Boston Fast-Food Workers Walk Out on the Job

– Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) kicked off Labor Day with a call to raise the minimum wage, as unions throughout the nation and Bay Area took to the streets to demand a national $15/hr. minimum wage.

The protesters say they’re fed up with the minimum wage and a lack of representation by unions. “It’s not enough just to say thank you”.

A minimum wage increase to $15 an hour would amount to approximately $31,000 annually for a 40 hour per week job.

At one point on this Labor Day, workers went into Taco Bell yelling chants and they even blocked the street. “These are a lot of workers, age range, from different places, and these are people from different backgrounds”.

U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., rallies the crowd during a Fight for $15 rally and march outside of the McDonald’s near Harrah’s hotel-casino in Las Vegas, on Monday, Sept. 4, 2017.

One rally attendee said he was protesting for a minimum wage hike because he feels many workers struggle to make ends meet.

“The CEO of McDonald’s is making $9,000 an hour and can probably afford to get by on $6,000 an hour”, Ellison said. “If we don’t get it, shut it down”. “We’re not valued for what we do”. The university plans to implement their wage increases over a two-year span, with the $15 wage promised by 2019.

Corporate worker Steve Niems said he’s particularly concerned about his children.

April Reeves, who earns $11 an hour working at the Midway McDonald’s, hopes St. Paul is the next city to join that list.

The highest state wages are $10 in MA and Washington.

Advocate Health Care is the city’s largest private employer with 18,903 employees, while Northwestern Memorial Healthcare ranks third with 15,747 employees, advocates said. “Our lives are our jobs”, Hughes said.

“I’m fighting for paid leave, benefits, to secure my job”, Pillette said.