On “Fight for 15”

Last updated on: December 14, 2013 at 11:23 am by Jane the Actuary

On “Fight for 15” 2013-12-14T11:23:00-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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So I finally got around to looking at the “Fight for 15” website and was surprised by a couple things:

First of all, the news reporting made this appear to be a national campaign, but it’s really Chicago-centered. Here’s the main text on their website:

Chicago’s fast food and retail workers, mostly adults with families, and those who support us are fighting for the just compensation and dignified treatment that all hardworking Americans deserve. As the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago, we demand a fair wage of $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation so we can support our families, strengthen Chicago’s economy, reduce crime, and improve our neighborhoods.

So item number 2: they’re specifically campaigning for a $15/hour wage for fast food and retail, not an overall increase in the minimum wage. Which is odd — because fast food and retail ought to, by the level of skill and physical effort required, be among the least paid jobs in the country, regardless of the level the minimum wage is set at.

I’m also not clear on their argument about the “right to form a union without retaliation” as fast food/retail workers are protected by the same union-organizing laws as every other industry. If McDonalds, for instance, is violating those laws, then there are legal remedies, aren’t there? See “Agency Admonishes Wal-Mart over Protests” for a description of ongoing government actions against the company. (Found via a google search — so if the direct link is behind a paywall, a google search on the title may work.) For that matter, many grocery stores around here are unionized, and unions have attempted to organize elsewhere as well. (My own mother works at Macys, formerly Marshall Fields, formerly Hudsons, and the UAW tried to organize a union there — they lost the vote. For a time, I worked at a Meijers in the Detroit area that was unionized — I didn’t see any better pay than otherwise but had to pay union dues anyway!)

So anyway, surprise number 3: they don’t understand optics. Here’s a photo which closely matches one that appeared in a Chicago Tribune article of a recent protest (I couldn’t find the original; the one below comes from a “Fight for 15” google search).

Go to their facebook page and it’s the same story: Spanish is very prominent — with a significant number of their updates not just bilingual but solely in Spanish. Guys, a bit of advice: if you want to persuade the rest of us that your labor is worth $15 an hour, you’re not going to be very convincing if your message is that these laborers can’t even read or write English.

Of course, their fundamental premise is that fast food or retail work at a 40-hour/week should be enough, not just to live, but to support a family. Exactly what kind of life working at an unskilled job should be able to support they don’t say — which was surprise #5 — that there’s very little on their website at all — just a petition and an invitation to provide an e-mail address and cell phone to get text message updates. Guess I’ll have to go somewhere else to find any sophisticated arguments!

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