Fast Food Workers Hold Biggest Ever Strike For Wages in U.S., While Blind Organizations Sit on Their Hands

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2014 07:45:29 -0700
Subject: Fast Food Workers Hold Biggest Ever Strike For Wages in U.S.,
While Blind Organizations Sit on Their Hands
To: "S. Kashdan" <skashdan@scn.org>, Blind Democracy Discussion List
<blind-democracy@octothorp.org>

Might as well get the day out here started with a personal grump. It
fries my fritters to think that I belong to an organization that
chooses to remain apart from the struggle by underpaid workers to
raise their standard of living...to a living standard, while this
lofty organization doesn't want to offend any of its members who might
disagree with the concept of people enjoying eating two meals per day
and affording some sort of roof over the heads of their families.
My own WCB List has cautioned me on several occasions to back off
"controversial" subjects, fearing that I might "offend" some members
by challenging them to think. Because I'm on a state-wide committee,
I have not dropped off. But I quit the ACB Chat List after "getting
the message" that I was offending more folks than were being
challenged to discuss issues.
Perhaps I do get a bit over the top, but I hope I've never put anyone
down for their position on any subject. I simply am trying to
encourage folks to examine what we think and why we take the positions
we take.
It is alien to my thinking to belong to any blind organization and
believe that I should not be deeply involved in such critical matters
as demanding the respect of a decent wage.
While I had great respect for Ken Jernigan as a brilliant promoter, I
strongly disagreed with him on his position that we, the "Organized
Blind" must protect our gains, even if it meant opposing other
disability groups the same opportunities. In the long haul this
elitist position has not proven good for the rank and file blind
person. Only the NFB Leaders have gained financial status. But most
of today's blind Americans are little better off than the blind of 50
years ago. Now we blind folk have a golden opportunity to join our
fellow suffers on the Line, speaking out against the desecration of
the Lower and Working Classes.
When I hear the Profiteers whining that a rise in the minimum wage
will put countless thousands of workers out on the streets, I wonder
if they ever check to see where many of these people do live. And I
recall the same tire old lie when the wage minimum was raise from 75
cent an hour to one dollar, and again to one dollar twenty-five cents.
"There will be mass lay-offs and great suffering". At the time I was
working in a drapery factory. Dozens of women slaved over machines
and cutting tables helping to allow Mister Bixer enjoy a very fine
life. No one cared about the employees. The boss could fire them all
and a new crowd of destitute women would line up to sweat for the
dribble of pay that was bestowed upon them. And the boss couldn't
understand why these wretched souls were not grateful.
Today that factory is gone, and the daughters and grand daughters of
those women are probably slaving in another factory, or at a fast food
joint, for even less spendable cash than those long forgotten women.
But I have not forgotten. And neither should any blind man or woman.
Allowing people to be dragged down into poverty can only mean our own
eventual downfall.

Carl Jarvis







On 9/8/14, S. Kashdan <skashdan@scn.org> wrote:
> Fast Food Workers Hold Biggest Ever Strike For Wages in U.S.
>
>
>
> by Pratap Chatterjee
>
>
>
> CorpWatch Blog, September 5th, 2014
>
>
>
> http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15967&printsafe=1
>
>
>
> Hundreds of low wage fast food workers were arrested at strikes and protests
>
> in some 100 cities around the U.S. on September 4. They were demanding that
>
> companies like Burger King, KFC, McDonald's and Wendy's pay workers a living
>
> wage of $15 an hour.
>
>
>
> The "Low Pay Is Not OK" campaign began in July 2012, when workers in New
> York city went on strike, an unusual event in an industry that has few
> unions and little worker organizing. The average fast food worker makes
> $8.74 an hour, or about $17,500 a year if they are able to get full time
> work (which is quite rare). This is despite the fact that the U.S. Census
> Bureau estimates that a family of four needs to make more than $23,000 to
> stay out of poverty.
>
>
>
> This latest protest was timed for the first business day following the Labor
>
> Day holiday. It was backed by the Service Employees International Union,
> (SEIU) which represents about 2 million workers across the U.S.
>
>
>
> "This fight is for my children and younger sister, and the countless
> families of fast-food workers. It's for my parents and grandparents, who
> marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.," wrote Andrew McConnell, in an
> opinion article published on Salon. McConnell quit his job as an elementary
>
> school teacher to go to work at a McDonald's in Kansas City for $7.45 an
> hour in order to support his sister who has mental health issues. He
> supplements this work with online sales, baby sitting and cutting hair.
>
>
>
> McConnell first chose to walk off his fast food job in May to protest
> working conditions and has continued to speak out since then."It's for my
> coworkers, those who have almost fainted after working in kitchen
> temperatures nearing 95 degrees--or 105 near the stove--and those who
> regularly have their hours docked and wages stolen," McConnell wrote in his
>
> Salon commentary. "It's for fast-food managers and franchisee owners like
> mine, who face relentless pressure and frequent visits from corporate to
> keep labor costs down and profits up."
>
>
>
> Organizers estimated that some 436 people were arrested around the country
> at pickets, protests, sit-ins and marches. Police confirmed that at least 34
>
> were arrested in New York city, 30 in Detroit, 27 in Milwaukee and 19 in
> Chicago at incidents outside McDonald's outlets. Another 46 arrests were
> reported in Kansas city, 10 in Little Rock and 10 in Las Vegas.
>
>
>
> McDonald's claims that it does not set salary levels for workers since the
> fast food outlets are small business owned franchises who purchase supplies
>
> and the brand name from the parent company. Activists challenged this by
> filing 181 cases against the company in late 2012 for harassing workers who
>
> were organizing for higher wages. In late July, the U.S. National Labor
> Relations Board ruled that the company was a "joint employer" suggesting
> that it exercised power over working conditions at the franchisee
> restaurants.
>
>
>
> "Their pitch to consumers is that the dining experience in one McDonald's is
>
> virtually identical to another's," wrote Michael Hitlick in the Los Angeles
>
> Times after the ruling came down. "But when the chips are down--when a
> workplace regulation or a union organizing drive surfaces, for
> instance--they claim that they just provide a big umbrella under which
> thousands of small businesses find some shade."
>
>
>
> Trade organizations are fighting back against the protests. "The activities
>
> have proven to be orchestrated union PR events where the vast majority of
> participants are activists and paid demonstrators," said the National
> Restaurant Association, in a press statement. "This is nothing more than
> labor groups' self-interested attempts to boost their dwindling membership
> by targeting restaurant employees."
>
>
>
> But McConnell says the companies are wrong. "They think they can ignore us;
>
> that we'll get discouraged; that our movement will fizzle out; that somehow
>
> the challenges we face will simply go away," he wrote. "They deflect
> responsibility for an outdated business model, and refuse to accept that we
>
> aren't high schoolers looking for extra money but mothers and fathers trying
>
> to put our children through high school."
>
>
>
> Labor Day in the U.S. falls on a different day from most other countries
> which typically celebrate labor rights on May 1. Ironically May Day
> commemorates a U.S. event - the Haymarket massacre in Chicago in 1886, when
>
> workers and police officers were killed at a protest for an eight hour work
>
> day.
>
>
>
> CorpWatch has previously conducted and done contract work for Service
> Employees International Union. This article was neither funded nor written
> in consultation with SEIU.
>
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