Fast-Food Strikes Expand
Thousands of fast-food workers in 60 cities across the country went out on strike Aug. 29, marking the most extensive one-day walkouts to date since the nine-month campaign began in New York City last November.
Worker demands include a pay increase to $15 per hour and the right to unionize. The strikes were timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, which fell on the previous day. For the first time, fast- food workers received backing from a prominent congressional Democrat, when George Miller (D-Calif.) issued a statement saying higher pay for fast-food workers would help stimulate the economy.
“Fast-food workers are taking democratic engagement into the street and the workplace,” observed Ned Resnikoff of msnbc.com. “What’s more, national media, corporations and political institutions are paying attention.” (For more info, see the Fast Food Forward website.)
Bus Union Wins Court Case
A Brooklyn judge ordered 28 private bus companies to restore wage and benefit cuts after ruling the companies had illegally imposed the cuts on 8,800 school bus drivers and matrons earlier this year. Judge Kiyo Matsumoto also ordered the companies to resume “good-faith bargaining” with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181, which went on strike for a month last winter seeking to protect the job security of its members from changes enacted by the Bloomberg administration.
