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30-08-2013, 04:40 AM
An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:
When Obama entered office he tried to push up mini mun wages after fighting the Republicans who claimed that higher wages will cause unemployment, he managed to get it back u to US$7.25 ...raising mnimum wages did not cause the US economy to falter. Neither did it cause unemployment in Hong Kong. The reason why this is so is because due to severe inequality in these countries wa. s of low income groups collectively form the smallest slice of GDP in history of last 80 yrs. Therein lies the flaw in PAP resistance to having minimum wages and wage intervention- delaying such corrective actions can prove to be a fatal error in a highly unequal society ....and it is based on unsound economics to hold out against minimum wage and wage intervention. Professor Lim Chong Yah shock therapy was prescribed with a historic perspective that prolonged inequality will incentivise workers to alter the power structure by unionisation or the ballot box to force change towards a fairer society.
While Obama appreciated the need for change, he was slowed by Washington politics. Now fast food workers representing a large segment of low wage workers have gone on strike demanding minimum wage to be pushed up to US$15 per hour.
In singapore strikes are illegal and unbalanced power structure has led to policies bias towards GDP growth and business profits. I was unfortunate to end up working in a fast food joint after I was reject entry into the university- the pap prefer to educate children of foreign er rather than give the chance to a Singaporean who has served NS. Back then the wages in fast food was S$5 per hour, I dont think it is much highee today even as the cost of living rises. Singapore has a third world wage structure and ourlow wage workers are the most poorly paid in the developed world due to lopsided pap policies.
Because pap suppresses industrial action as well as freedom of expressiin, the outward sign of unhappiness gets suppress. There is no reason for wages earners jn singapore to be less unhappy or less outraged than the fast food workers in US that have gone on strike - their wages is somethng like
80 to 100% higher than in Singapore and the cost of living is lower in most part of USA compared with singapore. The pap system has resulted in a highly unequal and unfair system where those in power are paid excessivel high wages along side executives of companies to which givt is linked (GLCs).... they maintain this system by suppressing opponents and control of the mainstream media...using fear as a tool aginst the ordinary people. The struggling masses are left with only one card to play and it is a risky hand called GE2016.
_---------------------------------
Justin Solomon | CNBC
Fast food workers protest Aug. 29, 2013, in New York.
The battle to boost the minimum wage escalated Thursday when thousands of workers at fast-food restaurants in 50 U.S. cities walked off the job to demand a "decent" wage.
From San Diego to New York, workers stopped flipping burgers, frying fries, and slathering on secret sauce in what organizers called the largest strikes against the nation's fast food companies ever.
"You're trying to go up and you're just going down," said protester Shantel Walker, 31, of Brooklyn, who makes $7.25 working at a Papa John's in Manhattan. "All of us are in the same financial crunch. We're trying to take care of our families and our livelihood."
The strikes mark the latest salvo in a nearly year-long battle to get not only higher wages but also an opportunity to unionize without facing retaliation from their employers. The workers' ire, too, is at the very heart of a politicized debate to raise the country's minimum wage that eventually may be decided in Washington.
Labor Secretary Thomas Perez told The Associated Press that the worker strikes were a sign of the need to raise the minimum wage. "For all too many people working minimum wage jobs, the rungs on the ladder of opportunity are feeling further and further apart," Perez said.
At the core of the workers' demands with the $200 billion fast food industry is salary starting at $15 an hour from the current $7.25 an hour minimum wage and the $8.94 median wage for front-end workers.
Workers mobilized in cities from Alameda, Calif., to West Haven, Conn. and across the nation, including several demonstrations in New York City. To date, strikes have been held in one city or the other, or in regions, but nothing like Thursday's national push involving hundreds of restaurants.
About 200 workers marched through the midtown Manhattan McDonald's on Thursday morning, and more gathered downtown in the Financial District. As the streets became more crowded with protesters beating drums and blowing loud whistles, police struggled to keep traffic moving.
(Read more: Earn minimum wage? It'll take this long to afford a Big Mac)
The strike comes as more and more fast food workers making minimum wage are not teenagers, but adults trying to support families, particularly since the Great Recession. Only 16 percent of fast food industry jobs now go to teens, down from 25 percent a decade ago. More than 42 percent of restaurant and fast-food employees over the age of 25 have at least some college education, including 753,000 with a bachelor's degree or higher, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Janul Dixon, 35, came out on Thursday to offer his support to the workers. He used to work at Wendy's for a low wage, but has since found work as an exterminator. "They need to allow people to make enough to support their family," he said. "In New York everything is going up but wages are not."
The National Restaurant Association has countered that only about 5 percent of fast-food workers earn the minimum wage. Other defenders of the industry note that increased wage costs will be passed onto consumers.
"The restaurant industry provides opportunity to over 13 million Americans with jobs that meet critical needs within our economy. We welcome a national discussion on wages, but it should be based on facts," said Scott DeFife, the association's executive vice president of policy and government affairs. "The restaurant industry is the nation's second largest private sector employer and our industry is an industry of opportunity."
(Read more: Minimum wage hike: Just what the economy ordered?)
