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UncategorizedThe campaign for $15 an hour takes to the...

The campaign for $15 an hour takes to the Bay Area streets

Actions all over show broad labor, community support for fast-food workers

At  least 2,000 people rallied in Berkeley to support fast-food workers
At least 2,000 people rallied in Berkeley to support fast-food workers

By Tim Redmond

APRIL 15, 2015 – Bernardo Montiel works for Jack in the Box. His job is in the city of Alameda, where there’s no strong minimum-wage ordinance. He makes about $9 an hour.

And some weeks, he only gets about 15 hours of work.

Think about that: Before taxes, Montiel takes home about $135 a week. Hard to live anywhere on that; impossible in the Bay Area. “It’s not even much to give my mom to help make ends meet,” Montiel said.

So he was up early this morning, and spoke to more than 100 people who crowded at 6am into a McDonalds at 24th and Mission to demand a $15-an-hour wage for fast-food workers.

Bernardo Montiel earns about nine bucks an hour at Jack in the Box
Bernardo Montiel earns about nine bucks an hour at Jack in the Box

“Hold the burgers, hold the fries, make our wages supersize,” the union and community activists chanted.

The rally started in front of the restaurant, but the protesters soon moved inside, occupying almost every bit of space. A crew of police officers guarded the counter and tried to keep an aisle open for customers, but there weren’t many people coming in to buy food.

Union activists take over the 24th and Mission McDonalds
Union activists take over the 24th and Mission McDonalds

It was part of a national day of action to organize fast-food workers – some of the lowest-paid people in the country, many of whom have no benefits and completely unpredictable shifts.

Police try to protect the counter at McDonalds, where nobody was buying anything anyway
Police try to protect the counter at McDonalds, where nobody was buying anything anyway

Oakland and San Francisco have raised the local minimum wage, and the workers at this McDonald’s will be getting $12.25 an hour shortly, with increases up to $15 over the next three years.

That’s barely a living wage in a city where the median rent is $3,500 for a one-bedroom apartment. But for many fast-food workers, a raise to $15 would make a big difference.

For Montiel, that would represent a pay hike of more than 60 percent.

Fast-food workers have been difficult to organize; the giant corporations that run McDonalds, Burger King, and Jack in the Box aren’t friendly to labor, to say the least. The workers are often in desperate need of a paycheck, and live with the threat of getting fired (or losing most of their shifts) at the whim of management.

Mary Kay Henry, international president of SEIU, urges "$15 and a union" at the Berkeley rally
Mary Kay Henry, international president of SEIU, urges “$15 and a union” at the Berkeley rally

But hundreds of workers defied those odds and showed up in San Francisco and Berkeley today to protest. And unions from all over the Bay Area showed up to show solidarity.

It was a signal that the movement to organize fast-food workers – the chant was “$15 and a union” – is getting traction.

Noesha McGehee was one of them. She works at McDonalds in Oakland, earning the legal minimum $12.25 an hour, with no benefits and no health care. And although she wants to work more, she’s only given weekend shifts.

McDonalds worker Noesha McGehee is helping fight for a $15 wage
McDonalds worker Noesha McGehee is helping fight for a $15 wage

“It’s not enough to buy schoolbooks,” the 18-year-old Cal State East Bay student told me.

“Just because people work in fast food, they still deserve rights and respect, like all workers,” she said.

Similar rallies and marches in more than 140 US cities made this a dramatic event for labor – and perhaps an important step in an effort to bring workplace rights to more than 3 million low-paid workers in the fast-food industry.

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our FacebookTwitter, and Instagram

Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.

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