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For Immediate Release
November, 10 2015, 07:15am EDT
Contact:
Giovanna Vitale, giovanna.vitale@berlinrosen.com, (646)-200-5334,
Jack Temple, jack.temple@berlinrosen.com, (646) 200-5280
One Year from Election Day, Fast-Food Workers to Wage Biggest-Ever Strike
Nationwide Walkout to Culminate in 500-City Protest with Fast-Food, Home Care, Child Care Workers Vowing to Take Fight for $15, Union Rights to the Ballot Box in 2016
WASHINGTON
Fast-food workers will wage their biggest-ever strike Tuesday - one year from Election Day - with walkouts hitting a record 270 cities from Detroit to Denver. The strikes will culminate in protests in 500 cities, where fast-food, home care, child care, and other underpaid workers will amass outside city halls--local symbols of political power-- to demand that elected leaders nationwide stand up for $15/hr and union rights.
The strikes and protests come as underpaid workers nationwide vow to take their Fight for $15 and union rights to the ballot box in 2016 to show candidates of all political stripes that the nearly 64 million Americans paid less than $15 are a voting bloc that can no longer be ignored.
In addition to the strikes and city hall protests, auto parts workers, farmworkers, grocery clerks, FedEx drivers, nursing home workers and others will show their support for the Fight for $15 at rallies planned for 1,000 cities across the country, sending a message to candidates that higher pay and union rights are urgent issues for our country that need to be addressed now. In Milwaukee, following the strikes and city hall protest, members of Fight for $15 WI will march on the Republican debate at the Milwaukee Theatre.
WHO: | Workers from McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, KFC, and other fast-food restaurants; home care, child care, and other underpaid workers. |
WHAT: | Largest-ever strike of fast-food cooks and cashiers; City Hall protests in 500 cities to demand that candidates everywhere support $15/hr and union rights. |
WHEN/WHERE: New York Chicago Los Angeles Milwaukee Oakland San Jose Tampa Atlanta Detroit Kansas City Durham Cleveland Philadelphia Richmond | For information on times and locations of strike lines in a particular city, please contact Giovanna Frank-Vitale at giovanna.vitale@berlinrosen.com or Jack Temple at jack.temple@berlinrosen.com. 6:00am: McDonald's at 82 Court Street and Livingston, Downtown Brooklyn 11:00am: McDonald's at 125th Street & Adam Clayton Powell Blvd, Harlem 5:00pm: Foley Square @ Lafayette & Duane, Financial District 6:00am: McDonald's 1951 N Western 4:30pm: Thompson Center at 100 W. Randolph 6:00am: McDonald's at 640 Nth Long Beach Blvd. 11:00am: City Hall at 200 N Spring; starting at McDonald's at 690 S. Alameda 6:00am: McDonald's at 2455 West Wisconsin Avenue 5:00pm: City Hall at 200 E Wells 6:00am: McDonald's at 2801 Mission Street 4:30pm: City Hall at 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza 12:00pm: McDonald's at 2191 Monterey Road 4:30pm: Oakland City Hall at 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza 6:00am: McDonalds at 925 62nd Ave North 4:30pm: Tampa City Hall at 315 E. Kennedy Blvd 6:00am: McDonald's at Virginia Ave. 5:00pm: City Hall at 68 Mitchell St SW 6:00am: McDonald's at 15501 Plymouth Road City Hall at 2 Woodward 6:00am: McDonald's at 3255 Main Street 5:00pm City Hall at 414 E 12th Street 6:00am: McDonald's Downtown 5:00pm: Durham City Hall at 101 City Hall Plaza 11:00am: City Hall at 601 Lakeside Ave E 6:00am: McDonald's at Broad and Alleghany 3:30pm: City Hall at 15th and Market 6:00am: McDonald's at 1800 Broadway 5:00pm: City Hall at 900 E Broad Street |
Fast food workers are coming together all over the country to fight for $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation. We work for corporations that are making tremendous profits, but do not pay employees enough to support our families and to cover basic needs like food, health care, rent and transportation.
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'Appalling and Lawless': Trump Moves to Fire Democrats on Consumer Safety Panel
"I'll see him in court," said Richard Trumka Jr., one of the commissioners.
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Three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission vowed on Friday to fight back after U.S. President Donald Trump moved to fire them, an effort that the trio described as part of the White House's unlawful assault on independent agencies.
