Fast-Food Workers Walk Off the Job

McDonald's protest, Auckland NZ

We are sharing this piece from the NYT with our readers given the importance of this walk off of fast food workers.  This is occurring as Walmart workers also take steps toward confronting their bosses which in this industry can have unpleasant consequences.  it shows how in the light of the recent crisis, workers are being forced in to action. The economic crisis is savaging the poor and low waged. (this image did not come with the original article)


NYT
November 28, 2012
In Drive to Unionize, Fast-Food Workers Walk Off the Job

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Fast-food workers at several restaurants in New York walked off the job on Thursday, firing the first salvo in what workplace experts say is the biggest effort to unionize fast-food workers ever undertaken in the United States. The effort — backed by community and civil rights groups, religious leaders and a labor union — has engaged 40 full-time organizers in recent months to enlist workers at McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Domino’s, Taco Bell and other fast-food restaurants across the city.

Leaders of the effort said that workers were walking off the job to protest what they said were low wages and retaliation against several workers who have backed the unionization campaign. They said it would be the first multi-restaurant strike by fast-food workers in American history, although it was unclear how many workers would walk off the job.

 The first walkout took place at 6:30 a.m. at a McDonald’s at Madison Avenue and 40th Street, where several dozen striking workers and supporters chanted: “Hey, hey, what do you say? We demand fair pay.” An organizer of the unionizing campaign said that 14 of the 17 employees scheduled to work the morning shift had gone on strike.

Raymond Lopez, 21, an aspiring actor who has worked at the McDonald’s for more than two years, showed up on his day off to protest. “In this job having a union would really be a dream come true,” said Mr. Lopez, who added that he makes $8.75 an hour. He said that he, and fellow fast-food workers, were under-compensated. “We don’t get paid for what we do,” he said. “It really is living in poverty.”

Over the decades there have been occasional efforts to unionize a fast-food restaurant here or there, but labor experts say there has never before been an effort to unionize dozens of such restaurants. The new campaign aims in part to raise low-end wages and reduce income inequality, and is also an uphill battle to win union recognition.

Ruth Milkman, a sociology professor at the City University of New York, said there had been so few efforts to unionize fast-food workers because it was such a daunting challenge.

“These jobs have extremely high turnover, so by the time you get around to organizing folks, they’re not on the job anymore,” she said. Nonetheless, she said the new effort might gain traction because it is taking place in New York, a city with deep union roots where many workers are sympathetic to unions.

Christine C. Quinn, the speaker of the New York City Council who has struggled with various measures intended to improve wages and working conditions in the city, expressed support for fast-food workers.

"I support fast food restaurant workers’ rights to organize and fight for decent wages,’' Ms. Quinn wrote in a Twitter message on Thursday morning.

Jonathan Westin, organizing director at New York Communities for Change, a community group that is playing a central role in the effort, said hundreds of workers had already voiced support for the campaign, called Fast Food Forward.

“The fast-food industry employs tens of thousands of workers in New York and pays them poverty wages,” Mr. Westin said. “A lot of them can’t afford to get by. A lot have to rely on public assistance, and taxpayers are often footing the bill because these companies are not paying a living wage.”

Mr. Westin said the campaign was using techniques that differed from those in most unionization drives, and was still developing overall strategy. He declined to say whether it would pursue unionization through elections or by getting workers to sign a majority of cards backing a union.

McDonald’s issued a statement about the incipient unionization push. “McDonald’s values our employees and has consistently remained committed to them, so in turn they can provide quality service to our customers,” the company said.

It added that the company had an “an open dialogue with our employees” and always encouraged them to express any concerns “so we can continue to be an even better employer.” McDonald’s noted that most of its restaurants were owned and operated by franchisees “who offer pay and benefits competitive within the” industry.

But workers demonstrating outside the McDonald’s on Madison Avenue said their employer paid them wages that made it difficult to pay for basics.

“We can’t pay rent, pay bills,’' said Hector Henningham, 40, a manager, who said he had worked for McDonald’s for eight years and made $8 an hour. “We need change.’'

One customer drinking coffee inside the McDonald’s said she supported the organizing effort. “If anybody deserves to unionize, it’s fast food workers,” said the customer, Jocelyn Horner, 35, a graduate student.

Even with a union, it might be hard to obtain wages of $15 an hour, and many employers say they would most likely employ fewer workers if they had to pay that much.

Mr. Westin’s group, New York Communities for Change, has played a major role in the recent uptick in unionizing low-wage workers in New York, many of whom are immigrants. In the past year, his group, working closely with the retail, wholesale and department store union and other organizations, has helped win unionization votes at four carwashes and six supermarkets in New York.

The sponsors of the fast-food campaign also include UnitedNY.org, the Black Institute and the Service Employees International Union, a powerful union that is playing a quiet but important role behind the scenes.

