As St. Louis fast food workers were going back to work from their Wednesday evening to Thursday strike, Detroit became the latest city to be hit by this spring's wave of fast food strikes. Organizers report that more than 100 St. Louis workers joined the strike, and Detroit is expected to be bigger ; in fact, Josh Eidelson writes, "Organizers say that by day's end, today's strike could be the largest fast food work stoppage yet, topping last month's 400-strong strike in New York." We won't know the total number of strikers until the end of the day, but the strike is already making itself felt pretty decisively at some restaurants:

The strikes in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, and now Detroit share some backing organizations, like SEIU, and a shared strategy of one-day strikes by a minority of workers with community support. As we saw in New York, workers who are initially reluctant to join a first strike may join the second one after seeing the first one have some success. More generally, there's a growing realization that these jobs—jobs so many people are relying on to support their families—are not getting better without a fight:



“After what I would consider well over three decades of wage suppression, workers in this particular industry—and then I think it’ll go to others—are realizing that their only way up the wage ladder is through their own organizations,” CUNY labor studies lecturer Ed Ott said Wednesday. Ott, a board member of the community organizing group that spearheaded the New York fast food strike, added, “The only way these workers are going to be able to advance these jobs is through unionization. And I think that idea has finally gotten traction.”

The question is if the strikes will spread and grow enough to make the fast food companies pay attention.

Michigan's minimum wage is $7.40, or just under $15,400 for a year of full-time work, slightly under the 2013 poverty guideline for a family of two. And full-time work is something many fast food workers don't get anyway.