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Civil disobedience expected in fast-food pay fight

Fearandloathing said:
who are you to pass judgement on their demands?
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With respect to their demands --> to their employer. I have no moral standing.
With respect to 'their demands' {in quotes because of the general discussion regarding the minimum wage} to have the government interpose? I'm a citizen
 
tres borrachos said:
Excellent. I wonder if Burger King will be represented? Of course, Sherrod Brown has called for a mass boycott of BK and if he has his way, then they won't even need to worry about that $7.25.

What should burger flippers be paid anyway?
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They should get 40 bucks an hour. Why not, right?
 
Fearandloathing said:
who are you to pass judgement on their demands?

"Work that isn't that much"?

And the second line is illegal...you cannot fire workers for striking, not since around 1900 anyway.
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I'll judge them! If they want more money, they can get off their asses and get a job that pays more money.
 

Not that I frequent fast food joints so it really doesn't effect me at the counter, but if you really feel they should be getting paid more, how about you, personally, paying double the menu price when you visit? It doesn't need to be mandatory by raising the MW, let people who feel that MW workers should make more be the one's to pay it.
 

Thanks for answering. I understand what you said. My challenge with it is how much of a difference would an extra $3 an hour make in their lives? That's an extra $120 a week. Now it is possible that that will make a huge difference, but I don't know. I guess maybe it depends on where you live? In Backasswater, Alabama that may go a long way. In NH, not so much.
 
Gringo allstar said:
No correct.. next
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Wrong: dues are twice the hourly wage in most cases; so if they get $15 an hour, that's $30 a month. Newly organized members pay no initiation fees and don't pay dues until a contract is signed. Health and welfare and pension contributions do not go to the union local or any other union office. As for dues, each local of a national or interenational union must pay a per capita on each member to said national offices.

So, you're wrong.
 

Uhhh paying double wont change anything. They still will have the wage...
 
In an economy where restaurant businesses are going out of business at an historic rate, we want to mother of all fall back restaurants (Fast food) to increase wages... Yeah, um not in a million years. The fast food industry knows one thing for sure, and that is that someone will work for $7.25 an hour, just like Mexicans will work for $2.00 an hour picking fruit or framing houses. This is a none effort on behalf od the unions, and it ain't going anywhere.

Tim-
 

Well if your willing to pay a bit more, then you can start now. You don't need the government to pay the fast food workers and other minimum wage workers more, just whip out your wallet.
 

Cost of living adjustments are probably the best gauge. Around here, the state minimum wage is so laughable in the oil boom we are relying on a de facto minimum wage (many places pay $10 an hour base minimum) and even that is cutting it thin.

I know some folks that are pretty stringent on joining the 15 an hour fight for fast food workers, but they oddly seem to not understand how other segments of labor will want to differentiate themselves from the minimum wage workers. No skilled laborer is going to want to be driven closer to the wage earning of a minimum wage employee, and will ask for more compensation as a result.
 

The second part of your post is what concerns me as well. Drive up the cost of unskilled labor, and that will make the value of skilled labor much higher, resulting in a demand for increases there. People seem to have a hard time grasping that.
 



I think you hit on a very important point. Low paying jobs once played a much larger role as start out or wage supplement jobs for teens and the elderly. Automation has killed millions of jobs in recent decades and companies expanding into global labor pools have stagnated the wages of previously better paying jobs. As a result it seems we now have a larger segment of people who must rely on the lower end jobs to support themselves. I hear it so often that people need to work up the latter and to stop trying to rely on minimum wage jobs. One thing these people are probably failing to see is that their are not near enough better paying jobs for people to move up to. A large percentage have no choice but to remain on the lower end. With constant advancements in technology and companies moving production out of country this trend will only continue to get worse.

Look folks we pay to subsidize these people one way or another. Most people that are on government assistance work they just earn so little they need a hand. So we pay them with taxes or we pay them with product/service cost increases. In the end it is still coming out of someones pockets. I personally would rather pay extra at the register and have some choice in the matter. I can always chose not to use/buy their product or service. I think that is a better alternative then having the government tax me more where I have little choice in that matter. Its not a perfect solution but I feel to really correct the underling problems would require huge changes that would probably be very unpopular.
 

On that note, would you support reducing business taxes if those taxes were replaced with enhanced wages and benefits? Linking tax breaks to wage increases could be a way for increasing income while limiting or eliminating need for product price increases.
 

I personally favor removing corporate taxes. I feel tax should only be applied when said profits are moved to an individual.
 

That only applies if you are part of a union. These people generally are not and as such they aren't afforded the protection of that law. If I owned a FF place and some of my employees showed up and held a sit-in, I'd personally hand them their pink slips right where they sat. If you want a raise, excel at your job. If that doesn't get you the raise, then talk with your boss about it. If that doesn't work, find another job.
 
tres borrachos said:
Can someone tell me what an appropriate wage is for someone who flips burgers, pops a wire basket of fries in grease, or sits at the driveup window taking money or credit cards and asking "Do you want sauce with that?"
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If you're a liberal, that number would $25/hr. Of course, then there would only be 1/3 as many FF places and those that were still in business would be charging $15 for a hamburger (extra charge if you want a bun with that ).
 
Fearandloathing said:
who are you to pass judgement on their demands?

"Work that isn't that much"?

And the second line is illegal...you cannot fire workers for striking, not since around 1900 anyway.
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This isn't a strike, it's a protest. It would only be a strike if they were union members.
 
faithful_servant said:
If you're a liberal, that number would $25/hr. Of course, then there would only be 1/3 as many FF places and those that were still in business would be charging $15 for a hamburger (extra charge if you want a bun with that ).
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I'll flip burgers for $25 an hour. I do it at home for my kids' friends for nothing.
 

Really, I'm more than willing to talk to you about your salary, but once you decide to go on strike we are now enemies and I want you out of my sight. Blackmail doesn't go over all that well with me.
 
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