b-l-a-n-d.
Ted & Hellen
@The Moar You Know:
Of course you are.
This case doesn’t fit your rage-ometer settings.
Ted & Hellen
@Amir Khalid:
hahahahahaha
WereBear
@Another Holocene Human: Holy crap! Owner bounces a check, worker pays the bank fee.
Such a system.
Another Holocene Human
@Amir Khalid: The right-o-sphere has a woody because it doesn’t smack of immediate bullshit like that Georgia “a Black teen shot my baby” tall tale.
Because Oklahoma. Seriously … read up … it’s awful.
Cacti
@The Moar You Know:
SoCal Mex is good, but New Mexico gets my vote. The Hatch chili effin’ rawks.
jamick6000
@Ted & Hellen: People seem more interested in attacking you than in dealing with America’s racial issues. Sad.
Mnemosyne
@Belafon:
Not only did we already discuss it, I called his reaction almost word-for-word.
Davis X. Machina
@Another Holocene Human:
The libertarians/constitutionalists walked out, the state party not being crazy enough for their taste. The 7 members of the state GOP committee who left — one of them was a voting RNC member too — were extremists who were inter alia still miffed by the treatment of Paul’s state convention delegates.
The institutional Maine GOP is, and has been all along, sort-of-not-crazy. The Republican Senate Majority leader was issuing anti-LePage op-eds back in 2011, and both caucuses together recently overrode a LePage budget veto at the end of the last session.
Roger Moore
@Punchy:
They’ll have to raise prices to manage it, but if all the fast food chains are forced to raise their wages at the same time, it shouldn’t be too big a deal.
The Red Pen
@Ted & Hellen:
I was horrified when I heard about this. Luckily, I didn’t have to worry about the murders — or even people who conveniently look like the murderers, in the case that the actual murderers couldn’t be found — would be brought to justice.
Tone In DC
@Roger Moore:
That they did.
These g00pers make the Whigs and Know Nothings look good by comparison.
Ted & Hellen
@burnspbesq:
Oh. So your very serious and unbiased analysis is that the race of the victim had nothing to do with his selection as a target?
Another Holocene Human
@Cacti: Seasoning is on the fries.
Overrated.
Villago Delenda Est
@Tone In DC:
This is true. It would reduce the purchasing of blow and the hiring of hookers by 1% parasites by probably about 5%.
Economic disaster!
burnspbesq
@? Martin:
The value proposition for fast food, in general, is consistency. It’s why people go to McDonald’s on the Champs Elysees. Del Taco consistently delivers wholesome and good-tasting quasi-Mexican food at affordable prices.
Yeah, I have two independent quick-serve Mexican joints within five minutes of me that kill Del Taco, but independent neighborhood joints are a hit-or-miss proposition, and I’m certainly not going to risk it when I’m hundreds of miles from home.
Another Holocene Human
@Davis X. Machina: Thanks for the update. As a Masshole, all I know about Maine is it’s the place where people with connections register their cars.
Davis X. Machina
@Tone In DC: Don’t be dissin’ those Whigs. Federal investment in internal improvements, protective tariffs, public education, anti-expansionist foreign policy… and the Conscience Whigs were anti-slavery, to boot.
We could do worse. In some ways, Obama is the last Whig.
Davis X. Machina
@Another Holocene Human: I’m a Dorchester-born transplant. My children will always be Mainers, but after 30 years, I still bear the flatlander taint. They let me vote and stuff, though, they’re nice that way.
schrodinger's cat
@gene108: Its not just the US, see for example the RSS in India.
burnspbesq
@Ted & Hellen:
There is not a shred of evidence to support your hypothesis that race was a factor. When you’ve got some, come back and we’ll reopen the conversation. Until then, get back under the bridge where you belong, you third-rate Bart DiPalma impersonator.
Mike in NC
@Villago Delenda Est:
In the event of a strike, the 1%ers would expect the government to step in like MacArthur did during the Bonus Army March of 1932 with tanks, bayonets, and tear gas.
Feature, not bug, to those folks.
Seanly
It’s getting close to time for another revolution (not that I advocate violence). I think there was some research that showed going back as far as 4 to 5 centuries ago that rising inequity often forced the hand of the dispossessed.
We’re not going to see any means to address our equity issues in the USA until there is something more potent than Occupy Wall Street and something more honestly grassroots than the Tea Party.
Roger Moore
@burnspbesq:
I think Kogi might have something to do with it, also, too.
burnspbesq
@Another Holocene Human:
The only seasoning that should ever be applied to fries is Old Bay.
