Entry 8
Labour Union: Fast- Food Condemnation
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Chapter 9: LABOUR UNION
Workers fight for their rights, revealing the disadvantage of stoppning "labour union"
The old stereotype that burger-flipping is how teenagers earn pocket money is no longer true, if it ever was. Half of fast-food workers during 2010-12 were aged 23 or over, according to John Schmitt and Janelle Jones of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, a think-tank. Only 30% were teenagers; 1% of them were 65 or more. Of the non-teenagers, around 85% had graduated from high school and over a third had some higher education. Many have costly responsibilities; more than one in three is bringing up at least one child. On August 29th, shortly before Labour Day, protests were staged outside more than 1,000 fast-food restaurants in 60 American cities. Protesters called for the minimum wage to be raised to $15 an hour, up from $7.25. (That is the federal rate; some state minimum wages are higher.) The “Fast Food Forward” campaign has grown rapidly from its beginnings last November in New York, when 200 workers went on strike for higher pay and unionisation. About 13% of fast-food workers made roughly the minimum wage in 2010-12; another 70% earned between that and $10.10 an hour. The minimum wage has not changed since 2009. After adjusting for inflation it is worth less than three-quarters of its peak value in 1968, says the Congressional Research Service. The decline relative to average wages is even more sobering. In 1968 the minimum wage was 54% of average hourly wages in the non-farm private sector; this year it is 36%.
The protests mark the start of a nationwide movement that “has touched a nerve in America about growing inequality”, says Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which has helped co-ordinate them. She adds that protesters are winning support from politicians, religious leaders and many poorly paid workers. The proportion of private-sector workers who are unionised has tumbled from 25% in 1973 to 7% today.
and many poorly paid workers. The proportion of private-sector workers who are unionised has tumbled from 25% in 1973 to 7% today. The SEIU points to some successes in organising low-paid service workers such as caretakers and security guards. Union leaders urge companies to look at the benefits of paying higher wages, such as reducing staff turnover. Until recently, hardly anyone tried to organise fast-food workers, because none of them intended to stay in a McJob for long. That this is changing is a “sign of how desperate things have become for low-wage workers”, says Mr Schmitt.Yet waving placards is unlikely to raise wages much. Although unemployment has fallen from a peak of 10% in 2009 to 7.4% today, there are still plenty of jobless Americans available to serve the burgers the strikers won’t. And if the cost of labour rises, firms may use less of it. “The burgers of tomorrow could be made by robots,” warns the Employment Policies Institute, which is funded by business.
The fast-food chains point out that their customers are extremely price-sensitive and that pay is set by franchise-owners. Entry-level jobs are a first step, they say; many managers started at the bottom. The National Restaurant Association sniffs that the protesters, “most of whom are not employees”, are intimidating staff who simply want to do their jobs and go home. “It is going to be hard for the fast-food workers to succeed,” says Jonathan Lange, who helped organise a campaign in Baltimore that in 1994 resulted in contractors to the city government having to pay the first so-called “living wage” (enough to support a family of four). “But if they could get one of the fast-food companies to break ranks, that would help,” he adds, predicting that any such firm is likely to be a small chain rather than one of the supersized ones.
WHAT do you say to a teenager with a job? Answer: “A Big Mac, fries and a Coke, please.” At least, that was the joke in happier times. Today’s question might be: “What do you say to a single parent with two jobs and no health insurance?”
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http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21584982-trade-unions-grill-nations-burger-joints-fast-food-condemnation