CNBC
NYC fast food workers attempt a strike: “Supersize our wages”
As the Black Friday Walmart strike grabbed the media’s attention over the last month, an army of full-time organizers were laboring quietly to launch another historic labor action.
A lead organizer claimed “hundreds” of fast food workers across New York City were walking off the job on Thursday, in what experts are calling the first multi-restaurant strike by fast food workers in the country.
“No more lies, Hold the fries,” shouted a few dozen protesters outside a Burger King by Penn Station on Thursday, bundled up against a brisk New York November day – at least half of whom appeared to be organizers, as opposed to workers. “Supersize our wages,” they chanted.
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Out of all the stupid stuff you wrote, that has to be the stupidest.
cozmo on November 30, 2012 at 3:15 PM
Think about what you said and see if you can figure out the role the consumer plays in all this.
darwin on November 30, 2012 at 3:19 PM
I support that right too! We just disagree on the next step, which in my mind is for the employee to turn in their uniform and go find a different job that they feel compensates them for what they are worth.
Or do they need their Momma to do that for them?
2L8 on November 30, 2012 at 3:21 PM
I agree. That’s a pretty disgusting straw man. I’m advocating for people to be able to break out of a very difficult vicious circle of poverty and lack of education. Apparently you disagree with my proposed methods. But to suggest that I “don’t want people improving” is to completely invert everything I have said. I’m not even advocating social welfare as such. I did, though, criticize conservatives that both hate social safety nets AND begrudge workers for trying to improve their own working conditions. What should people do?
Alpha_Male on November 30, 2012 at 3:23 PM
And in the second place, it seems obvious that they are exactly worth the compensation they are receiving.
2L8 on November 30, 2012 at 3:24 PM
From the figurative dichotomy of what she has written on this subject, she doesn’t have the mental capacity to do that.
cozmo on November 30, 2012 at 3:25 PM
THIS!!!
Ya gotta love the LefTard.
Hi, I have been majoring in Ditch Digging 101 for my entire life, I have no real job skills that your average 14 year old doesn’t possess..now PAY ME $25 an hour because I’m in a F#$*ing Union.
Kiss my a$$.
BigWyo on November 30, 2012 at 3:27 PM
You’re working at a McDonalds and trying to raise a family on your salary?
Maybe you should think twice about starting a family if that’s the best job you can get. Maybe you should have stayed in school if you wanted a family.
These guys are being paid almost $8/hour for flipping burgers. That’s about how much I was paid as a part-time computer programmer when I was in junior college, back when programmers were in high demand. They have no idea how the world works, but they just want somebody to give them the life they see on TV every day. And politicians and unions are there and ready to promise it to them if they’ll just give them their vote.
We are so screwed.
Socratease on November 30, 2012 at 3:30 PM
I think you’re right.
darwin on November 30, 2012 at 3:30 PM
Well at least we’ve agreed on something
I think it’s difficult for some of us to imagine how difficult (impossible) it is for many people to just pick up and go to another job. When you’re barely scraping by and your children won’t eat (or your electricity/heat will get shut off, etc., etc.) if you miss one paycheck, how do you have the leverage to quit and go find something else? Especially if you have no education or skills to allow you to get a better job than your current one? What if you don’t have transportation to get a job in another part of town (let alone another state)? How are people ever supposed to break out of this? How do they pass on a better life for their children? (Answer: They don’t, and the vicious cycle repeats itself from generation to generation). Life is very difficult without resources and education. People at the very bottom of the workforce don’t have the bargaining power to negotiate fair and decent compensation; they need support from others. I support them.
Alpha_Male on November 30, 2012 at 3:31 PM
Um, ditch digging is a more marketable skill than the liberal arts degrees that universities have been pushing and the federal loan guarantees have been making unaffordable.
I’ll hire a decent ditch digger long before I would hire a person with a liberal arts or sciences degree.
cozmo on November 30, 2012 at 3:31 PM
Then you are an idiot nihilist.
cozmo on November 30, 2012 at 3:32 PM
They are not in a union yet, you are free to fire those who don’t show up for work.
Dollayo on November 30, 2012 at 3:36 PM
So THAT’s what I am! Huh. You learn something new everyday.
Alpha_Male on November 30, 2012 at 3:40 PM
In your case, that is doubtful. The common housefly has more learning capacity than you.
cozmo on November 30, 2012 at 3:44 PM
The thing you seem incapable of understanding is that fast food shop owners don’t have the bargaining power to raise their prices in order to pay more for the same work output.
…or are YOU PERSONALLY offering to make up the difference???
If so, please include your mailing address in your reply.
landlines on November 30, 2012 at 3:46 PM
You do realize that given the new definition of “full-time”, the unemployment rate will fall as businesses hire more people to work 29 hours a week or less to avoid paying insurance. What a twisted world ObamneyCare has created. Instead of 4 or 5% 40 hrs week full employment, the new normal will be 6% and 20% of that will be double dipping with two part time jobs just to make ends met
AH_C on November 30, 2012 at 3:47 PM
They will do whatever it takes to hasten the destruction of capitalism.
cozmo on November 30, 2012 at 3:49 PM
It is not difficult for me AT ALL because I did it. So have many other people. I had no advantages in life-except a brain and a bike. I got myself on my bike that I earned by babysitting for .25 an hour and I rode it over to the local diner. I was bussing tables when it was legal to hire a 15 year old.
