Fast food workers striking for livable wages

From thinkprogress.org. Workers want livable wage

"We've taken actual slavery and replaced it with virtual slavery." That is the state of fast food workers. As free men and free women, the expected outcome is a strike. It is happening now in many cities in the US.

Fast Food Workers Strike For Better Pay (30 July 2013)

"Fast food workers around the country want livable wages."

Low-Wage Worker Strikes Hit New Cities, Bringing The Total To 9

"New strikes in the fast food and retail industries are hitting Kansas City and Flint, MI on Monday, joining their counterparts in a half-dozen other cities in walking off the job over unlivable wages."

"Workers’ call for a $15 hourly wage goes further than what some members of congress have proposed recently and far beyond President Obama’s endorsement of raising the federal minimum wage to $9 per hour. Supporters point to businesses like Costco, which pays an hourly rate over $20 and provides benefits for most of its employees, as an example of how big U.S. businesses could invest in workers without damaging their competitiveness. The company recently reported $459 million in profits from a single quarter, up 19 percent."

If we take a step back, this problem of unlivable income begins when the state confiscates our citizen dividend. One estimate is that there is enough to pay every US citizen $12,000 annually without changing any tax. Another estimate for Alaska is that a family of four can receive $32,000 a year from the Alaska Permanent Fund if all the oil revenue had gone into the Fund.  The estimate for Singapore is $9,000 per citizen per year.

We should get back our citizen dividend that our countries have been confiscating from us.


August 29th update

Fast Food Workers Strike Across the Country

"Employees of fast food companies are on strike around the country Thursday, demanding higher wages and union privileges. The Service Employees International Union claims the strike will hit as many as 60 cities from coast-to-coast. Fifty years after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom demanded a $2 minimum wage, the workers are asking for the same buying power, calling for $15 dollars-a-day. The current minimum wage is $7.25."

Striking fast-food workers protest minimum wage jobs in nearly 60 cities, seek $15 an hour.

Worker strike, from USAToday