I took a little jaunt to McDonald’s this morning for a Big Breakfast, alas, no strikers at the joint near me. Nor at the Wendy’s, Bojangles, or Burger King in the same areas. But
(WRAL) Fast-food workers in parts of the Triangle walked off their jobs Thursday morning as part of the latest national protest to push companies to pay their employees at least $15 an hour.
Workers in Raleigh rallied at a Bojangles on South Wilmington Street at 8:30 a.m. to demand higher pay and union rights. Nationally, workers in about 150 cities are expected to walk off their jobs.
Fortunately, Mr. Obama wants to legalize millions of illegal aliens who will be happy to take these jobs. Let’s move on to the craziness at Salon
Get a clue, McDonald’s! Why I’m walking off my fast food job today
For the twelve years I worked as an elementary school teacher, bake sales were always a source of pride – for my students, their parents, and yes, teachers too. I still participate in them, only now it’s me doing the baking, and not for donation.
When my younger sister’s severe mental health issues worsened, I had to leave teaching to take care of her. The best job I could find that still worked for our family was at a McDonald’s in Kansas City, Kan., where I earn $7.45 an hour.
Along with cutting hair, selling Legal Shield and Avon products online and babysitting, selling baked goods at my church helps pay the bills that my fast-food job won’t. It’s a means of survival for my five children and me.
September used to mean the beginning of the school year and a new incoming class of students. This year, it means getting ready to go on strike.
OK, I’m confused. Why in the heck would you quit a teaching gig for a job that pays lower wages, has fewer benefits, and potentially worse hours, considering you won’t have a night shift as a teacher, and do not have to worry about getting cut to part time?
That’s what fast-food companies like McDonald’s don’t understand. 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. They deflect responsibility for an outdated business model, and refuse to accept that we aren’t high schoolers looking for extra money but mothers and fathers trying to put our children through high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.
Oh, no, they know you aren’t teens. They also understand that the job is worth a certain amount of money, and it isn’t meant for adults looking to raise 5 kids. They also know that strikers can be easily replaced.
More: and by easily replaced, not just by other humans.
So then to increase the wages of the unskilled you must increase the wages of the skilled an equal percentage so that skilled labor remains fairly compensated. Hmmmmm, I wonder what this would do to the cost of goods and services?
USMC,
You hit the nail on the head. Doubling of the minimum wage would cause significant inflationary pressure on the economy. This is what happened with good old Carter in the 70’s. Minimum wage is the primary index in almost all union jobs. So, if it doubles, the wages of everyone else goes up. Then in five years, $15 will look like $6 now. And the people that earn minimum wage are no further ahead than they were. Except for the fact that the fast food companies will have fired many of them and replaced them with machines. But both of our political parties will gleefully go along with the stupidity to make them look good for the voters, which is all they are worried about. No one in the news has mentioned that the great job creation by our brilliant leader (Obama) has gone to low wage jobs.
[…] The Pirate’s Cove reminds us that fast food workers are easily replaced, and with the Democrats wanting to legalize millions of immigrants soon it will be even easier to replace them. Not to mention machines that are already replacing workers. […]
You just gotta shake your head and walk away from some of these bimbos.
Trying to raise herself and five kids on the pay from a fast food joint. She bitches about McDonalds outdated business model, a model that apparently does not consider hiring a single mom with five kids a good strategy.
She’s unhappy, therefore Mcdonalds and every other fast food outlet needs to change. Damn, I wish I was THAT important also!
Five kids but no husband. Right there is a big pointer as to how clueless this twit is.
I’m glad she gave up her teaching job… I would not want her near any of my kids.
As an aside, I would not be surprised that she “quit” her teaching job because she realized she was close to being shown the exit anyway.
Confused????
She had yo quit the teaching job because at that job she was unable to provide the care to her sister
Teachers hours are not flexible
Every state that has a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum also has an unemployment rate lower than the national average
If their wages went yo 10$ we would have an increase of 8% on our bill
Assuming hourly wages st McDs are. 22 % as I saw
Another concern is that a significant rise in minimum wage would only effect a relatively small number of people. But the subsequent inflation will take away the savings of untold numbers of seniors.
The big picture is that we have an economic system that doesn’t generate enough well-paying jobs for the available workers.
Jeff,
You are right!! Our economic system today is the product of all the Democrats favorite plans. High taxes, demonizing business and those that are productive, excessive regulations, control of most of our economy be government (especially health care), big deficits, redundancy of social programs, waste, declining of our dollar and wealth, corporate cronyism, and on and on. But all you want is more and you want a demand economy, Soviet style, despite the fact that it never, ever works.
You claim high taxes, yet they’re historically low. Conservatives (falsely) claim that half of Americans pay no taxes.
The rich have never been richer and according to you they’re the only ones paying taxes, so you claim cutting their taxes more and making them richer will stimulate the economy? This sounds suspiciously like the failed supply-side economics scheme.
Do you really think rich people will hire more workers without more demand for goods and services?