Several religious leaders are backing the effort. “I’ve become involved because it is primarily a matter of justice,” said the Rev. Michael Walrond of the First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem. “We seek to protect those who are the most vulnerable in our culture, and some of the most vulnerable people in the city are fast-food workers who work for poverty wages.”

According to the State Labor Department, median pay for fast-food workers in the city is around $9 an hour — or about $18,500 a year for a full-time worker.

After three years of working at a McDonald’s restaurant on 51st Street and Broadway, Alterique Hall earns $8 an hour — and is yearning for something better.

So when he heard about the unionization campaign, Mr. Hall, 23, was quick to sign on.

“It’s time for a change,” he said, “It’s time to put on the gloves.”

Linda Archer, a cashier at the McDonald’s on 42nd Street just west of Times Square, said she wished she earned that much. She earns $8 an hour after three years there and averages 24 hours a week, she said, meaning her pay totals about $10,000 a year.

“I feel I deserve $15 an hour,” said Ms. Archer, 59. “I work very hard.” She said she hoped a union would deliver affordable health insurance and paid sick days.

“My hope is we can all come together in a union without being intimidated,” she said.

TCB Management, the franchisee that operates Mr. Hall’s McDonald’s, and Lewis Foods, which runs Ms. Archer’s, did not respond to inquiries.

Tim McIntyre, a Domino’s Pizza spokesman, said the few efforts to unionize its stores and drivers had fallen flat.

“It’s a fairly high-turnover position, so there’s never been a successful union effort,” he said. “People who are doing this part time, seasonally or as they work their way through college don’t find much interest in membership.”

Richard W. Hurd, a labor relations professor at Cornell, said the organizations backing the fast-food campaign seemed intent on finding pressure points to push the restaurants to improve wages and benefits.

“But it’s going to be a lot harder for them to win union recognition,” he said. “It will be harder to unionize them than carwash workers because the parent companies will fight hard against it, because they worry if you unionize fast-food outlets in New York, that’s going to have a lot of ramifications elsewhere.”

Nate Schweber contributed reporting.

Walmart protests throughout the world.

These developments against Walmart are very positive and a long time coming. However, we must not lose sight of the fact that the leadership of the Union most heavily involved in the drive, like the entire leadership of organized Labor, have the business view of these organizations. They see the Unions as employment organizations with them as the CEO's. To win Walmart would be a huge revenue enhancer in the form of dues.

As far as the already existing members in the retail grocery outlet, the UFCW leadership like their colleagues throughout the AFL-CIO and Change to Win federations, have presided over a never ending slide backwards through their cooperation with the employers and their Team Concept approach to the Labor/Capital struggle.  The Team Concept, the dominant ideology of the trade Union leadership holds that workers and bosses have the same economic interests.  This means that workers must take measures (concessions) to assist their own individual employers in winning "market share" at the expense of their rivals. 

This disastrous world view leads workers in one company competing with workers at a competitor for who can work the hardest, fastest and most cheaply. It has the same effect globally as workers from one country compete against workers from another.  The bosses can only win when the game is played this way.  It is a disastrous race to the bottom and makes solidarity organizing and the building of a generalized offensive of our own much harder.  Any rank and file movement from below that wants to fight back in a serious way and opposes this relationship the Union heads have built with the employers and their Democratic Party based on Labor peace is seen as hostile and suppressed with the help of an army of full time staff at their disposal.

To Unionize Walmart would be a great step forward as long as we recognize that the other struggle, the more complex battle within our organizations to change the concessionary and employer friendly policies of the leadership, and the leadership themselves is the much harder war that has to be fought.

Black Friday Protest at San Leandro Walmart

I went down to my local Walmart in San Leandro tonight on Hesperian Blvd (Thanksgiving night).  The store opened at 8 and the consumers were there in droves. There was a small but spirited protest or more accurately informational picket about the plight of the Walmart workers I shot some video and have to apologize for the bad volume at times as the I phone takes good video but the mike is not the best.

I noticed that the workers referred to themselves as "associates", which is the bosses' term for us. I recall when this term, and "team member", became prominent here in the Bay Area as a replacement for worker. There will be another protest/picket tomorrow from 4 to 6 pm. According to the Walmart workers I talked to there is a strike planned and some workers will walk out. If you are in the San Leandro East Bay area try to come down tomorrow and show support for Walmart workers. Below the video is the flier Facts For Working People put out for the protests. Check here for Walmart event locations.

Walmart workers, Black Friday: All out in Support.

My companion has a friend who is 75 years old. She is working at Walmart. She has no transport so she has to take the bus to and from work. Just today my companion and I gave her our second car which is very old in the hope that it will last for a while so she can get out of waiting at bus stops in the brutal Chicago winter.

Our friend has to work at her age while the Walton family who owns Walmart have billions of dollars.  The Walton family are capitalist vultures of the worst kind. The six members of their family have a net worth equal to the 30% of the US population with the lowest income in the country. Think about this. Use your imagination. These six creatures have more than tens of millions of American families. They could buy our friend a dozen cars to go to work in and they would not even notice it.

