Kendall Fells is the organizing director of the Fight for $15.

Journalists might seem to have little in common with fast-food workers. But by organizing, Gawker Media employees expressed the same need to have a say in their work lives in the face of economic strains as the cooks and cashiers who have protested for a $15 an hour wage and the right to form a union.

Hamilton Nolan, a writer who was one of the leaders of the Gawker drive, was surprised and encouraged by the fast-food workers' success. “They've accomplished a lot, they seem to be still going strong," he said. "One reason for that is America as a country has moved. It’s not the same place it was 10 years ago, because of the recession and widening inequality."

The 200 New York City fast-food workers who walked off the job in 2012 have galvanized others across the service sector.

The 200 New York City fast-food workers who walked off the job in November 2012, sparking a movement that has been widely credited with changing the nation’s politics, have also galvanized others across the service sector.

Adjunct professors, child care, home care and airport services workers have joined in the Fight for $15, a movement that is proving that collective action actually works.

By standing together and going on strike, fast-food workers have turned $15, “from absurdly ambitious to mainstream in the span of a few years,” according to The Washington Post. Fifteen an hour is a reality for workers in Sea-Tac, Seattle and San Francisco, and at companies like Facebook and Aetna. Workers in Los Angeles, New York and St. Louis are on the cusp of winning $15 as well. And employees across the country, from the Los Angeles Unified School District to Johns Hopkins Hospital, are winning $15 via collective bargaining.

They’ve also forced multibillion companies like Walmart and McDonald’s to raise pay, though not by nearly enough. Walmart has also responded to workers’ strikes by improving policies around uniforms, store temperatures, scheduling and pregnancy.

Smaller victories are being won every day at individual fast-food stores all over the country. In Los Angeles, workers at a McDonald’s who faced delays receiving paychecks, marched on management, and demanded their checks immediately. Within an hour, they received payment, and an apology. In Pittsburgh, a Wendy’s manager who had abused workers for years was fired after workers demanded change.

These underpaid workers fighting for 15 have shown the writers and editors at Gawker, and thousands of others, that taking collective action leads to powerful change.



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