Strikers are asking for at least $15 an hour — more than double the national minimum wage. Fast food strike takes over 60 cities

Hold the pickles. Hold the lettuce. Hold the whole burger. The fast food strike has begun.

Thousands of fast-food workers nationwide are taking the fight for higher wages directly to their corporate employers after seeing little hope in Congress for increasing minimum wage. Workers at fast-food chains such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and KFC in at least 60 different cities began their strike Thursday, which has been dubbed “National Strike Against Low Pay Day.”


Organizers reported Thursday that the strike has spread to some unexpected locations and fast food restaurants have been closed in several cities, including Raleigh, N.C., Seattle, New York City and Milwaukee.

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The workers are asking for at least $15 an hour — more than double the current national minimum wage of $7.25 — and a right to form a union without retaliation. Several members of Congress, who support increasing the minimum wage but realize they don’t have enough support to pass reform, will be joining the workers in different cities.

Democratic Reps. Judy Chu and Barbara Lee of California, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, David Cicilline of Rhode Island, John Conyers of Michigan, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green of Texas, and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, along with Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) are expected to join the workers, according to confirmed guest lists sent to organizers.

Ellison, who stopped by an event at Church’s Chicken, in Detroit — where 200 fast-food workers on strike had gathered — said he heard several stories from the workers about their financial struggles. He said he was inspired to get to work when he gets back to Washington, D.C.

“It may not be the most promising environment in Congress,” Ellison said on the minimum wage issue. “But we need to fight anyway.”

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“I’m going to bring back a renewed sense of urgency to raising the minimum wage, to protect the Affordable Care Act and make sure that when we look at trade bills … we need to ask, ‘How is this going to affect low-wage workers, manufacturing workers,’” he said.

Some of the Democratic mayoral candidates in New York, where the strikes first began last November, are also expected to participate.

The strikes spread to different cities earlier this year and the “ Low Pay is Not OK” movement has grown with major backing from the Service Employees International Union and support from a coalition of smaller community, clergy and labor groups.

The Service Employees International Union is one the largest unions in the country and a political heavyweight. The union’s super PAC spent $13.2 million during the 2012 election.

“Our members have been completely inspired by these workers who have been willing to sacrifice a day’s pay,” Mary Kay Henry, president of the SEIU, said in an interview.

“I’ve never in my 32 years in the labor movement seen anything like this before,” she said, adding that the $15 demand is reasonable given the billions of dollars the fast-food industry brings in annually.

What the fast food workers are hoping to accomplish, a doubling of their wages by their employers, might seem ambitious, but it is no less ambitious than the effort to raise the national minimum wage.

President Barack Obama has previously called for increasing minimum wage to $9 an hour, but top Republicans such as House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida have maintained that increasing the minimum wage will lead to job loss. The minimum wage was last increased on the federal level in 2009.

An amendment offered by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) to increase the federal minimum wage was defeated in the House in March with every GOP member voting against it.

“Listen, when people are asking the question, ‘Where are the jobs?’ why would we want to make it harder for small employers to hire people?” Boehner said on the issue earlier this year. “I’ve got 11 brothers and sisters on every rung of the economic ladder. I know about this issue as much as anybody in this town.”

The national fast-food workers strike follows the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington and comes just before Labor Day.

“The timing can’t be better,” said Ernest McBride, a 58-year-old employee at Whataburger in Dallas who said he makes minimum wage and plans to join in the strike.

“We’re stuck in a rut,” McBride said. “Congress doesn’t understand what we’re going through. We’re just living from payday to payday. We deserve better than that. I feel like somebody has got to say something.”

In the past, such strikes on a smaller scale have forced some fast-food chain stores to close temporarily. But McDonald’s isn’t expressing much concern about the impending event.

“It will be business as usual for us,” Casillas Ofelia, a spokeswoman, said in an email. “We respect our employees’ rights to voice their opinions. Employees who participate in these activities and return to work are welcomed back and scheduled to work their regular shifts as usual. … The story promoted by the individuals organizing these events does not provide an accurate picture of what it means to work at McDonald’s.”

Bryson Thornton, a spokesman for Burger King, noted that “more than 99 percent of all Burger King restaurants in the United States are independently owned and operated by third-party franchisees. “As a corporation, we respect the rights of all workers,” he said. “However, Burger King Corp. does not make hiring, firing or other employment-related decisions for our franchisees.”

The National Restaurant Association, the powerful lobbying group that represents the food service industry, suggested that the growing media attention surrounding the strike event misses some key points. The group maintains that only 5 percent of restaurant employees earn the minimum wage and said those that do are predominantly working part-time and half are teenagers.

“We welcome a national discussion on wages, but it should be based on facts,” Scott DeFife, the group’s vice president for policy and government affairs, said in a statement. “The restaurant industry is the nation’s second-largest private sector employer, and our industry is an industry of opportunity.”

The group spent more than $1 million on lobbying the federal government in the first half of the year, according to Senate lobbying disclosures.