? Martin
@The Red Pen: Yeah. The complete inability to get basic math is astounding.
The average McDonalds serves 1,500 people @ $5 per each day. That’s $7,500 day. Food cost is 25% leaving $5,600. Payroll cost is 20%. Rent is about the same as payroll. The rest is profit, advertising, utilities, etc. A 50% increase in pay would drive up the average bill from $5 to $5.50. Basically, it would wipe out the dollar menu which are loss-leader items.
20% payroll for wages is about the norm for restaurants. Maybe as high as 30% at sit-down places (which need more staff/customer as there are far fewer turns, so the wages get more widely distributed).
burnspbesq
@Roger Moore:
Whoever came up with the idea for a kimchee quesadilla should get a bonus and stock options.
Trollhattan
@Roger Moore:
“Del Taco: Where the salt shaker is also the chef!”
? Martin
@Roger Moore: Mmm. Korean short rib tacos.
But I’ll run to Chronic Taco over Del Taco any day of the week.
Trollhattan
@burnspbesq:
We have a Korean taco joint and holy hell, is that place awesome!
Spaghetti Lee
I work part-time at a swimming pool store and earn minimum wage. I’m on very good terms with my boss but I honestly don’t know her opinion on labor issues and strikes (she seems mostly non-political, with perhaps a slight lean to the left) and I don’t know any of her supervisors’ thoughts on the matter either. There is an NLRB document in our break room stating that employees cannot be fired for attempting to form a union or go on strike, but I don’t know if that’s actually enforced, if it applies to part time employees, how to legally defend myself if I get attacked for going on strike, and so forth. Given how young I am, this is the first job I’ve ever had, and I suspect it’s easier for people with more experience in the working world in terms of dealing with bosses, etc. to entertain going on strike.
In short, I very much support the idea of a general strike to raise the minimum wage, but I’m very scared and unsure of what it might do to me personally. I’m not trying to be selfish-I have no need to say IGMFY when what I “got” is minimum wage on a 22-hour work week-so much as scared of the unknown. Any tips?
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
I wouldn’t know; In 20+ years of living in Southern California, I’ve somehow managed to avoid eating at Del Taco. I did know somebody in college who liked going their and asking for the Laplacian burger* just to see the puzzled look on the faces on the people taking his order.
*For those who don’t get it, this is a mathematician’s joke about the Double Del burger. Yes, I went to the ultimate geek school.
Spaghetti Lee
But as worried as I am about what a general strike would do to me, I know I’m not the most important one here:
“The top executives in these companies make huge salaries, and the corporations make record profits every year,” said Terrance Wise, 34, a father of three who earns $9.30 an hour at Burger King in Kansas City, Mo., where he has worked for eight years.
34-year-old father of three. 8 years at the same place. Less than 10 bucks an hour. Jesus fucking Christ. And there are millions of people in situations as bad or worse. I don’t know how they do it, day after day.
Look, when I was filling out job applications as a minor, they all obsessively asked about my legal status as an adult and who my legal guardians were, so that shit isn’t a secret. Is there something impossible about tiered wages? Keep it at a low level if they’re under 18 and living at home, higher if they’re in college or living away from home but still being supported by parents, and higher still if they’re a main income earner for their family. That shit’s not hard-just ask the employees what their situation is. I mean, I know why this isn’t happening-CEOs like using “teenager on their first job” as a human shield for why they can’t pay the 30-year-old single parents a living wage-but there’s no objective reason why it couldn’t happen, right?
eldorado
@Spaghetti Lee: the way i understand it, one of the features of the fast-food walkouts has been community support for the workers. when they return to their job for the next shift, the community makes sure they show with him/her and let the owner know that they are not going to stand for the person to be hassled because of this.
The Moar You Know
@burnspbesq: QFT. I had a meal at a “Mexican” place in Norfolk, VA, that, had I been of a slightly more violent mindset, would have ended with me burning the joint down. The tragic thing was, they had Mexicans working there, but not as cooks.
@Cacti: I have had the unmitigated pleasure of New Mexican food, and while it’s not what I grew up with, it’s fucking fantastic.
Anoniminous
@The Moar You Know:
Local store has Hatch chilies for sale. $18 for a 30 lb bag.
(neener, neener)
If you like New Mexican food you’d better hurry back. TexMex is driving it out because Texans.
