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cali

(114,904 posts)
Wed Apr 24, 2013, 11:06 AM Apr 2013

This! Retail and Fast Food Workers Strike in Chicago's Magnificent Mile

Chicago’s downtown Loop area is the heart of commerce in the city. But beginning at 5:30 A.M. today, fast food and retail workers there have gone on strike, following New York City fast food workers who walked off the job in November and again earlier this month demanding higher wages and better working conditions.
Organizers estimate about 500 workers, uniting under the name of the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago, will be striking today in industries long associated with low wages but unaccustomed to labor unrest. The campaign, backed by a coalition of Chicago unions and community organizations, has the lofty goal of winning a raise to $15 per hour for workers who make up nearly one-third of all jobs in the city.

Silvia Garduno, 27, works at a Sally’s Beauty Supply store in the Loop. The night before the strike, Garduno explained that despite working at the store (one location of “the largest retailer of professional beauty supplies in the world,” according to the company’s website) for three years, she earns $8.91 per hour.

“We’re the ones working our butts off,” Garduno says. “$8.91 is ridiculous—especially being downtown. We’re worth more.” The Loop sees about $4 billion in retail and fast food revenue each year.

In addition to low pay, Garduno says her work at Sally’s is sometimes dangerous, like when she says her store was robbed, and is often full of indignities, like when she had to take time off to tend to her sick mother and was told she might be fired.

<snip>

http://www.thenation.com/article/174016/retail-and-fast-food-workers-strike-chicagos-magnificent-mile#

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This! Retail and Fast Food Workers Strike in Chicago's Magnificent Mile (Original Post) cali Apr 2013 OP
YEA! That needs to spread, to other cities and other occupations! Eleanors38 Apr 2013 #1
Solidarity with workers, but wish this were better reported frazzled Apr 2013 #2
I don't think it's picky at all. I'm glad to have your clarification cali Apr 2013 #4
Yes, I caught that too Cirque du So-What Apr 2013 #5
Sharing in Solidarity! patrice Apr 2013 #3
The minimum wage should be raised. hay rick Apr 2013 #6
The new labor movement + internet = heart attacks in boardrooms across corporate world. reformist2 Apr 2013 #7
Say, that mile is lookin' magnificent today, alright! Blue Owl Apr 2013 #8

frazzled

(18,402 posts)
2. Solidarity with workers, but wish this were better reported
Wed Apr 24, 2013, 11:20 AM
Apr 2013

First of all, the workers are not striking "in Chicago's Magnificent Mile." (whatever "in" means, rather than "on&quot . They don't even seem to be from the Magnificent Mile (cf. interview with Loop store clerk--the Loop is not part of the Magnificent Mile). The picture presents two workers striking in front of the Fifth-Third Center, which is nowhere near the Mag Mile, but in the westernmost part of the Loop, near Union Station.

You may think this is picky, but it's not. It bespeaks a reporter from far away not doing the proper legwork or fact-checking ... and that throws all kinds of things into doubt about the reporting. People reading this article in the city will be scratching their heads and dismissing it ... all because of lack of attention to significant details.

Hello ... if you saw an article saying workers were striking "in" Fifth Avenue, and then showed a picture and interviewed workers in Herald Square, it would be laughed at.

Cirque du So-What

(25,812 posts)
5. Yes, I caught that too
Wed Apr 24, 2013, 11:43 AM
Apr 2013

Laziness and detachment from the subject are all too common in journalism nowadays.

hay rick

(7,521 posts)
6. The minimum wage should be raised.
Wed Apr 24, 2013, 12:03 PM
Apr 2013

Article here: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/labor/news/2013/04/24/61295/top-6-policies-to-help-the-middle-class-that-wont-cost-taxpayers-a-penny/

Excerpt:

Over the past four decades, workers have become much more productive and our country has become much richer, but the value of the minimum wage has declined significantly. Since 1968 the inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage has declined by 31 percent. The minimum wage would be more than $10.50 per hour today if it had kept up with inflation. This decrease has occurred even as workers have become more productive. Over the same period of time, productivity—the measure of output per hour of work—increased by 124 percent.

reformist2

(9,841 posts)
7. The new labor movement + internet = heart attacks in boardrooms across corporate world.
Wed Apr 24, 2013, 12:06 PM
Apr 2013

This kind of thing is going to spread like wildfire, and the internet is only going to promote support and awareness.

And once labor starts scoring a few victories, watch out...

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