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Fast food workers have held one-day strikes across the United States on different occasions the past few years, but on Thursday, they are taking their operation global. Their demand: a $15-an-hour wage. The strikes will take place in 150 cities across more than 30 countries as part of the 'Fight for Fifteen' movement.
On Thursday, the fast-food strikes that have been spreading around the country are going global. Workers at restaurants like Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's, and KFC are walking off their jobs in 230 cities around the world to demand a minimum wage of $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation. Strikers will protest in 150 US cities, from New York to Los Angeles, and in 80 foreign cities, from Casablanca to Seoul to Brussels to Buenos Aires.
On Thursday, fast-food workers around the world will stage an unprecedented protest for fair wages. They will be speaking out against income inequality -- and the world would do well to listen. Income inequality is one of the most destructive forces in the United States today. Minimum-wage workers devastated by the economic crash of 2008 have continued to languish in poverty while the subsequent recovery has sent executive compensation soaring.
When a city is forced to spend more on Wall Street fees than on basic public services, it is the sign of trouble. When that city is one of America's biggest population centers, it is the sign of a burgeoning crisis.
Demos policy analyst Catherine Ruetschlin joins Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! to discuss global fast food strikes taking place, protesting the vast wage disparities between executi
At $9.85 an hour, 25-year-old Terran Lyons supports herself and two kids as a crew trainer at a McDonald’s in Seattle’s university district. That’s a jump from the $9.19 an hour the high school dropout got when she started, and a step above the state’s $9.32 minimum wage. But it’s hardly enough to be self-sufficient. Lyons is on food stamps. She wouldn’t even be able to afford a Big Mac if it weren’t for the 50 percent employee discount.
On May 1, the White House released a 90 day review studying the effects of big data and privacy, led by Obama's Counsel, John Podesta. The review, which can be found here, and a summary of it, here, also focuses on big data’s potential for discrimination.
On Monday, the Massachusetts General Assembly announced election bill H.4072, an omnibus voting package that has been reconciled from 2013 companion bills H.3788 and S. 1975. The final bill, which will take effect beginning in 2016, makes important inroads towards modernizing Massachusetts’ electoral processes as a part of the continuous effort to grant its residents expanded access to the ballot.
The owners of capital have had a great run over the past few decades. They've made a killing by exploiting an open global trading system, an abundance of cheap labor, and technological advances. Times have been so good that Forbes lists a record 1,645 billionaires worldwide, including 268 new ones in just the past year.
Yet nothing lasts forever, and systems that favor the few over the many are especially vulnerable to disruption. It's always hard to say when the shift will come, or what will mark a turning point.