Massive Nationwide Walkout By Fast-Food Workers Signals Growing Backlash Against Low-Wage Employers
http://www.alternet.org/labor/massive-nationwide-walkout-fast-food-workers-signals-growing-backlash-against-low-wage
housands of fast-food workers in 60 cities from coast to coast walked off their jobs Thursday in an escalating nationwide protest. Strikers are seeking raises to $15 an hour, paid sick leave and the right to unionize America’s second-biggest employer, the restaurant industry, which is predicting its 2013 profits will “reach a record high of $660.5 billion.”
“This is not a cause, this is a movement,” said Latisha James, New York Council Member for Working Families, speaking at a Union Square rally. “This is about economic justice... They [owners] would like you to believe that fast-food workers are primarily teenagers. They are not. They are primarily women with children who are struggling to make ends met. So this is about economic justice. We are here to honor the legacy of Dr. King to stand with fast-food workers who are only demanding $15 and a union.”
“We organized the strike,” said Shantelle Walker, a McDonald’s employee who walked out in New York. “We want to let America know that we need a union and we need $15 an hour.”
The corporate mainstays of the industry, from fast-food giants like McDonald’s to full-service chains such as Olive Garden and Red Lobster, have a rebellion in their kitchens and dining rooms that’s not going away. Thursday’s walkouts—which were joined by poorly paid workers at retail and drug chains—represent a new strategy of publically shaming low-wage, low-benefit employers.
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My partner works in retail. He's 40 this year and earned just $25,000 last year. The company recognized him for selling $750,000 worth of their clothes in his year of 32-hour work weeks..... with a $90 leather handbag and a letter from the VP of sales.
Of course, those 32-hour work weeks mean his vacation benefit is pro-rated down as well.
IMHO if they can track sales per hour and overall sales and returns (his rate is an astonishingly low 6%) and he still manages to rack up that much, they are taking advantage of him.
IMHO workers deserve not less than 10% of what they make for the company. All the profits are made at the lowest levels. Management are a cost center and should be only be compensated based on their direct contribution to the employees' productivity. (I'm a manager in a different field, when I'm employed 
).
