Fast-food workers prepare for strike

Jason Hughes (left) and Shonda Roberts co-organized the one-day strike and rallies. Jason Hughes (left) and Shonda Roberts co-organized the one-day strike and rallies. Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Fast-food workers prepare for strike 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

A series of one-day strikes by fast-food workers that has been rolling through America since November will reach the Bay Area on Thursday, when hundreds of employees are expected to walk off their low-paying jobs at McDonald's and other eateries to demand higher wages and more working hours.

Workers have been planning the strike for months and plan to form a union in its aftermath to press their call for minimum $15-an-hour pay, co-organizer Shonda Roberts of Oakland said.

"We just want to be able to make enough money to provide the basic necessities of life: food, rent, clothing for my children," said the 38-year-old mother of three, who works at Kentucky Fried Chicken.

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"It's not fair that the top managers of our businesses make enough to put their kids through prestigious colleges, buy houses and live well, and I am on food stamps and need public health care.

"There are millions of people like me, and I think they can afford to pay us $15 an hour," she said. "We are worth it."

Organizers said workers will walk off their jobs at 37 businesses in the East Bay and stage three rallies in Oakland, beginning at 6:30 a.m. and ending at 4:30 p.m. near the O.co Coliseum.

10 cities

In addition to McDonald's, targeted restaurants include Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Burger King. The businesses are in 10 cities from Richmond to Fremont. None is in San Francisco, where the minimum wage of $10.55 is the highest in the United States.

Co-organizer Jason Hughes of Hayward, who works at McDonald's, said about 800 workers and supporters indicated they would participate in the rallies. And though the strikes - which were purposely timed just before Labor Day and a day after the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom - are not expected to empty each business and shut it down for the day, he said some workers "are nervous."

"We're taking every step we can to make sure we don't get canned for doing this," he said. "We know our rights, and the more people we have with us, the more voice we have. Under federal law, we cannot be fired for union organizing."

Industry representatives said the need for higher wages is exaggerated.

"We've watched this percolating in other parts of the country, but the conversation is being driven by misinformation," said Angelica Pappas, spokeswoman for the California Restaurant Association. "With an industry with as young a workforce as ours, the picture is different from other industries."

Strike organizers say the median age of fast-food workers is 28 and that more than a quarter are raising at least one child. But Pappas said 71 percent of restaurant workers are younger than 25, and 46 percent of those are teenagers.

"Painting our industry as being one where everyone is stuck at $8 an hour supporting a family of four is just not the case," she said. "Only 5 percent of restaurant workers earn only minimum wage, and a lot of our workers are young people who like having a flexible schedule while going to school.

"It's a great way to enter the workforce, but that doesn't mean everyone is looking for a lifetime career in it."

Corporate response

The corporate offices of McDonald's and Burger King sent The Chronicle short statements contending the workers' complaints are misguided.

The protesters say the median wage for cashiers, cooks and others who work in the $200 billion fast-food industry is $8.94 an hour. That works out to $18,595 a year with full-time shifts - just under the federal poverty line of $19,530 for a family of three.

The one-day strike movement began in November when the New York group Fast Food Forward and others organized a walkout, and since then, workers in a dozen cities have followed suit. On Thursday, employees in and around at least 35 other cities, including New York and Seattle, are expected to also abandon their griddles and counters.

The strikers have been helped by religious, labor and community organizations, and locally those groups include the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy and the Service Employees International Union Local 1021.

The main goals - along with raising fast-food wages far above the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour and the $8 state minimum - include mandating more full-time shifts.

They don't want to end part-time options, but they want to lessen the frequency with which employers give workers hours just below full-time status so they don't have to provide health and other benefits.

Pappas said the push appears to be driven by "big unions trolling for new membership," but SEIU Local 1021 Political Director Chris Daly rejected that notion.

"These fast-food workers are forming their own union," he said. "We are not supporting this in an attempt to make SEIU larger.

"We are just interested generally in the plight of working people, and we will be walking the pickets making sure these courageous workers who are stepping up don't lose their jobs."