Fight for $15 protesters across US demand living wage in day of action

[WestVirginiaRebel]

UK Guardian:

Billboards in Times Square shone bright on Thursday morning as hundreds of workers huddled in front of a nearby McDonald’s. The early hour of 6am was not enough to dim the joyous feel of this gathering, taking place just weeks after California and New York became the first states to raise their minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022.

 

The fight, however, is far from over, say workers whose goal is to secure a $15 minimum wage for all Americans. On Thursday, workers in more than 300 cities across the US were expected to protest to demand a rise in the minimum wage and the right to unionize, which they hope will lead to better working conditions.

 

The protest is being billed by organizers as the largest one to date, yet the crowd that gathered in Times Square was about half as large as last year’s day of action in Brooklyn.

 

One of the workers joining the crowd in Times Square was Naquasia LeGrand, who works as a manager at a McDonald’s in North Carolina. When she started working, she was paid $7.25 an hour. She was recently promoted to a manager and saw her pay go up to $8 an hour, then to $8.15 an hour. Yet still, she says, “it’s not enough to make ends meet. I am still $400 short at the end of the month.”

 

It’s why on this day of action she made it back to New York, where in 2012 while working at KFC she helped kick off the Fight for $15 movement.

 

“Right now I am in the South trying to help out and make sure that they win $15, because not only New York and California deserve it. We all deserve it,” she said.

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No, you earn it...

[clearvision]

Ha.... I misread the title and thought it was paid protesters demanding $15 minimum wage....