Mary Boyle, Richard Trumka Jr., and Alex Hoehn-Saric are now listed on the CPSC's website as "former commissioners." The Washington Post reported that Trump moved to fire the commissioners "shortly after" the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency visited the agency on Thursday.
"The Democratic commissioners objected to two DOGE employees being formally detailed to the agency," the Post noted, citing Trumka's account.
Boyle and Trumka said they received emails from the White House late Thursday informing them of the president's bid to remove them from their posts. Hoehn-Saric said in a statement Friday that while he has yet to receive communication from the White House, the acting chair of the CPSC is "preventing me from executing my duties as commissioner based on an assertion that the president is also seeking my removal."
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All three of the Democratic commissioners indicated that they don't intend to leave the agency quietly, following in the footsteps of commissioners at other agencies who have challenged Trump's attempts to fire them, setting the stage for a high-stakes battle at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trumka, son of the late labor leader Richard Trumka, said Friday that he has "a set term on this independent, bipartisan commission that does not expire until October of 2028." Last week, Trumka defied a Trump executive order instructing federal agencies to submit all proposed rules to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review.
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Boyle, whose term was set to expire later this year, also signaled that she intends to remain at her post.
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Consumer advocates voiced outrage in response to Trump's attempt to fire the CPSC commissioners.
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William Wallace, director of safety advocacy for Consumer Reports, said in a statement that "this is an appalling and lawless attack on the independence of our country's product safety watchdog."
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Congressman Jared Golden has been accused of dodging his constituents by refusing to hold town hall meetings with them, and now the Maine Democrat is blaming a grassroots progressive movement for what critics have called his cowardly stance.
Golden isn't alone in refusing to hold town halls. Numerous congressional Republicans have come under fire for avoiding their constituents' wrath by eschewing public meetings with them. However, Golden's right-wing positions on issues ranging from border security to voter ID and his support for some of President Donald Trump's policies and dismissal of his administration's threat to democracy have stoked progressives' ire at the fourth-term congressman.
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Now Golden is hitting back, accusing Indivisible, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, of being a "dark money group" that divides Democrats and alienates conservatives.
"So he's mad at his own base, the ones who knocked doors to get him into Congress?"
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Sarah Dohl, Indivisible's chief campaigns officer, scoffed at Golden's "dark money" allegation.
"Jared Golden's claims that Indivisible is funded by dark money is pathetic," she told the Portland Press Herald on Friday. "Small-dollar donors are the backbone of Indivisible's budget, and we're proud to be accountable to a nationwide grassroots base, not a single donor or interest."
Former Maine state Rep. Dianne Russell (D-39) took to social media to slam Golden's accusation, writing: "So he's mad at his own base, the ones who knocked doors to get him into Congress? And he's so mad that he is afraid to answer to the same Maine people who knocked those doors? Wow!"
Golden—a member of the shrunken Blue Dog Caucus of 10 right-wing Democrats—contended that Indivisible "has formed connections very successfully with local groups" and "uses those local groups to whitewash what is an extremely partisan agenda."
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Statements like these have stirred progressive Mainers to action. Last month, Indivisible Mid-Maine members led a protest of Golden's private speech at Colby College in Waterville.
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In a win for progressive groups and lawmakers who have been sounding the alarm about legislation that would create a regulatory framework for stablecoins, the U.S. Senate Democratic Caucus—along with a couple of Republicans—blocked the cryptocurrency bill from advancing on Thursday in a 49-48 procedural vote.
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Our Revolution, a group formed as a continuation of Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, has similarly panned the legislation, with executive director Joseph Geevarghese calling it a "laughably weak and toothless regulatory bill—a sham crafted by cryptocurrency giants that is certain to line the pockets of the Trump family's crypto empire."
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In recent days, several crypto-friendly Democrats said they couldn't support the GENIUS Act in its current form, and ultimately, no members of the party's caucus voted for it. Thursday's vote was welcomed by Our Revolution, which said on social media that "Democrats held firm against this corporate power grab. We're fighting for fairness, not billionaire greed!"
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Warner, one of the Democrats who voted the bill out of committee in March, said in a Thursday statement that "while we've made meaningful progress on the GENIUS Act, the work is not yet complete, and I simply cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to vote for this legislation when the text isn't yet finished."
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While Thune reposted social media statements from his GOP colleagues expressing disappointment over the result and accusing Democrats of "hypocrisy," he also signaled that the effort to pass a stablecoin bill will continue by changing his vote from yes to no, which enables him to bring up the GENIUS Act at a later date.
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