Fast food workers in New York City are following up their November action with another one-day strike, held on the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. The November strike involved about 200 workers across the city—a record—and today's is expected to be larger.

"We'll have double the number of strikers, four or five hundred workers on strike, and double the locations too," Jonathan Westin, executive director of New York Communities for Change, one of the groups organizing the Fast Food Forward campaign, told Sarah Jaffe. "We will have several stores where it will not just be minority strikes like it was last time, we will have the majority of workers at several stores out on strikes, making it hard for them to do business on this day." That prediction has held true at at least one restaurant:



“I’m behind on paying my cable and Con Ed bills,” said Ms. Verges, whose Burger King is at 141st Street and Broadway. “I don’t think $15 an hour is asking too much. I do it all. I do three or four jobs. I take orders, I make the orders. I work the cash register. I say, ‘Have a good day.’ I do the inventory. I take out the trash. I get down and scrub the floor. I don’t think $7.25 is nearly enough.”

Barrera, who’s paid the $7.25 minimum wage, said that a decent raise would allow him to stop skipping meals and start pursuing college. “Maybe I could afford to have a girlfriend, take her out on a date …” he added. “All of that money goes right now to just surviving.”

Workers, many making the minimum wage of $7.25 and few making more than $9.00, are fighting for a wage of $15.00. One worker, who hasn't gotten a raise above minimum wage in four years of work, told Steven Greenhouse:Josh Eidelson spoke to KFC worker Joe Barrera:Some workers reported retaliation, including firing, after the November strike, but community groups, clergy, and politicians joined the workers to protest, getting a worker fired from Wendy's for striking quickly reinstated. Most retaliation the workers face is more subtle than immediate firing, but clearly this campaign has only gained steam since it became public in November.