2020 Democrats join striking McDonald's workers
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
2020 Democrats join striking McDonald's workers
Multiple Democratic presidential candidates expressed solidarity with striking McDonald’s workers and attended events with them around the country, according to ABC News.
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio joined striking employees around the country, while Sen. Bernie Sanders who had to remain in Washington, D.C., to vote for a disaster relief bill, addressed the striking workers via a live town hall and pledged to sign legislation as president to raise the minimum wage and strengthen worker protections.
Bill de Blasio
✔ @BilldeBlasio
Honored to stand with @ McDonalds workers in Des Moines today in their # FightFor15 . Working people deserve to be paid fair wages for their labor, period.
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“Today, we live in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. But tens of millions of workers don't know that, because they're working longer hours for low wages,” Sanders said during the town hall. “Does anybody think that that is moral, or that is right?”
Castro, meanwhile, joined striking workers in Durham, N.C., Wednesday. "We’re here today to tell McDonald’s that it’s not acceptable to pay your workers a wage you can’t live on,” Castro said, according to ABC. Both Castro's and Sanders’s campaigns are unionized.
Inslee appeared with striking workers in Chicago Thursday, tweeting, “Today, I'm proud to be on the strike line with McDonald's workers in Chicago as they demand the right to a union, safe working conditions, and fair pay. Because that's what every one of us deserves.”
De Blasio, meanwhile, joined workers in Des Moines, Iowa, and tweeted, “Working people deserve to be paid fair wages for their labor, period."
South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand also expressed solidarity with workers at the fast-food giant. Buttigieg posted a video supporting striking workers on Twitter.
Gillibrand, in an editorial in the Dallas Morning News, wrote , “We must ensure that workers' voices and concerns are heard in boardrooms across America. Unions make us stronger, and they don't just raise wages for their members — they help raise wages for all working Americans.”
McDonald’s cooks and cashiers are striking in major cities, including Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami, demanding the company respect their right to form a union and raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
The company is also facing a spate of sexual harassment complaints, filed against both franchise and corporate-owned locations in 20 cities. Protesters assembled Tuesday outside the company’s Chicago headquarters to call for action on the issue.
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They belong on the picket line with the strikers. This is the root of the modern Democratic Party.
The need for unions has long since passed. But of course these photo ops are not to be missed.
The problem is that most of these stores are franchises, and McDonald's doesn't control them.
It's up to the operator to set prices and make hiring and firing decisions, and the profit margins are not all that great.
Increasing wages will very likely lead to less staff and fewer hours.
They can strike their way right out of a job. They might get their $15 an hour; but they will also get replaced by Kiosks. Just ask the McDonald's workers in Seattle.