Fast food wage protests hit Houston

Protestors along with Congressman Al Green and State Senator Sylvia Garcia, right, walk in protest of wages paid to fast food employees, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2013, in Houston. Protestors joined the national movement to try and increase wages to $15 per hour for minimum wage. less Protestors along with Congressman Al Green and State Senator Sylvia Garcia, right, walk in protest of wages paid to fast food employees, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2013, in Houston. Protestors joined the national ... more Photo: Cody Duty, Houston Chronicle Photo: Cody Duty, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Fast food wage protests hit Houston 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

More than a handful of Houston's fast food workers converged on the Burger King near the corner of Westheimer and Montrose on Thursday morning to speak with reporters about what they see as unlivable wages offered by Burger King and other popular fast food establishments.

The plan was for a worker to enter Burger King at 6 a.m. and hand over a strike notice but the doors to the dining room remained locked as an employee sat inside on the phone.

Protest leaders also wanted to march to the nearby McDonald's on Waugh, but since it is undergoing a facelift, it didn't have the same effect as Burger King and the Jack in the Box a block away, which was already humming with morning commuters getting their breakfasts.

By 6 a.m. there were about twenty protesters on hand, not including organizers, some from Service Employees International Union.

For today's protests, workers were calling for an increase in the minimum wage, from $7.25 an hour to $15.00 an hour. Their signs said as much too, with one saying in red and black paint, "Hold The Burger / Hold The Fries / We Want Our Wages Supersized".

Congressman Al Green, State Representative Armando Walle and State Senator Sylvia Garcia were on hand to speak in front of TV cameras as the hour began.

Local pastor David Madison read a statement from his iPad, comparing today's series of protests to the march that Martin Luther King Jr. led fifty years ago this week.

"A living wage equals an ability to participate in the economy. A living wage equals the ability to not depend on public assistance," said Madison, speaking just as the sun was coming up over Montrose.

He also reiterated that it wasn't right that some fast food CEOs were making "hundreds of dollars a second" as workers struggled to get by.

Representative Green spoke briefly to the Chronicle before going in front of morning TV. He also made the connection between the King march and what was going on Thursday morning.

"Fifteen dollars an hour is enough to take care of yourself. Some of these people now make $15,080 a year, which is way below the poverty level," Green said. He would like the minimum wage to catch up with inflation, approaching the living wage.

The current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour only adds up to $15,080 a year, which is $8,500 below the poverty line, according to a press release.

The average age of fast food workers was also a topic of discussion for the cameras. Madison and others say that it's not just teens that are manning drive-thru windows and counters, but people in the 30s, 40s and beyond, who can't find work except for these positions.

Scott Rickard works for a local awning company and was trying to get into Burger King for his morning meal only to find the door locked. He found the protest ridiculous.

"Fifteen dollars an hour is not reasonable for working at Burger King," Rickard said. He's been going to the location for some time and was attempting to call inside the restaurant to let them open the doors for him.

Rickard said that these fast food jobs aren't supposed to be "forever jobs" -- meaning that you aren't supposed to get comfortable at them. He sees these positions as stepping stones, not the final stop.

Jose Avila, 22, has worked at a Subway in Bellaire since dropping out of college.

"We're worth more than $7.25," Avila said, adding that he didn't find the wage respectful to people who deal with so much on a daily basis.

He's currently working on going back to school to study finance. He makes $7.75 in his Subway management position.

Avila says that he wishes the older employees around him would get paid more, since some of them are supporting families.

Avila's salary is slightly above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Nationally, the median wage for front-line fast-food workers is $8.94 per hour, according to the National Employment Law Project, which advocates for low-wage workers.

Robbin McCoy has worked at the Jack in the Box in Montrose for two years now. She came out to support the cause on her day off.

The 51-year-old and has worked a multitude of fast food gigs in her time. She remembers when the hourly minimum wage was just $3.35. She says Pizza Hut has been the least stressful of all of them. As for Jack in the Box, she says the pay, $7.50 per hour, irks her considering the myriad number of tasks she is responsible for during a standard shift. She gets no health benefits, though she works over 40 hours a week.

"They've promised me team leader positions but nothing has come of it," McCoy says. She cleans houses, makes custom jewelry, and sometimes freelances at catered functions to make ends meet. Her son, 23, manages a Sonic in a small town nearby and he supports what his mother is doing today, she said.

By 6:40 a.m. the group is in front of Jack in the Box with Maria Fernandez from Service Employees International Union leading a series of chants through a bullhorn. It's a little disjointed, but she's loud and being heard by those in the drive-thru line. A few people on Montrose honk at the crowd.

They are only there for a few more minutes before the crowd trickles away to get into passenger vans to go eat breakfast. They are going back to Richmond and Fountain View at lunch time for another round of protests.