Dave Jamieson Labor Reporter, The Huffington Post 11/10/15
Letasha Irby works at a factory in Selma, Alabama, that produces car seats and headrests for Hyundai cars. It’s just the sort of manufacturing job that Americans historically associate with solid, middle-class wages. Yet Irby says she earns only $12 per hour after a decade of service at her plant.
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| Selma Aly of Chicago rallies for better wages outside a McDonald's restaurant in Chicago, Thursday, Dec., 5, 2013. The Fight for 15 predicts that Tuesday -- one year from the 2016 elections -- will be its biggest day of strikes and protests yet. |
On Tuesday, Irby plans on driving to Tuscaloosa after she finishes her shift at the factory. She’ll be joining a protest alongside people who, on the surface, wouldn’t seem to be in the same economic class as herself: fast-food workers from chains like McDonald’s and Pizza Hut.
“I have a whole lot in common with them,” said Irby, a 37-year-old Alabama native and mother of two. “Whether it’s fast food, retail, child care … we’re all being underpaid for our services.”
Irby says she wants to be part of the next phase of the Fight for 15, the labor union-backed campaign that has shamed low-wage employers and helped spur minimum wage hikes around the country. The campaign launched three years ago this month with a walkout by restaurant workers in New York City. It has since spread to cities around the country and to industries well beyond fast food.
Spokespeople for the campaign say it plans to launch one-day worker strikes in 270 cities on Tuesday, its largest demonstration yet. In the past, many of these worker walkouts have been negligible -- single digits in small towns, made visible only with the help of community activists. But others, in cities such as New York and Chicago, have been significant enough to disrupt service or even temporarily shut down restaurants, forcing major chains to publicly address the issue of poverty wages. more
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