Ryan Rush

Danielle Ramsay
English 101TR
December 5, 2013
Fast-food Workers Looking for a Change
In November of 2012, over 20 Fast-food restaurants in New York City faced 200 workers
walking out. This one-day protest was held to demand changes in their workplace environment,
an increase in their wages, and the right to unionize.
According to journalist Alana Semuels of the Los Angeles Times, this event was sparked
by a Wal-Mart workers strike that occurred a week earlier and gained some success. Though
their goals were similar, the Fast-food workers have garnered, by far, more support for their
cause than the former.
In August of 2013, the protest of the restaurant workers had reached over 60 major cities
and brought in many more participants, including political organizations and union
representatives, not to mention the attention of major media outlets. Steven Greenhouse
announced in a recent article for the New York Times, that another protest is in the works for the
first week of December. This event is said to reach over 100 major cities.
Why is the Strike for 15 growing? Because they share goals that we Americans dream
to acquire in our own jobs. Higher wages, the right to unionize and a better workplace are the
pillars of these workers protests.
At $7.25 per hour, the federal minimum wage, the absolute lowest an American can earn
through work, doesnt allow those who earn it the ability to purchase more than the basic
necessities they need or less than that, especially in cases where they are providing for others as
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the main breadwinner. According to Jillian Berman of the Huffington Post, even when the
employee is making above minimum wage, her example using an $8.25 per hour maintenance
worker for McDonalds, they are hard pressed to make ends meet without some aid.
The other issue employees face with their wages is the number of hours they work in a
week. Many of them are working under 32 hours a week, which, by law, is the federal minimum
to be classified as full-time. By excluding them from this classification, employers are able to
get around overtime pay and the need to offer other employee benefits. Even the full-time
employees with higher wages are working under 40 hours per week (Berman).
Employers use these tactics to help boost their profits. Many owners of fast-food chains
are franchisees and have little control over pricing of the product they purchase and sell. The
one thing they do control is their workforce.
So to soften the deficit their wages and hours produce, workers turn to government
assistance programs. According to Berman, taxpayers are footing the bill to the tune of $3.8
billion a year for the 52% of families of these employees to be on those programs. So even if we
share a similar workplace dream, there are immediate concerns that draw others into this
movement.
But the restaurants have a different perspective on the matter. Though the increase in
wages would help lessen the burden on taxpayers and allow a raised standard of living for
restaurant workers, Paul Frumkin points out in his article for the Nations Restaurant News, that
it would have an effect on the franchisees, the customers, and most importantly, the creation of
jobs. More than 13 million workers are currently employed by the restaurant industry and only
5% of that is currently making the federal minimum wage (Frumkin).
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Also, $15 per hour is more than double the federal minimum wage. Wages that high
would make moving up within the restaurant chain much more difficult. Not to mention the
effect on prices the customers would have to pay to eat at these restaurants (Frumkin).
McDonalds has issued a statement that claimed their wages are law-abiding and
competitive to other jobs of the restaurant business (Berman). The restaurants dont think that
they are the problem when it comes to wages.
Restaurants, however, like to point their fingers in blame at someone other than the
employees or their own lack of paying a fair wage. Union organizers have come under the
scrutiny of these restaurants owners because unionizing their work force is viewed as
counterproductive to their thin margin of profit.
Unions also have other things at stake in these protests that restaurant owners like to tote
as the main cause for the unions involvement. Union membership has been dwindling since
1983. In 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unions had 11.3% members in
the workplace as compared to 1983s, 20.1% membership.
Kristen Painter, in an article for The Evening Sun, explains that unions are only lending
support for these protests instead of leading them. So, not only are restaurant owners mistaken
about the driving forces behind the protest, unions are not gaining new members, immediately.
But by doing so, unions are driving the debate that minimum wage and the treatment of
restaurant employees is unfair, highlighting that the Labor Movement is more important than
their own member numbers (Painter).
And when a restaurant employee is required to learn multiple skills that dont pertain to
the job they were hired on for, this creates a condition that is unfair to that employee. A cashier
could be required to learn how to run the grill or clean-up other areas in the restaurant that he
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doesnt frequent (Semuels). Additionally these skills are not rewarded through the employees
pay rate.
Employees also face a work environment of high turn-around. This means that many
people are hired on because only a few are expected to remain. Employees struggle with this
concept because it affects how the team functions with the constant addition or subtraction of co-
workers. It also creates an atmosphere that the employee is easily replaceable. Employees are
thus unmotivated and unsatisfied with their work experience and look for a way to change this,
either by quitting or organizing these protests.
But this isnt the case for all restaurants and their employees. Tim Carman wrote an
article for The Washington Post about an advocacy group known as the Restaurants
Opportunities Centers United. This group is based in 10 cities in the U.S. and supports the
protests, though indirectly. Their mission is to highlight those restaurants that exemplify the
ideal workplace through their annual National Diners Guide, which informs customers of
establishments that treat employees fairly, and provide information to employees about their
rights, much like the union but without the need for the employee to join.
But even this group finds difficulty in being heard. Restaurant owners see this guide as
an agenda to shut down their own restaurant if they dont make the cut. So they try to discredit
the group by creating their own studies of their restaurants and slandering the group through lies
about their agenda (Carman).
No outcome is apparent yet whether the workers will be heard and changes will occur or
things will return to normal and this will be like it never happened. But with the attention the
workers movement has gathered, they are going to be continuously pushing for change,
specifically to increase the standard of living of all restaurant employees, through wages,
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unionization, and workplace conditions. This may be the beginning of a new Labor Movement,
one where there is no need for a person to negotiate between the restaurant owners and its
employees. The employees are quite able to say what they need to and organize a protest in
more than 100 major cites effectively that the days of the union may be over.