Play Video
Fast food workers strike nationwide
Thousands of restaurant employees are staging a walkout today, calling for a major increase in the minimum wage, reports CNBC's Jackie DeAngelis.
"Nine out of ten salaried restaurant workers, including owners and managers, started as hourly workers. The fact is, only 5 percent of restaurant employees earn the minimum wage, and those that do are predominantly working part-time and half are teenagers," DeFife added. "Restaurant jobs teach valuable skills and a strong work ethic that are useful for workers throughout their professional careers."
McDonald's, which has 34,000 restaurants across the globe., was quick to defend its salaries. "McDonald's aims to offer competitive pay and benefits to our employees. We provide training and professional development for all of those who wish to take advantage of those opportunities," the company said in a statement. "Our history is full of examples of individuals who worked their first job with McDonald's and went on to successful careers both within and outside of McDonald's." The chain posted $5.5 billion in profits last year on revenues of $27.5 billion.
Thursday's strike was expected to be "the largest attempt at worker organizing in this industry ever" due to support from the Service Workers International Union, and grassroots efforts from community groups, local politicians and the clergy, said Tsedeye Gebreselassie, an attorney at the National Employment Law Project.
"The workers are responding to total failure on behalf of the federal government to raise the minimum wage to keep up with inflation and the cost of living," Gebreselassie said.
(Read more: How bad math about Big Macs gives me indigestion)
Organizers stressed the importance of the strike spreading to Southern states.
"The South has always been the model for low wage employment, from slavery to the Jim Crow laws, to the present," said Dorian Warren, an assistant professor of political science at Columbia University who has published work on labor organizing and inequality. "It's also the most anti-union part of the country, so the fact that workers feel empowered enough to take collective action is enormous."
Strikers complain that while revenue is up about 13 percent at fast-food restaurants as of August, it's not being passed on to the workers.
All the media attention paid to the strikers Thursday will surely re-ignite the minimum wage debate, in which opponents say higher employment costs will mean fewer jobs and higher prices for customers. In The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, the conservative Employment Policies Institute ran a full-page ad with a picture of a robot making pancakes, warning that higher wages would mean "fewer entry-level jobs and more automated alternatives."
"You can either raise prices and lose customers, or (automate) those jobs," said Michael Saltsman, EPI's research director. "The idea that restaurants are rolling in the money is not representative of the situation franchisees face."
—By CNBC's Jeff Cox. Follow him
@JeffCoxCNBCcom
on Twitter. Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?161460-Fast-food-workers-in-US-on-strike-for-higher-wages&goto=newpost).
When Obama entered office he tried to push up mini mun wages after fighting the Republicans who claimed that higher wages will cause unemployment, he managed to get it back u to US$7.25 ...raising mnimum wages did not cause the US economy to falter. Neither did it cause unemployment in Hong Kong. The reason why this is so is because due to severe inequality in these countries wa. s of low income groups collectively form the smallest slice of GDP in history of last 80 yrs. Therein lies the flaw in PAP resistance to having minimum wages and wage intervention- delaying such corrective actions can prove to be a fatal error in a highly unequal society ....and it is based on unsound economics to hold out against minimum wage and wage intervention. Professor Lim Chong Yah shock therapy was prescribed with a historic perspective that prolonged inequality will incentivise workers to alter the power structure by unionisation or the ballot box to force change towards a fairer society.
While Obama appreciated the need for change, he was slowed by Washington politics. Now fast food workers representing a large segment of low wage workers have gone on strike demanding minimum wage to be pushed up to US$15 per hour.
In singapore strikes are illegal and unbalanced power structure has led to policies bias towards GDP growth and business profits. I was unfortunate to end up working in a fast food joint after I was reject entry into the university- the pap prefer to educate children of foreign er rather than give the chance to a Singaporean who has served NS. Back then the wages in fast food was S$5 per hour, I dont think it is much highee today even as the cost of living rises. Singapore has a third world wage structure and ourlow wage workers are the most poorly paid in the developed world due to lopsided pap policies.
Because pap suppresses industrial action as well as freedom of expressiin, the outward sign of unhappiness gets suppress. There is no reason for wages earners jn singapore to be less unhappy or less outraged than the fast food workers in US that have gone on strike - their wages is somethng like
80 to 100% higher than in Singapore and the cost of living is lower in most part of USA compared with singapore. The pap system has resulted in a highly unequal and unfair system where those in power are paid excessivel high wages along side executives of companies to which givt is linked (GLCs).... they maintain this system by suppressing opponents and control of the mainstream media...using fear as a tool aginst the ordinary people. The struggling masses are left with only one card to play and it is a risky hand called GE2016.
_---------------------------------
Justin Solomon | CNBC
Fast food workers protest Aug. 29, 2013, in New York.
The battle to boost the minimum wage escalated Thursday when thousands of workers at fast-food restaurants in 50 U.S. cities walked off the job to demand a "decent" wage.
From San Diego to New York, workers stopped flipping burgers, frying fries, and slathering on secret sauce in what organizers called the largest strikes against the nation's fast food companies ever.
