Comments

1
I find it remarkable that "management" used the word poverty in their sign.
2
You should join them, in solidarity.
3
and hearts and stomachs heaved a sigh of relief.

deal with it.
4
@1 Well, "management" on the early shift is a supervisor who typically makes 50 cents to dollar more an hour than their minimum wage workers.
5
My grandpa used to say, when things are bad, don't just sit there and whine, but "do something -- even if it's wrong."

Grandpa would approve of these strikes today.
6
Yeah, from that sign, the "manager" is also on strike, and clearly supports the workers. Good for them.

I'm OK with carving out a non-livable wage for a temporary period for workers under the age of 18. But after a temporary period (say, a year at half time?), every worker of any age should get a livable wage, period. If it's not economical to run a business at livable wages, it's not economical to run the business, period.

What's livable? It should be enough for two full-time incomes at that level to equal the median family wage. That's about $15 statewide and $17.50 in King County. Maybe allow for wages in the $10-$15 range if full benefits are included. (Dick's currently pays $10 to start plus full benefits, so it's feasible.)

If that's too expensive to support McDonalds and Burger King, then I guess we don't eat at McDonalds and Burger King. Oh well.
7
A group of 15 or so walked by my stop this morning on Broadway, but I didn't know what businesses they were from. Hope something good comes out of the strike for them.
8
As a person who only visits Seattle a few times a year, it is utterly beyond me how anyone who lives there and craves a fast food burger doesn't just go to Dick's. I would eat there waaay to often if it were within a 15 minute drive.
9
@6 Exactly.

10
I recommend that Subway employees not only walk out, but make sure to burn down every Subway on the entire fucking planet.
11
@8

I find it pretty easy because Dick's burgers aren't very good. There are far more delicious burgers available for only a few dollars more.
12
In what fantasy world is fast food employment structured in such a way that unionization could provide meaningful benefits to fast food employees? Existing fast food employees don't have hard-to-replace skills, finding new fast food employees is easy even at minimum wage, and the average fast food restaurant doesn't employ enough people for a union to be an efficient means of handling employee-employer relationships.
13
The minimum wage in Santa Fe NM is $10.51 an hour. Highest in the nation. I was last there in April. The restaurants and fast food joints seem to be still purring along quite nicely. This is interesting:
More recent research examining wage hike effects in San Francisco and Santa Fe, N.M. (which offers the country’s second-highest minimum, $10.51 an hour), echoes the Berkeley center’s findings.

Examining wage and jobs data among fast-food, food services, retail and low-wage establishments in San Francisco and Santa Fe, a 2011 study by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research concluded that “a citywide minimum wage can raise the earnings of low-wage workers, without a discernible impact on their employment.”

I must admit that I'm surprised that that is the case. So cool!

Perhaps the 'McDonalds' and 'Wendys' ride the tide of the significantly large number of restaurants for the city its size. The food is so good, but the junk food craving still hits folks.

But I am suspect that a $10 plus minimum wage would not enable a fast food place to make a go of it in a rural town - that wasn't touristy or trendy.

14
I would also like to point out that when you have adults and people with families to feed working for poverty wages at fast food joints, their kids are often given fast food to eat almost everyday. This is obviously because there is so little money, and the food from the restaurant is free, or at least almost free if you are not willing to just take it.

This leads to malnutrition and obesity, which in turn costs our economy more in healthcare and lost wages, in addition to creating underperforming students who will have a host of problems finding meaningful jobs themselves, or openings into higher education.

It is not just about paying burger flippers another buck an hour. It goes much deeper than that.
15
If nothing else, they'll have a new sense of real solidarity. Here's to them!

Now if only the university students would riot for free education, like they have in Canada, Mexico, Germany, etc., etc.
16
@15 - Canada's post-secondary education is most definitely NOT free. While the tuition is still pretty reasonable compared to many American schools (even state ones), it ain't free and it never was.
17
@15 - if university education in Canada is free, then please explain how I'm $20,000 in debt from student loans. A post secondary education is not accessible to everybody, and it never has been.

Furthermore, in (nation)states where university education is subsidized to a greater extent, its often more difficult to get in...so you still have people who aren't able to access post secondary education.
18
Just saw a giant strike at Taco Del Mar at University Way NE and NE 43rd St, complete with cops.

@16 is correct, as my much higher interest rate student loans which I repaid with US salary dollars could attest. Grants used to be fairly large, but in the 80s they started to slash those.
19
@14: That's true to a large extent, but not entirely. If you don't live in a food desert, parents often lack the education and/or motivation to learn how to shop wisely and prepare healthy food for their offspring.
20
Goldy is basically working for the orgs behind this, which is why he doesn't mention them in his story. This is not jounalism. Being a shill, even for a good cause, is still being a shill.
21
Seems like today is a good day to grab a burger at Dick's, for several reasons.
22
This strike is awesome. Actions like this are where you can tell the people who will actually sacrifice something real to create a change and the handwringing poseurs.
23
@16, 17, 18. My only experience is comparing UW's masters tuition to UBC's. UW's is right around 5,000 per quarter, UBC's is 2500 per quarter, for international students, and 1500 for domestic.

Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean anything, since you can end up paying a lot more at a cheaper school if that cheaper school offers less aid. UBC did offer quite a bit more, however.
24
@12 i would rather eat actual dicks than Dick's
25
Remember when Slog called Occupy Seattle a 'revolution'.

26
Only the lower classes eat at these places so who the fuck cares?
27
@6 median household income or median per capita income? Because at $15/hr you're looking at about 30k 2x which is 60k, which is nearly the median household income of 61,856 (2007-2011 data range, US Census).

You know what happens when you make minimum wage half the median household income? The median household income will increase, and so will prices, etc.

Look, there are always going to be jobs that pay very little relative to other jobs and even relative to what many people consider a middle-middle class wage. People survive on these wages. For some people that's enough.

I'm not arguing that fast food workers shouldn't organize or bring awareness to their wages. I'm just saying they're not going to be able to get much more out of that industry.

And if we decide that only people who can generate $15 worth of value to an employer are employable, well, then employment rates will go down.
28
'Hunger Games' is this art imitating Life -or - Life imitating art.
29
@28 English is not your mother tongue, is it?
30
raise Seattle min wage, dudes. Tacoma just got a Wal-Mart I think we should do it here, too.

these are extractive industries. buss´ em
31
@ 13

San Francisco has the country's highest minimum wage: $10.55 per hour.

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