Off the wire
• IMF warns of growing risks to global financial system  • Colombia lifts bombing truce with FARC following deadly rebel ambush  • Canada, India seeking closer ties  • Roundup: Canadian stock market rises on central bank's interest rate decision  • 4 killed in rebels' missile attack in Sudan's Kordofan region  • Roundup: U.S. stocks rally on upbeat earnings, rebounding oil  • Brazilian starlet undergoes Chelsea medical  • Four Cuban players sign with Canadian professional league  • Feature: British politicians, scholars hail Xi's book on governance at London Book Fair  • Boston Marathon bombings anniversary marked with call for show of kindness  
You are here: 　 Home

Chicago fast food workers join nationwide protests for higher minimum wage

Xinhua, April 16, 2015 Adjust font size:

More than 500 protesters, some of whom walked off their fast food jobs, gathered Wednesday on the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) campus as part of what organizers say a 236-city strike fighting for a 15-dollar minimum wage.

Sporting shirts and carrying signs that read "We need jobs that pay a living wage" and "Fight for $15," the protesters gathered in a sectioned off area in the middle of UIC campus. Others prominently displayed a nearly five-meter-tall statue of a low- wage worker fighting for what protesters say a fair wage.

It is part of a nationwide rally which is also joined by fast food workers in cities, including Albany, New York, Asheville, North Carolina, Greenville, Mississippi, and San Jose, California, organizers said.

As the protest began to snake toward a central gathering point, a McDonald's worker, who preferred to be identified as James, told Xinhua that he felt the need to fight for a 15-dollar minimum wage. "This is stuff that we need, we got kids to support and bills to pay, and food to get, this is a good way to express yourself."

Jose, another protester and also a former McDonald's employee, told Xinhua that he wanted McDonald's workers to know that he is there for them. "Usually they don't treat the workers right, they take advantage of them, I used to work at McDonald's before, they didn't pay me the right money they're supposed to pay."

The campaign for a 15-dollar minimum wage have spurred some action from politicians.

In December, lawmakers of Chicago, a major city in the state of Illinois, voted to raise the minimum wage to 13 dollars. In November, San Francisco in the state of California became the third city in the U.S. to adopt a 15-dollar minimum wage. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also called for an increase in the New York City minimum wage to 15 dollars by 2019, and the Chicago Teachers Union asked the local Board of Education to pay 15 dollars an hour to all workers in schools. Endite