Stop fast-food corporations from swindling workers

Fast-food workers are standing up to corporations that are paying poverty wages while making billions in profits. Will you take a stand with workers and demand that fast-food corporations pay them a fair wage? Yes, I Will!

Dear MoveOn member,

MoveOn members from across the country tuned in on Wednesday to watch a live Google Hangout with Robert Reich talking about his new film, "Inequality for All." 

The United States is facing a tipping point—where neither our economy nor our democracy is very functional—due to widening income inequality.

One startling example is the growing gap between the profits and executive pay of corporations and the wages their employees make. According to a recent report, corporations like McDonald's are getting away with paying fast-food workers roughly $7 per hour—-poverty wages—making it impossible for the workers to provide for their families and forcing families to rely on public assistance, so that taxpayers pay the price for these corporations who are making billions in profits.¹

But fast-food workers across the country, like Devonte Yates and Marielle Crowley, who participated in the Google Hangout with Reich, have been risking their jobs to fight for more pay—demanding that corporations like McDonald's pay them a living wage.

Will you stand in solidarity with fast-food workers and support their fight for better wages and the right to bargain collectively?

Yes, I will support fast-food workers to make a living wage!

Reich says that we must rely on our history lessons and remember that ordinary people organized and fought for worker protections after the Great Depression and elected officials passed legislation that protected workers and provided a social safety net. Despite the economic tipping point, we're not powerless in the face of corporate power, or the fumbling tea-party-led Congress. As we've seen in the past few days, when elected officials and everyday people stand strong, we can get the government working again, and stop a catastrophic government debt default. 

Regular people all across the country are standing up alongside fast-food workers like Devonte and Marielle and thousands more, who are part of a national campaign called Low Pay Is Not OK. What started just a few months ago—when fast food workers went on strike for fairer wages in nine cities—has spread to 72 cities, and the movement is growing. 

When we stand with fast-food workers and support their efforts to form a union, we're sending a clear message to corporations that we will not let them amass more money at the expense of people. We refuse to let our taxpayer dollars contribute to corporate subsidies that weigh on our system and let corporations off the hook. 

Will you stand up against the widening income gap and support fast-food workers fighting for better wages?

Yes, I will.

Thanks for all you do. 

–Mark, Mariana, Matt, Stefanie, and the rest of the team

P.S. Don't worry if you missed the live Google Hangout with Robert Reich; you can watch the video by clicking here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rc3Cbu1i2U.

Source:

1. "Half of fast food workers need public aid," CNN, October 15,
2013 http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=294513&id=76590-10220574-mIHdHCx&t=5

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