Fast-Food Workers' Survival Struggle
Published: 5 August 2013 By Abiodun Giwa
Fast-food workers protesting low wage (Courtesy: nytimes.com)
Deloris was a female neighbor about nine years ago, when I lived at Avenue D and Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn, and I worked as a security guard at a Duane Reade Pharmacy at the corner of the street. One day Deloris called me a survivalist. I asked her to expound on what she meant by her reference to me as a survivalist. She said she was talking in term of immigration status that I was head above the water, unlike her who was still struggling to break through in that area of her life in the United States. I had since lost connection with Deloris, but the fast-food workers protest last week in Manhattan and their struggle for survival with low wage brought Deloris thoughts and her reference to me as a survivalist back into my mind. It is a story about human life as a range in a continuum, where people find themselves at different points and times in a struggle for better life, and fast-food workers as integral part like their counterparts in the car wash and home health aide.
The fast-food employees protest in the city reveals a pathetic state of workers earning inhuman wage, while their bosses go home with millions every year. It is more shocking that some of the workers remain at the boundary of the minimum wage despite having been working for a number of year years in the same employment. But it is gratifying that some unions have put them in action seeking an income with human face beginning with a $15 raise. It is also gratifying as reported in the New York Times that New York mayoral candidates – Christine C. Quinn, Bill de Blasio, John C. Liu and William C. Thompson have given support for the workers’ unionization drive.
At the same time, the restaurant owners association's response that it is impossible to raise the worker’s wage as being demanded by the union is instructive. It says some of the workers will lose their jobs if the unions demand are met. It says some of the restaurant owners are incapable financially. It says one incentive the workers have is the knowledge garnered working in restaurants that enables them branch out and become owners. The mention of incentives for workers receiving low wage causes a need for one to look back at how one has traveled on this same road to see why people will choose to remain in low paying jobs, where opportunities abound.
What the restaurants owners association is saying is that some employers in the fast-food industry cannot pay the amount being demanded by the unions for the workers. Accepted that some of the employers are incapable, the same cannot be said of companies like Macdonald and a host of others among fast-food restaurant owners. But the real issue here is that the amount of wage a worker receives or chooses to accept at a particular time does not mean the standard of life here. Low wage is what everyone experiences before seeking better deal somewhere. Unless one chooses to remain in the low wage employment for the gains that accrue to those who may have chosen to remain there longer than necessary. It is a salient revelation that workers in stores like Walmart also suffer from the inhuman wage. It is part of the chains of struggle in the U.S. in the range and continuum of life’s experience. It is a road many people here have taken.
There are millions of people whose lot is belonging to the cadre of twelve millions of undocumented immigrants. They receive wages below the minimum wage, depending where they are domiciled in the country. They are struggling to become legal, to enable them begin the struggle for wages, beginning with minimum wage and above. When they become legal, they will still have the choice to seek better life by working hard to earn better income or remain in low wage employment as a way to be eligible to packs for people in the low wage category. It is a matter of choice that most people get to understand as part of the struggle here as they grow to know life in the U.S. Imagine yourself as a security guard on a minimum wage and posted to work in a store that pays its workers the minimum wage. Before you graduated to a minimum wage, you had worked in a car-wash earning lesser than the minimum wage. But after you became a security guard with opportunities for overtime that pushed your weekly pay up a little above inhuman level, you received a letter from the Medicaid telling you that your income had shot beyond the level of people on Medicaid. You lost it.
Now, you have the choice to drop from doing extra hours of overtime to remain on Medicaid or continue to work hard to earn more income, while you seek ways for a health-care you can manage. Eventually, you got a better job that gave you almost 90% raise from your minimum wage job. Would you remain on the minimum wage or go for the new job? If you are the struggling type seeking the American dream and ready to work hard for it, you will move to the new job. But if you are the type who wishes to have Medicaid and food stamps or remain on Benefits, you will remain on the low wage job. The low wage has its own advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is the access to free packs and education without tears. You can register for college and receive financial aid, whereas the guy who has chosen to struggle for a higher wage would have to pay for his education, either from his pocket or a government approved education loan, which will have to be repaid.
The report of the fast-food workers‘ protest said that work place experts remarked that it was the largest fast food workers series of job action at fast-food restaurants ever. It must have been, perhaps due to the changing economic situation that has made it difficult moving to higher wages, making it compelling for workers to listen to union members wooing them for unionization, when it is manifest that Obama-care has taken the burden of shopping for health-care from the table. The irony is that not all employers welcome unions. Some employers will rather lose contracts, if having such contracts is tied to allowing their workers to be unionized. There are companies who pay their workers good wages and have good employment packages, but still would have nothing to do with unions. Just like some employers have the choice to allow their workers to be unionized, the same is applicable to workers who are free to seek a better deal outside companies that cannot pay them enough to be happy.
Fast-food employees may have their own reasons for listening to the unions and for seeking a better deal in these days when a farm bill passed in the Congress without the food stamps in it; and when the Food Stamp bill eventually came for discussion last week, cutting the amount people can get became an issue and some people fear that with sequestration and tightening economic situation, an end to free packs may be near. It is a choice one will have to make, to be in a low wage employment with opportunity to earn college education or enhancement of one’s children’s access to college education without putting a heavy loan burden on the family, and relying on Benefits for a happy life, without life sharping struggle of continuously seeking a better wage.