David in NY
@Cacti: I have inside info in New York. I’ll ask my informant (son) if there’s any way to find out generally. The 35 cities to be hit are probably knowable, and could be one near you. There may, of course, be a wish for an element of surprise, so I’m not sure how much will be published or leaked.
The whole thing is being run by a combination of SEIU people and local community organizers of various kinds. So if you know anybody in those circles, they may know. Otherwise, just look for crowds outside your local McBurger.
The Other Chuck
@Davis X. Machina: Be that as it may, I’d still like to see the Republican party go the way of the Whigs. And heck, the way you’re putting it, they’d even adopt better policies on their way to oblivion.
BillinGlendaleCA
@The Moar You Know:
King Taco is yummy, especially the locations in the hood.
Origuy
I ate at Pizza Hut once in Barcelona, after I’d been in Spain two weeks and craved pizza. I probably could have found a place run by Italians, but it might have been an unfamiliar form of pizza that wouldn’t have satisfied my craving. I went to McDonalds once in Moscow, when I just wanted something quick before spending the afternoon in the Pushkin Museum. On the other hand, I ate several times at Elki-Palki (Ёлки Палки), which is a Russian chain that has a great selection of traditional Russian food.
lojasmo
Austrailia’s minimum is $15.96/hour.. Unemployment there is 5.7%
The more you know.
fuckwit
@Punchy: Negotiation 101: always ask for what you deserve, not what you think you can get. Let them beat you back. That’s negotiation. And, a multi-year contract with gradual increases over time is, AFAIK, totally normal for a Union contract. If it’s $15/hr in 2018, with incremental steps towards there until then, so be it.
burnspbesq
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Yes it is. I discovered King Taco when they used to bring their mobile thing to Galaxy games at the Rose Bowl. Have been to Washington/Los Angeles near downtown, Olympic near the 5, and Peck Rd. in El Monte. All great.
We need King Taco in OC. Although we have Wahoo’s and Taco Mesa, those are a different deal.
burnspbesq
The best Mexican food on the East Coast of which I am aware, Anita’s in Vienna, VA, is New Mexico style. Back-story is that the woman who ran it was from Albuquerque, her husband worked for the USPS, and when he got transferred to DC she decided to do something about the then-complete absence of decent Mexican food in DC.
Yo, eemom, take the kids to Anita’s tonight, even if they haven’t done anything to deserve it.
polyorchnid octopunch
@Ted & Hellen: That would be because they’re not trying to use SYG in any way nor are they trying to suggest it was justified. They fully copped to the crime and are going to pay the price. It’s hardly Trayvon in reverse.
Just another day in the best of all possible nations in the best of all possible worlds.
Austin Loomis
@Seanly:
And I suspect we’re not going to see that until television is destroyed and legions of addicts without a fix are forced to wake up and watch the Reality Film live.
gene108
@The Other Chuck:
You do realize the Whig Party became the Republican Party, when they added a plank against the expansion of slavery to non-slave states and territories to their platform?
Unlike the Know Nothing Party, the Whigs didn’t just die off.
Maybe the closest thing to a political party in this country dying off were the Federalists, who fell apart in the early 1800’s leaving the U.S. effectively under one party rule, until Andrew Jackson ruffled enough feathers that the Whigs started to become a national force in politics.
VidaLoca
@Spaghetti Lee:
Where I live (Milwaukee) it’s the SEIU doing the main work, organizing and bankrolling. Backed (as David @ #122 notes) by every union in town that is able to stand up and fight, and a whole bunch of community and religious groups. As someone else above noted, the tactic is to walk off the job and have the community folks accompany the strikers back to work the following day. So far it has been completely effective: not one striker has lost their job here (not that there haven’t been attempts to fire people).
rikyrah
@Ted & Hellen:
1. the crime was investigated
2. the perps have been charged and by the time it’s all over, will be guests of the penal system for decades to come.
3. the system worked, as it so often does when it’s a WHITE victim and BLACK perpetrators.
so, what the fuck is your point for posting it.
Debbie(aussie)
@Yatsuno: you’re welcome. But who knows how long we will still have either? Bloody so-called conservatives. All a bunch of FYIGM assholes!
negative 1
@Ted & Hellen: You think that ‘we were bored’ was a cover-up excuse? You may be as dumb as you sound…
For everyone else —
The interesting question about the general strike is how long it will go on. Most strikes these days are toothless, a ‘one day’ protest that does nothing. Strikes were meant to bring hardship in the one area capitalists can understand it – the wallet. For this to rise to the level of the foment of the labor movement, it would last a while with a few molotov cocktails, just sayin’.