Milwaukee Activists Protest For Better Fast Food Worker Wages

Labor activists rallied in downtown Milwaukee at this afternoon, topping a day of demonstrations aimed at raising the pay of fast food workers.

Labor groups have been staging what they call fast food strikes, showing up in major cities at large fast food restaurants and urging workers to walk off the job. The activists are calling on the fast food chains to raise their workers’ pay and make it easier to unionize the restaurants.

Inside a Burger King around noon today, Reverend Willie Briscoe of Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope read a statement on behalf of low-wage workers.

“We are sick of making poverty wages and living on food stamps, in shelters, in family’s couches and not being able to provide for our children.”

The manager of the Burger King refused to accept a letter from the activists.

Amare Graham works at another Milwaukee fast food restaurant. He says wages could be raised for front-line staff, by cutting the pay of corporate CEOs: “So what if you lose a house or something, or one big duplex, and you still have three more left.”

McDonalds has said it pays its workers competitive wages and offers affordable benefits.