As Deloris words have reminded me, we are all in a struggle for survival. The road each of us has taken may be different, but the goal is the same –to be survivalists. Some may have crossed the Rubicon and others are forging toward crossing it. No one will want to remain on a low wage when chances abound for improvement, unless there are gains from it. If fast-food owners will not increase their wage because they don’t have the means, there are opportunities elsewhere. Those who remain on a low paying job indefinitely, know why they do.
The fast-food employees protest in the city reveals a pathetic state of workers earning inhuman wage, while their bosses go home with millions every year. It is more shocking that some of the workers remain at the boundary of the minimum wage despite having been working for a number of year years in the same employment. But it is gratifying that some unions have put them in action seeking an income with human face beginning with a $15 raise. It is also gratifying as reported in the New York Times that New York mayoral candidates – Christine C. Quinn, Bill de Blasio, John C. Liu and William C. Thompson have given support for the workers’ unionization drive.
At the same time, the restaurant owners association's response that it is impossible to raise the worker’s wage as being demanded by the union is instructive. It says some of the workers will lose their jobs if the unions demand are met. It says some of the restaurant owners are incapable financially. It says one incentive the workers have is the knowledge garnered working in restaurants that enables them branch out and become owners. The mention of incentives for workers receiving low wage causes a need for one to look back at how one has traveled on this same road to see why people will choose to remain in low paying jobs, where opportunities abound.
What the restaurants owners association is saying is that some employers in the fast-food industry cannot pay the amount being demanded by the unions for the workers. Accepted that some of the employers are incapable, the same cannot be said of companies like Macdonald and a host of others among fast-food restaurant owners. But the real issue here is that the amount of wage a worker receives or chooses to accept at a particular time does not mean the standard of life here. Low wage is what everyone experiences before seeking better deal somewhere. Unless one chooses to remain in the low wage employment for the gains that accrue to those who may have chosen to remain there longer than necessary. It is a salient revelation that workers in stores like Walmart also suffer from the inhuman wage. It is part of the chains of struggle in the U.S. in the range and continuum of life’s experience. It is a road many people here have taken.
There are millions of people whose lot is belonging to the cadre of twelve millions of undocumented immigrants. They receive wages below the minimum wage, depending where they are domiciled in the country. They are struggling to become legal, to enable them begin the struggle for wages, beginning with minimum wage and above. When they become legal, they will still have the choice to seek better life by working hard to earn better income or remain in low wage employment as a way to be eligible to packs for people in the low wage category. It is a matter of choice that most people get to understand as part of the struggle here as they grow to know life in the U.S. Imagine yourself as a security guard on a minimum wage and posted to work in a store that pays its workers the minimum wage. Before you graduated to a minimum wage, you had worked in a car-wash earning lesser than the minimum wage. But after you became a security guard with opportunities for overtime that pushed your weekly pay up a little above inhuman level, you received a letter from the Medicaid telling you that your income had shot beyond the level of people on Medicaid. You lost it.
Now, you have the choice to drop from doing extra hours of overtime to remain on Medicaid or continue to work hard to earn more income, while you seek ways for a health-care you can manage. Eventually, you got a better job that gave you almost 90% raise from your minimum wage job. Would you remain on the minimum wage or go for the new job? If you are the struggling type seeking the American dream and ready to work hard for it, you will move to the new job. But if you are the type who wishes to have Medicaid and food stamps or remain on Benefits, you will remain on the low wage job. The low wage has its own advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is the access to free packs and education without tears. You can register for college and receive financial aid, whereas the guy who has chosen to struggle for a higher wage would have to pay for his education, either from his pocket or a government approved education loan, which will have to be repaid.
The report of the fast-food workers‘ protest said that work place experts remarked that it was the largest fast food workers series of job action at fast-food restaurants ever. It must have been, perhaps due to the changing economic situation that has made it difficult moving to higher wages, making it compelling for workers to listen to union members wooing them for unionization, when it is manifest that Obama-care has taken the burden of shopping for health-care from the table. The irony is that not all employers welcome unions. Some employers will rather lose contracts, if having such contracts is tied to allowing their workers to be unionized. There are companies who pay their workers good wages and have good employment packages, but still would have nothing to do with unions. Just like some employers have the choice to allow their workers to be unionized, the same is applicable to workers who are free to seek a better deal outside companies that cannot pay them enough to be happy.
Fast-food employees may have their own reasons for listening to the unions and for seeking a better deal in these days when a farm bill passed in the Congress without the food stamps in it; and when the Food Stamp bill eventually came for discussion last week, cutting the amount people can get became an issue and some people fear that with sequestration and tightening economic situation, an end to free packs may be near. It is a choice one will have to make, to be in a low wage employment with opportunity to earn college education or enhancement of one’s children’s access to college education without putting a heavy loan burden on the family, and relying on Benefits for a happy life, without life sharping struggle of continuously seeking a better wage.
As Deloris words have reminded me, we are all in a struggle for survival. The road each of us has taken may be different, but the goal is the same –to be survivalists. Some may have crossed the Rubicon and others are forging toward crossing it. No one will want to remain on a low wage when chances abound for improvement, unless there are gains from it. If fast-food owners will not increase their wage because they don’t have the means, there are opportunities elsewhere. Those who remain on a low paying job indefinitely, know why they do.
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