Fast-Food Strikes Hit 6 Continents Today

Higher-wages movement looks to hit 30 other countries
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted May 15, 2014 11:30 AM CDT
Fast-Food Strikes Hit 6 Continents Today
Burger King employee Keisha King, 23, stands during a protest outside a Krispy Kreme store, Thursday, May 15, 2014, in Atlanta. Calling for higher pay and the right to form a union without retaliation, fast-food chain workers in Atlanta protested Thursday as part of a wave of strikes and protests in...   (David Goldman)

If you want it your way, it might not be right away today. Fast-food industry workers are again striking today, in McDonald's, KFCs, and other chains in some 150 American cities. But the movement for $15 hourly pay is also going global this time, reports the New York Times, targeting 80 cities in more than 30 countries—Casablanca, Dublin, Seoul, and Venice among them—and ultimately hitting six continents, USA Today reports. "It’s a global economy, so they’re saying, ‘Why not go overseas to make it into a global fight?'" says a labor relations professor at Cornell. "They’re trying to create a global protest movement."

American strikers claimed some early successes, saying that the walk-off forced a few locations to close, including a Burger King in Massachusetts, while service was delayed in others. Those reports were denied by Burger King and McDonald's, which said they just called in managers to fill the gap. The National Restaurant Association was predictably derisive of the strike, dismissing it as "big labor's attempt to push their own agenda" by "demonizing" chains instead of focusing on more "education and job training opportunities," the AP reports. In happier fast-food news, Chipotle is rolling out cups that come complete with original works by the likes of Jonathan Safran Foer. (More fast food stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X