Once again, the folks that believe they are worth more than the job economically entails are going to go on strike on Thursday (reformatted, emphasis mine)
Fast-food workers plan nationwide protest Thursday
The campaign to get fast-food workers paid at least $15 a hour resumes later this week. Union organizers say workers will walk off their jobs Thursday in 150 cities nationwide. Restaurants that they say will be affected include McDonald’s (MCD), Burger King (BKW) , Wendy’s and KFC, which is owned by Yum Brands (YUM). The action would be the latest in a two-year effort to get employers to pay them a minimum wage of $15 an hour and allow them to form unions without retaliation.
Nancy Salgado, a 27 year old single mother of a 3 year old boy and an 8 year old girl, plans to strike. Salgado works at a McDonald’s in the Logan Square area of Chicago earning $8.25 an hour, or about $600 a month take home pay. After splitting rent and utilities with 3 roommates, and paying for child care, she’s left with a little over $100 a month for food and everything else. “If I have a dollar at the end of the month it’s a miracle,” Salgado said.
Once again, entry level jobs are just that – entry level. They are meant to give entry level workers experience and skills to rise upward – not to provide for a family. But with the stultifying effects that the Obama Administration has had on the labor market, it has fundamentally transformed our economy to being not much different than Europe’s (go ahead, go look how locked in and regulated that is – and the millions of younger and low skilled workers that either can’t get a start or advance).
… Union organizers say the movement has elevated the debate about inequality in the U.S. and helped raise the minimum wage in some states, including Connecticut and New Jersey.
No, this is, yet again, another redefinition of our language – it isn’t about inequality (even as that is how the Socialists are trying to redefine the situation to be). This is the attempted elimination of entry level positions – and the SEIU organizers know this but the workers do not. And herein lies the problem
Salgado, who didn’t finish high school, said she’ll do whatever she has to to win the fight for a $15 minimum wage and a union. “My 8 year old daughter tells me ‘Everything is OK mommy,’ and I tell her, ‘yes,'” said Salgado. “But when she goes to sleep I know it’s not OK.”
My take? Go join that strike. Just be warned that you may not like what happens afterwards but the SEIU organizers will have you blame, not them, but the franchisees. Again, the dividing of America of the many for the power of the few.
The problem is that entry level jobs cannot support higher wages – even if you took away the CEO pay, it wouldn’t amount to much to the individual worker. The SEIU organizers know this already. If you don’t have the skills (and not having a high school diploma, single, and having two kids), you aren’t going to get the pay. No skills, low pay. Want higher pay? Get skills that are in demand – the only ones that profit in a union are the union bosses – just go see how much they are paid.
Sad to see that the Socialist SEIU union is the one pushing this as those SEIU organizers KNOW what is going to happen in the mid to long term already. They know that people like Nancy Selgado will get fired or laid off. They will simply get replaced by the order taking kiosks that are already being rolled out because Government has arbitrarily heightened the cost of labor with all kinds of mandates, with Obamacare being the latest and most expensive one.
What will happen, as we have pointed out before, is that employers will work to cut their expenses. Congratulation SEIU, you are forcing people like Nancy to the curb as the hamburger robots will simply take over. Pretty much, fast food has gone from being artisanal to minimal assembly line drudge work with few skills needed – it doesn’t take much to make that last step.
