Alderman Says O’Hare Contractors, Airlines Should ‘Respect Workers’ Or Be Banned

In Chicago, where hundreds of fast food workers walked off their jobs and blocked traffic early Tuesday morning, police made several arrests and issued more than 50 citations. Fast-food workers and home and child-care workers also rallied in Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and NY on Tuesday.

The movement declared Tuesday a “day of disruption” across the country.

Workers at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport began striking on November 29.

A group of protesters brought signs into the McDonald’s restaurant at 28th Street and Barrio Logan Tuesday.

“(Trump) needs to be held accountable for his promises”, said Hector Figueroa, president of 32BJ, a property service workers union affiliated with the Service Employees International Union that supports “Fight for $15”. Workers in major American cities also staged protests against low wages.

Cities including Seattle, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have either gone to $15 per hour or plan to do so.

“Some planes may not get fully cleaned, and bag handling may have some snafus”, said Joseph Schwieterman, a transportation expert and professor at DePaul University in Chicago.

While the protests were largely peaceful, there were reports of arrests across the country. Twenty-nine states have since raised their state minimum wages above the federal level. Cries of ‘we want our wages supersized!’ and “I want my $15!” rang out, as passersby leaned on their auto horns in a show of support. “You can already see the impact of minimum wage increases in stores with less employees, longer lines and poorer service”.

Noon: Protesters will gather at O’Hare, where fast-food workers and other supporters will join the striking airport workers on the picket line.

Workers at the protest said they were fighting for a union, as well as to call attention to lower minimum wages in other states.

In addition to the strike at airports, fast-food workers, home care and childcare workers also planned to protest as part of the Fight for $15 movement.

But not everyone has been in favor of an increasing the minimum wage. Democratic Mayor Ras Baraka has called on the Port Authority of NY and New Jersey, which runs the airport, to raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour at its facilities and take steps to hire more Newark residents.