Low-wage workers plan walkouts, protests Wednesday to gain $15 hourly pay
Heartened by growing support for their cause and recent pay hikes by large corporate employers, America’s low-wage workers will continue their fight for higher pay Wednesday with protests, rallies and one-day walkouts scheduled in more than 200 cities.
The actions are expected to attract thousands of participants in what organizers are calling the “most widespread mobilization ever by U.S. workers seeking higher pay.”
Fast food cooks and cashiers are expected to strike in 230 cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City, Mo., and Raleigh.
Critics warn that raising wages for low-skilled workers might lead employers to eliminate positions or cut hours for the very people the higher pay is designed to help.
The growing effort to boost the wages and bargaining clout of workers in non-union establishments took off in November 2012, when 200 fast food employees in New York City left their jobs in protest, calling for $15 hourly wages and the right to unionize.
Since then, strong financial support from the Service Employees International Union has helped the “Fight for 15” movement expand to home care workers, retail employees, child care workers, airport service workers and even adjunct college professors seeking $15,000 per course.
International protesters, in solidarity with their U.S. counterparts, will march in more than 100 cities in 35 countries, organizers say. That includes a one-day walkout by fast food workers in New Zealand and by restaurant, hotel and tourism workers in Italy.
Experts say the growth, organization and sweep of the “Fight for 15” movement is unique.
“In my lifetime, it’s relatively unprecedented,” said Harry Holzer, a professor of public policy at Georgetown University who’s an expert on the low-wage labor market.
Following the loss of more than 8 million jobs in the Great Recession, the Occupy Wall Street movement helped channel the public’s growing anger at perceived corporate greed in the financial services sector.
Fight for 15 is an extension of that movement, seeking financial and social justice for perceived economic inequalities, said Sylvia Allegretto, an economist at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California, Berkeley.
“Low-wage workers really paid the price for the Great Recession brought to you by the wizards of Wall Street who are now booming,” Allegretto said. “CEO pay is back to being hundreds of times more than what the typical worker makes. Corporate profits are doing very well. And these workers are saying ‘Wait a minute. What about us?’”
This story was originally published April 14, 2015 at 11:39 PM with the headline "Low-wage workers plan walkouts, protests Wednesday to gain $15 hourly pay."