People make choices that affect their lives. I am sorry they are trying to raise a family on what should be a high school kids job but that is not my fault. Breaking out of the cycle requires hard work, but it can be done. People seem to think that the harder they make it for themselves the more it is someone else’s responsibility.
2L8 on November 30, 2012 at 3:49 PM
Hang in there, dbag, you won’t be stuck as fry cook forever.
So if McDonald’s can’t pay their employees $1 million dollars a year each, they should go out of business? By the way, last I checked, they are paying their workers.
xblade on November 30, 2012 at 3:55 PM
Ok, so McDonalds pays these people $7.50/hour because their sales & labor only make maybe $10/hour for the company. Prices are set based on demand points, raising prices affects sales and isn’t a good option.
But they should be paid $15/hour? Ok…
Are YOU willing to fork over $5/hour * 40 hours * 50 weeks * 10,000 employees of YOUR cash?
C’mon, show us you care, you’re not stingy, and pony up your HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR that you think McDonalds should accept as a LOSS.
Or are you mean, greedy, evil, whining and griping and NOT giving away a hundred million dollars a year?
MATHEMATICS give it a try sometime… you might learn something.
gekkobear on November 30, 2012 at 4:16 PM
Every question you asked was answered by everyone I know at some point in their life. Why is today’s generation different? And why should the people who figured out the answers have to pay for the ones who can’t or won’t?
You say you “support them”. Really? Out of your own pocket? Or do you mean you “support them” by advocating that the State or a Union rob your successful neighbors in order to give to the losers who can’t tell the difference between a job and a career?
Socratease on November 30, 2012 at 4:20 PM
“We want more wages! We’re mad as heck and we aren’t gonna take it anymore!”
“Ummmm….. You flip burgers. Are you implying that you can’t be replaced? Huh.”
Manager points to bum on curb.
“Hey! You want something to eat? Come on in!”
Once he gets him back in the kitchen, helps him wash up, then shows him the deep fryer.
“Dude, here’s $10 for the day, and you can eat whatever falls off the grill. Bring in 4 of your buddies in less than an hour for the same deal and I’ll give you another $10.”
“Dude. Four buddies? I’ll be right back.”
Within two hours, all the workers are replaced. (You’re arguably not actually paying them, so minimum wage laws don’t apply. Maybe?)
GWB on November 30, 2012 at 4:40 PM
Shack! (That means a direct hit in bomb-droppin’ lingo.)
GWB on November 30, 2012 at 4:43 PM
A lot of cotton plantations failed after slavery was abolished. No doubt this put upward price pressure on consumer goods. I don’t mourn the suffering of the plantation owners who lost their cheap labor or the consumers who lost their cheap goods.
Alpha_Male on November 30, 2012 at 4:45 PM
As long as you’re willing to pay higher prices and see some people lose their jobs that’s fine.
darwin on November 30, 2012 at 4:49 PM
Of course. But I’m also willing to see fewer corporate jets and lavish mansions, and less idle money hoarded in tax shelters.
Alpha_Male on November 30, 2012 at 4:54 PM
You’re willing to see people lose their jobs?
Look, we’re talking about McDonalds, not Micrsoft. It’s mostly unskilled labor and these are … as I said before franchises … they’re usually owned individually by people who take a risk and take out loans. They don’t live in mansions or fly private jets.
darwin on November 30, 2012 at 4:58 PM
Alpha_Male on November 30, 2012 at 4:54 PM
You understand nothing is stopping you from purchasing a McDonalds franchise and paying employees as much as you want. You’re also free not to collect a salary. I don’t know how long you’ll stay in business, but hey, who knows? Give it a shot. I’d work the numbers out first before you dive in though.
darwin on November 30, 2012 at 5:04 PM
Just because franchises aren’t owned by the McDonalds Corporation doesn’t mean they’re not owned by other corporations. “Mom and Pop” are not your typical fast food restaurant owners. But even if they are, people who can’t afford to run their business ethically should fail. There many millions of business owners who can.
Alpha_Male on November 30, 2012 at 5:06 PM
You’re right that most people who go against the market individually will have a hard time being competitive. That’s why we need regulation and collective bargaining, to level the playing field.
Alpha_Male on November 30, 2012 at 5:09 PM
I’m getting a little tired trying to wake up your common sense and brain. Maybe you don’t have either. Minimum wage for unskilled labor is ethical because it’s the law.
Secondly, you apparently have no comprehension of the simplest math.
Thirdly, people don’t go into business to provide a living for people. That’s their responsibility, not the business owner. When you hire someone you’re paying for a service. The more demanding the service the more you pay. That’s why lawyers get $200 and hour and flipping burgers gets minimum wage.
Lastly, virtually all business costs are passed onto the consumer. This applies to every business. Every tax, every wage increase, every new regulation, every new union demand that makes the cost of doing business more expensive gets passed onto the consumer which is mainly low income and middle class. This is what you liberals simply don’t get. All your policies hurt the very people you supposedly champion.
darwin on November 30, 2012 at 5:17 PM
No. Government intrusion into the market has caused every problem we face today.
Businesses must succeed or fail on their own.
One more thing … regulation creates corruption. When the government has power over someone or something it becomes corruptible. The less regulation the better, the less corruption. That’s why the founders gave the federal government extremely limited and narrow powers. Of course the democrats took that safeguard away .
darwin on November 30, 2012 at 5:21 PM
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