Fast-food and other low-wage workers picketed outside burger joints in New York and across the country Wednesday, demanding pay hikes to at least $15 an hour.
About 500 protesters brought the lunch rush to a halt at an Upper West Side McDonald’s while shouting: “We believe that we will win!”
Cops etched out a clear path for customers to enter the McD’s at 71st Street and Amsterdam Avenue, but virtually no one slipped inside while protesters staged their rally for 30 minutes.
“It’s important that workers, instead of having to grovel and beg for a decent wage, are actually showing their power as a collective force, to demand that they get paid a decent wage so they can live decently in this most expensive city,” Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Upper West Side) told protesters.
“All of these fast-food companies that make millions upon millions in profit, but they don’t share it.”
“I hope we can make companies realize we can’t afford to live on what they’re paying us,” said Jacqueline Martinic, 41, who works at a Midtown Wendy’s. “I have to depend on government benefits and it shouldn’t be that way.”
She added: “I live in a shelter, I can’t afford New York City rent. I just want to be able to afford to eat three meals a day like a normal person.”
Police kept an eye on Brooklyn protesters, but the rally was peaceful and there were no arrests.
“For all the work we do, it’s unjust to get $8.75 an hour,” said Jumal Tarver, 36, who works at a McDonald’s at 56th Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan.
“We shouldn’t have to depend on state benefits. It shouldn’t come from the taxpayers, it should come from the corporations we work for.”
The national protests are being led by the Service Employees International Union, which is seeking to unionize fast-food and other blue-collar workers.
Protests were planned for 230 cities and college campuses on Wednesday.
Big-name burger operations, like McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s, have said they have no control over wages, which are set by individual franchisees.
Additional reporting by David K. Li and with AP