"You're trying to go up and you're just going down," said protester Shantel Walker, 31, of Brooklyn, who makes $7.25 working at a Papa John's in Manhattan. "All of us are in the same financial crunch. We're trying to take care of our families and our livelihood."
The strikes mark the latest salvo in a nearly year-long battle to get not only higher wages but also an opportunity to unionize without facing retaliation from their employers. The workers' ire, too, is at the very heart of a politicized debate to raise the country's minimum wage that eventually may be decided in Washington.
Labor Secretary Thomas Perez told The Associated Press that the worker strikes were a sign of the need to raise the minimum wage. "For all too many people working minimum wage jobs, the rungs on the ladder of opportunity are feeling further and further apart," Perez said.
At the core of the workers' demands with the $200 billion fast food industry is salary starting at $15 an hour from the current $7.25 an hour minimum wage and the $8.94 median wage for front-end workers.
Workers mobilized in cities from Alameda, Calif., to West Haven, Conn. and across the nation, including several demonstrations in New York City. To date, strikes have been held in one city or the other, or in regions, but nothing like Thursday's national push involving hundreds of restaurants.
About 200 workers marched through the midtown Manhattan McDonald's on Thursday morning, and more gathered downtown in the Financial District. As the streets became more crowded with protesters beating drums and blowing loud whistles, police struggled to keep traffic moving.
(Read more: Earn minimum wage? It'll take this long to afford a Big Mac)
The strike comes as more and more fast food workers making minimum wage are not teenagers, but adults trying to support families, particularly since the Great Recession. Only 16 percent of fast food industry jobs now go to teens, down from 25 percent a decade ago. More than 42 percent of restaurant and fast-food employees over the age of 25 have at least some college education, including 753,000 with a bachelor's degree or higher, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Janul Dixon, 35, came out on Thursday to offer his support to the workers. He used to work at Wendy's for a low wage, but has since found work as an exterminator. "They need to allow people to make enough to support their family," he said. "In New York everything is going up but wages are not."
The National Restaurant Association has countered that only about 5 percent of fast-food workers earn the minimum wage. Other defenders of the industry note that increased wage costs will be passed onto consumers.
"The restaurant industry provides opportunity to over 13 million Americans with jobs that meet critical needs within our economy. We welcome a national discussion on wages, but it should be based on facts," said Scott DeFife, the association's executive vice president of policy and government affairs. "The restaurant industry is the nation's second largest private sector employer and our industry is an industry of opportunity."
(Read more: Minimum wage hike: Just what the economy ordered?)
Play Video
Fast food workers strike nationwide
Thousands of restaurant employees are staging a walkout today, calling for a major increase in the minimum wage, reports CNBC's Jackie DeAngelis.
"Nine out of ten salaried restaurant workers, including owners and managers, started as hourly workers. The fact is, only 5 percent of restaurant employees earn the minimum wage, and those that do are predominantly working part-time and half are teenagers," DeFife added. "Restaurant jobs teach valuable skills and a strong work ethic that are useful for workers throughout their professional careers."
McDonald's, which has 34,000 restaurants across the globe., was quick to defend its salaries. "McDonald's aims to offer competitive pay and benefits to our employees. We provide training and professional development for all of those who wish to take advantage of those opportunities," the company said in a statement. "Our history is full of examples of individuals who worked their first job with McDonald's and went on to successful careers both within and outside of McDonald's." The chain posted $5.5 billion in profits last year on revenues of $27.5 billion.
Thursday's strike was expected to be "the largest attempt at worker organizing in this industry ever" due to support from the Service Workers International Union, and grassroots efforts from community groups, local politicians and the clergy, said Tsedeye Gebreselassie, an attorney at the National Employment Law Project.
"The workers are responding to total failure on behalf of the federal government to raise the minimum wage to keep up with inflation and the cost of living," Gebreselassie said.
(Read more: How bad math about Big Macs gives me indigestion)
Organizers stressed the importance of the strike spreading to Southern states.
"The South has always been the model for low wage employment, from slavery to the Jim Crow laws, to the present," said Dorian Warren, an assistant professor of political science at Columbia University who has published work on labor organizing and inequality. "It's also the most anti-union part of the country, so the fact that workers feel empowered enough to take collective action is enormous."
Strikers complain that while revenue is up about 13 percent at fast-food restaurants as of August, it's not being passed on to the workers.
All the media attention paid to the strikers Thursday will surely re-ignite the minimum wage debate, in which opponents say higher employment costs will mean fewer jobs and higher prices for customers. In The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, the conservative Employment Policies Institute ran a full-page ad with a picture of a robot making pancakes, warning that higher wages would mean "fewer entry-level jobs and more automated alternatives."
"You can either raise prices and lose customers, or (automate) those jobs," said Michael Saltsman, EPI's research director. "The idea that restaurants are rolling in the money is not representative of the situation franchisees face."
—By CNBC's Jeff Cox. Follow him
@JeffCoxCNBCcom
on Twitter. Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?161460-Fast-food-workers-in-US-on-strike-for-higher-wages&goto=newpost).