'I cannot survive on $260 a week': US retail and fast-food workers strike

[Jilly_in_VA]

Workers in America’s fast-food and retail sectors who worked on the frontlines through the dangers of the Covid-19 pandemic are continuing a trend of strikes and protests over low wages, safety concerns and sexual harassment issues on the job.

The Covid-19 pandemic has incited a resurgence of interest and support for the US labor movement and for low-wage workers who bore the brunt of Covid-19 risks.

The unrest also comes as corporations have often reported record profits and showered executives with pay increases, stock buybacks and bonuses, while workers received minimal pay increases. Workers at billion-dollar corporations from Dollar General to McDonald’s still make on average less than $15 an hour while often being forced to work in unsafe, grueling conditions.

On 2 May, Dollar General workers at a store in Marion, North Carolina, walked off the job over low wages.

Ashley Sierra has worked at Dollar General for two years and makes just $11 an hour, while only receiving part-time hours. A mother of three, she relies on family members to barely make ends meet. “My weekly paycheck is no more than $200, $260 at the max. I have three children, I cannot survive on $260 a week, it’s just not working. It needs to get upped to at least $15 an hour, the bottom is $15, because we work so hard for so little,” said Sierra.

Dollar General reported a profit of $3.2bn and their CEO was paid over $16.4m in 2021, 986 times the median pay of the company’s workers.

Sierra said the store was often understaffed and overstocked with items that block aisles, and that she feared for her safety over potential robberies and theft when she and just one other co-worker are working the entire store.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/16/strikes-us-retail-fast-food-dollar-general-mcdonalds-wendys

[area51]

1. k&r n/t

[fightforfreedom]

2. I love it when people go on strike.

It's the only way to get corporations attention. Years ago, strikes used to be common in America. Now they are rare and workers have paid a price for that apathy.

[onethatcares]

3. in an NPR blurb this morning

I heard that the richieriches are worried about a recession because employees in retail and fast food are wanting more, more more.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. The richierriches are causing a recession

They botched inflation last year when the economy was seeing record GDP growth, so now they're deliberately causing a recession with interest rate hikes in the hope that wages will go back down for the poor.

That's where we are as a country, the rich would rather see a recession than see poor people making enough money to live.

[onethatcares]

5. I know,

I almost lost control of my truck beating my head against the steering wheel when I heard that.

[DFW]

6. If a large retail outlet cannot survive by paying a living wage

Then they have no business opening their doors.

[Midnight Writer]

7. Funny how the small businesses we used to have could support and retain workers.

We had a dozen or so small neighborhood grocers, local restaurants, and the people working there owned homes, owned cars, supported families, and seemed to do alright. Even the "soda jerk" at the drug store had a nice home and raised kids.

Turnover was low, and you may deal with the same checker at the grocery store for decades.

Then the big boxes came in, with our City Council courting them and granting them tax breaks, because they would "draw shoppers into our community and benefit everyone". Now all the Mom-and-Pops are gone, and folks working in retail around here are low paid and have no basic benefits. There is a little house near me where there are four Walmart employees living together to make ends meet. They range in age from 21 to 60, all single, unrelated, just trying to pay the bills.

Corporations are eating our country, and they are never sated.

[DFW]

8. "Corporations" is too broad a term.

Even most mom and pop shops are incorporated. I work for an outfit that is a corporation. In lean times, the top guys, from CEO on down, take salary cuts down to $1 if necessary so that no one needs to lose their jobs down the line. One time, when a long-term employee went off the deep end on a religious binge, we had to let him go, but kept him the payroll at minimum wage on paper so he wouldn't lose his health insurance until he found another job. When times are good, everyone worldwide gets nice bonuses, and is invited to perks. When there is a gathering in Hong Kong, the Dallas support staff sent there gets rotated, so that a maximum of low-earning staff gets to make the trip at least once on company expenses.

We bust our asses, but we have a lot of fun, too, and turnover is VERY low. We are not eating anybody, and we are pretty content with how things have been going ever since Cheney/Bush left office. I've been with the outfit since we were twelve twenty-somethings, some 47 years ago. We treat our people rather well, I think. We are now about 500 people worldwide, and get job applications all the time, even though unemployment in the Dallas area is hardly a problem right now. I wouldn't pull out the "evil corporations" cliché when it is so far from universally valid.

[misanthrope]

9. Another aspect of this now-departed age you mention

Americans are more materialistic now than they have been. Look at the size of the average American home, the personal technology we possess, our wardrobes, the number of cars in each household, et cetera. We have become used to lots of "stuff" and want to keep on that track.

But what enabled that accumulation of goods? How did it become affordable? How did it change our values?

We feed this monster that is devouring our hopes.