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FILE PHOTO Fast food workers rallied at a Charlotte Burger King in 2014 for wage increases to $15 an hour. Similar protests are planned across the nation Nov. 29 at fast food restaurants and airports as part of the Fight for $15 movement.

Workers in Charlotte are joining the national Fight for $15 protests on Nov. 29.



Organizers announced Monday their four-year national campaign for wage increases, workers’ rights and health care insurance will include strikes at fast food restaurants and 20 airports serving 2 million passengers and mass civil disobedience in front of fast food restaurants.

Workers in Durham and Greenville also plan protests.

Baggage handlers, cabin cleaners, janitors and wheelchair attendants at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, the world’s fourth busiest, will strike to protest against unfair labor practices by their employers —including retaliation, intimidation, threats and harassment when workers attempt to join together to demand wage increases and union rights.

“Americans are united around our desire for a better future for our kids and an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top,” said Betty Douglas, a McDonald’s worker from St. Louis who earns $7.90 an hour after eight years on the job. “We are also protesting to reject the politics of divisiveness that tears America apart by race, religion, ethnicity and gender. And we won’t back down until the economy is fixed for all workers and we win justice for all people in our nation.”

The Fight for $15 movement started four years ago when 200 fast-food cooks and cashiers in New York City first walked off their jobs, sparking a movement for $15 and union rights that has compelled private-sector employers and local and state elected representatives to raise pay for 22 million Americans. North Carolina workers have joined walkouts during that time, especially in the fast-food industry.

The election result underscored a deep economic uncertainty among voters frustrated that the recovery is not translating into better jobs across the economy. When given a chance to choose higher wages, voters overwhelming do so: all five minimum wage ballot initiatives passed on Election Day, with voters turning out to approve the measures in four states and one city that raise pay from between $12 per hour to $15 an hour. In the state initiatives, “yes” votes exceeded the vote totals for either of the major parties’ presidential candidates.

Living-wage advocates have pushed Charlotte City Council to consider an ordinance, but HB2, signed into law earlier this year by Gov. Pat McCrory, blocked jurisdictions from passing such measures.

At 6 a.m. Nov 29 — the time New York fast food workers walked off the job in 2012 to launch the Fight for $15 movement — fast-food workers plan to stage of “day of disruption” in more than 340 cities across the country. They’ll be joined by political allies and community leaders, including N.C. NAACP President the Rev. William Barber .

Beginning at noon, workers will take their protests to some of the nation’s busiest airports, including Chicago O’Hare International, Los Angeles International and Newark International, which help generate $36 billion in profits for the airline industry.



“Every day we make sure passengers get to their gates safely, get their luggage and get on a clean plane, but our families can’t get by,” said Nancy Vasquez, a skycap at Newark Liberty International Airport, who earns $2.10/hour plus whatever unreliable tips she can get. “If huge corporations like the major airlines and McDonald’s paid us $15/hour and respected our right to form a union, our lives and this country would be very different. The Fight for $15 shows that we have to take action, and even risk arrest, and that’s what we’re going to do Nov. 29.”

While most businesses and states have resisted calls to raise wages to the $15 per hour standard, some have made concessions.

It has become standard in New York, California, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Home care workers in Massachusetts and Oregon now earn $15 per hour and corporations like Facebook, Aetna, Amalgamated Bank, JP Morgan Chase and Nationwide Insurance have raised pay to that standard or higher.



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