Fast-food workers strike, seeking $15 wage, political muscle

[AF-Roger]

Fast-food workers demanding a $15 an hour wage walked out in dozens of cities early Tuesday morning, kicking off a year-long campaign to muster the political power of 64 million low-wage workers in next year's presidential election.

The protests, which will take place in 270 cities, mark the workers' largest show of force in the three years since they launched a series of rallies to call for higher pay and the right to unionize, according to Fight for $15, which represents the workers and is backed by the Service Employees International Union.

Tens of thousands of workers and supporters were expected to take part in Tuesday's demonstrations, which began around dawn at McDonald's outlets in downtown Brooklyn, Boston and Philadelphia, among other locations. Protests in as many as 700 additional cities were planned by low-paid home care, child care, farm,FedEx, nursing home and other workers throughout the day.

Read more Fast-food workers strike, seeking $15 wage, political muscle

 

[Kelsey]

I really don't see how raising their wages to $15 an hour will be beneficial in anyway. It's just going to have to increase the wages of other jobs even the ones that already make well over that. I can only imagine everything that we now buy (and complain about the prices of) just getting more expensive because of this. So in reality by increasing the wages what are we helping? The cost of living will just keep going up. I don't want to comment on the easiness of their job on why the wages should not be increased but rather look at the big picture. Everyone in the US already complains about gas prices but I can just imagine them going up 2 or 3 dollars because of this.