{"id":32569,"date":"2013-05-10T18:06:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T17:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/breaking-down-this-weeks-fast-food-strikes-in-st-louis-and-detroit\/32569\/"},"modified":"2013-05-10T18:06:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T17:06:00","slug":"breaking-down-this-weeks-fast-food-strikes-in-st-louis-and-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/breaking-down-this-weeks-fast-food-strikes-in-st-louis-and-detroit\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking Down This Week's Fast Food Strikes in St. Louis and Detroit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The new labor movement spreads to two Midwestern cities.<\/p>\n

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Photo Credit: Bikeworldtravel \/ Shutterstock.com<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

May 10, 2013<\/span><\/em> \u00a0| \u00a0<\/p>\n

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Join our email list:<\/p>\n

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A new movement of fast food workers demanding better wages and the right to unionize spread to two Midwestern cities this week, St. Louis and Detroit, bringing the total number of such actions to four in five weeks. Similar strikes occurred last month in New York and Chicago. As we did during the strike in New York<\/a>, we\u2019ve put together a breakdown of what\u2019s happening in St. Louis and Detroit:<\/p>\n

Who is striking this week?<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to MSNBC, organizers estimate up to 400 fast food workers from at least 60 different restaurants in Detroit walked off the job today, possibly a record-high for this type of action. Josh Eidelson reports for The Nation<\/em> that at least four restaurants were forced shut down due to strikes, including two McDonald\u2019s, a Long John\u2019s Silver and a Popeye\u2019s. At one McDonald\u2019s location, management reportedly brought in additional workers to replace the striking employees, only to have them join the action.<\/p>\n

More than 100 St. Louis fast food workers walked off the job Wednesday and Thursday,<\/span> reported MSNBC\u2019 Ned Resnikoff<\/a>, including employees of McDonald\u2019s, Jimmy John\u2019s, Wendy\u2019s and Domino\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both actions were organized by coalitions of local and national labor groups. St. Louis labor groups called the campaign \u201cSTL Can\u2019t Survive on $7.35.\u201d Detroit\u2019s strikers went with \u201cD15.\u201d<\/p>\n

What are they asking for?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like strikers in New York and Chicago last month, fast food workers in St. Louis and Detroit are demanding a wage of $15 an hour and the right to form a union without threat of retaliation. “I make $7.40 an hour, the same as when I started working in the fast food industry three years ago,\u201d Detroit Burger King employee Claudette Wilson told The Detroit News<\/a><\/em>. \u201cWe’re the fastest-growing job market in the country with the lowest pay.”<\/p>\n

Additionally, strikers spoke to media about various problems with working conditions at their restaurants. \u201cWe want respect, and we want fifteen and a union, and that\u2019s not too much to ask for,\u201d St. Louis McDonald\u2019s employee Angela Harrison told<\/span> The Nation<\/em>. \u201cWe want simple things, like the first-aid kit to be <\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on : AlterNet<\/a><\/p>\n

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The new labor movement spreads to two Midwestern cities. Photo Credit: Bikeworldtravel \/ Shutterstock.com May 10, 2013 \u00a0| \u00a0 Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. A new movement of fast food workers demanding better wages and the right to unionize spread to two Midwestern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32569","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}