Workers protest in Kansas City for higher minimum wage

Demonstrators participate in the “Fight for $15” wage protest at San Diego International Airport, also known as Lindbergh Field, in San Diego, California, U.S. November 29, 2016. Fast-food restaurant workers and home and child-care workers rallied in cities including Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and New York Tuesday morning.

And the new strategy was on display on Tuesday, when rallies drew low-wage earners from many different fields, including Uber drivers, health-care workers, and child-care providers.

The protests, at almost 20 major airports, which serve 2 million passengers a day, and outside McDonald’s restaurants from Durham to Denver, will underscore that any efforts to block wage increases, gut workers’ rights or healthcare, deport immigrants, or support racism or racist policies, will be met with unrelenting opposition by workers in the Fight for $15.

The “Fight for 15” movement started in 2012, when fast food workers walked off the job in NYC.

The protest was part of a national campaign of planned strikes and civil disobedience to fight for a $15 hourly wage and the right to unionize.

“I’m willing to get arrested for what I believe in”, said LaWanda Williamson, a 22-year-old McDonald’s worker who took her place on busy Grand River Avenue on Detroit’s west side, shortly before being loaded onto a bright blue and yellow bus brought there by the Detroit Police Department. Councilman Brad Lander was the first protester to be arrested at Tuesday morning’s $15 minimum wage rally in Lower Manhattan.

Last year Trump said US worker wages were “too high” and made the USA uncompetitive, while this year, he has said the minimum wage should rise, with states taking the lead.

The O’Hare workers on strike included baggage handlers, janitorial staff and wheelchair attendants.

While the protests were largely peaceful, there were reports of arrests across the country. Chicago’s legal minimum wage is at $10.50 per hour. On Election Day, voters in four states passed minimum wage increases.

Dubbed the “Day of Disruption”, it will mark the fourth anniversary of the first protests at McDonald’s restaurants in NY. “And if the boss don’t like you, you don’t get promoted”, said Ellington.

Since the Fight for 15 began, 19 million workers have won raises totaling $61.5 billion.

“With only being paid $9 an hour, I constantly am anxious about keeping a roof over my and my daughter’s head”, a worker that plans to strike, Marvette Hodge, told The Guardian.

Union workers from across the Bay Area are calling for better pay.

Opponents to raising the minimum wage say higher costs will force restaurants to cut hiring, and that some businesses would not survive.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and hasn’t been changed since 2009, but states have the authority to set their own wages at any level above that.