They have amassed their wealth by exploiting workers in the US and China. And when workers object they intimidate, harass and fire them. The Waltons are thugs of the worst order. They are now trying to take action in the courts to stop the presently striking workers from fighting for their rights. These workers who are on the picket line must receive our all out support. They are leading the way for all US workers. They must also get our full support in trying to convince their fellow Walmart workers to join them on the picket line. Close every store by mass picketing. We must also help the strikers to convince potential customers to respect and not pass their pickets.

Every Walmart store should now be targeted and a support committee of trade unionists and activists set up to support these workers with industrial action organized but also solidarity action such as bringing them food and drink to keep them and their families going. This is an opportunity for the Occupy movement to be revitalized.

The union leaders have the power to make the strike a success. They must see what is going on here. They are up against a determined and vicious outfit. If the workers win here this could turn around the mood in the country. If the workers lose here this could strengthen the feeling that the bosses cannot be defeated. The union leaders have been carrying out a policy based on the idea that the bosses offensive cannot be defeated so they have been making concession after concession. It is not an exaggeration to say that the union leaders would not be too happy about the idea of a clear and resounding victory for the Walmart workers. After all it would undercut their argument that the bosses cannot be defeated in this period. And it would undercut their strategy of defeatism of the last decades.

If the Walmart workers win, get the right to organize, get a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour, get full benefits, this would prove that what the union leaders have been saying that victories cannot be won in this period is not correct. The union leaders must stop their retreat in front of the bosses offensive and pull out their forces and stop Walmart.  They can do this by stopping all deliveries, all energy and all pick ups from every Walmart store and do this by mass picketing and the workers in the delivery and collection utility companies refusing to work, going on strike also. At the same time it must be explained that higher wages does not mean higher prices for the customers. The extra wages and benefits must come out of the billions of profits of the Walton mob.

At the same time as the union leaders take this action here in the US they must put together an organizing drive into China. Walmart imports $30 billion from China every year and these imports come from even worse paid workers than the $8.00 an hour US workers. Build a united international organizing drive to organize Walmart wherever it has a store and wherever it gets supplies.

Victory on this front can open up victories on many other fronts, in other industries and sectors of the world economy. It can show that international organizing drives can be set in motion and can be victorious. A whole new world situation could develop. That is the potential significance of the Walmart strike. The union leaders must get their asses off the White House soft seats where the Democrats pretend to listen to them when in reality Obama and the Democrats and the Republicans are meeting with and listening to the CEO's and dominant leaders of the corporations.

As we fight for this approach from the union leaders we have to recognize that the they are tied to capitalism and its profit system, tied to the Democratic Party and so are unlikely to take these actions. But we have to continue to demand they take these actions and to pressure them to do so by building fighting caucuses in the workplaces, the unions at all levels, and the neighborhoods and schools and colleges. The Walmart workers’ fight can help build such new fighting oppositions and the generalized mass movement that is necessary for us to win..

Sean.

SACP's Nzimande defends cops at Rustenburg Rally

The South African Communist Party (SACP) continues it's treacherous role in the strike wave that has hit South Africa and the shooting of workers out on strike at the Marikana mine. This report from Eyewitness News reveals the blatant collaboration between the state forces and the SACP.  This rally, an effort to intimidate the wildcats and independent workers' committees that have arisen and reclaim some lost prestige was not well attended at all.

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RUSTENBURG - South African Communist Party (SACP) secretary-general Blade Nzimande on Saturday said police had no choice but to fire at striking miners who earlier attempted to disrupt a rally by members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).

Speaking to a crowd of about 600 people at the Olympia Stadium in Rustenburg, Nzimande said members of the trade union federation would have been attacked, if the police did not intervene.

He called on the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to expel those who took part in today’s protest.The secretary-general said he was at the stadium when police took action to disperse striking Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) miners, using rubber bullets, water cannons, teargas and stun grenades.
“That was an extreme act of provocation that I saw today, and it was correct of police to actually disperse those people because they [wanted] to charge [at] us.”

Ten people were arrested, following the brief unrest.

The commotion started when police stormed into the Olympia Stadium to disperse miners who had gathered there since the morning.

A fight then broke out between a miner and a marching Cosatu member, to which police retaliated by firing rubber bullets - causing the miners to flee to a residential area nearby.
Cosatu members had planned to hold their rally at the stadium.

It was hoped the rally would help resolve tensions between Cosatu leaders and members, following recent tensions and claims that unions under Cosatu had neglected the needs of their members.
Amplats workers have been on illegal strike since 12 September, demanding a basic salary of at least R16 000 per month.

They embarked on a strike shortly after their counterparts at Lonmin Mine, in Marikana, ended a violent wage dispute with management.