Fast food workers in Madison “fight for 15”

Andrew Cuomo is using his executive authority to raise the minimum wage for state workers to $15 an hour. And in Greensboro, North Carolina – the state with the lowest union density in the nation at 1.9 percent – the city council voted in August to increase the minimum wage for municipal employees to at least $10 an hour. Most of the workers, or 9,000 of the 10,000, work outside NY City, Cuomo’s office said. “If you earned the minimum wage, it’s about $18,000 a year in NY”.

“We are restoring the fairness and economic justice that built the American dream and standing up for what’s right”, Cuomo said in a statement. “We lead by example”.

Earlier in the afternoon, fast food workers rallied in Hartford along with the nursing home workers, as well as other healthcare and home care workers, to call for the minimum wage to be risen to $15. When fully phased in on July 1, 2021, this wage increase has an annual projected cost of roughly $20.6 million, including the anticipated effect of fringe benefits. “Fast-food workers had pushed for the increase, noting their industry employs more low-wage workers than any other sector of the workforce”.

“We need a living wage”, said fast food worker Jorel Ware. State Assemblyman Phil Palmesano has budget concerns following Governor Cuomo’s announcement today, saying that if wages are increased from the lower end there will also be pressure to increase wages on the middle and higher end.

Workers in almost 300 cities protested at numerous restaurants.

Protesters are also asking state representatives to take action in Tallahassee and asking local representatives to sponsor a draft of a House and Senate bill for higher wages.

“Whoever feels that way should come and work at McDonald’s for one day for one day”.

“The governor’s action will have positive practical impact and will be good for New York’s economy as a whole”. According to organizers, the strikes were part of a few 500 protests nationwide to demand a minimum wage of $15 an hour. The Fight for $15 group says it will hold voter registration drives and neighborhood parties to coax the workers to the polls.