Fast Food Workers Strike In Seattle

All fast food workers in Seattle may not have taken culinary arts programs, but they want to improve their rights as employees. They demanded $15 per hour in pay raises and the right to form a union. Like other fast food protestors in New York, St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago and Milwaukee, strikers have taken to the streets and many restaurants have been shut down as a result.

“It’s amazing how we don’t have a voice; how we didn’t used to have a voice,” Alfonso Arellano, a Seattle-area Taco Del Mar employee who is participating in the strike, told MSNBC. “But it’s just amazing how all the fast food workers are right here asking for justice, better pay, being respected.”

Strikers are marching with an organization called “Good Jobs Seattle,” which is part of a national effort to increase pay. According to Seattle-based King 5 News, Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Burger King and Subway are a few of the restaurants taking part in the movement. The Washington Community Action Network has also been lobbying. Reports say that the Seattle strike is just beginning, but lawmakers are looking into ways to get workers the compensation they’ve earned.

” … We do know this is a powerful kickoff that is both raising public awareness and laying the groundwork for some future organizing,” Will Pittz, executive director of Washington Community Action Network, told MSNBC.