Greensboro fast-food employees picket for increased wages

More than a dozen fast-food workers lined up in front of the Battleground Avenue Taco Bell this afternoon as part of a nationwide strike to demand higher wages. The workers, who protested for over an hour, participated in megaphone-led chants, such as:

"We can't survive / On seven twenty-five" 

"We are worth more!" 

"Hold your burgers, hold you fries / Make our wages super-sized"

Why I'm going on strike today: A Greensboro fast-food worker speaks out

Today fast-food workers in 50 cities, including Greensboro, will strike for higher pay and to stand for the right to organize without retaliation. One of those people, a Taco Bell employee in Greensboro, told us about why he is going on strike today.

“We’re grown people with grown bills,” he said. “I can’t have a comfortable life working at $7.75 an hour and barely making 40 hours a week.”

That’s the most he’s made in seven years off and on in fast food, working at McDonald’s, Steak & Shake and now Taco Bell. The Greensboro native, who is in his 30s, worked higher paying jobs and made up to $13 an hour, but after being laid off, fast food was the only industry where he could find work here.

“There’s somebody at my job now who’s been at my job for six years and they only make $7.85,” he said. “Managers probably get less than $10. We’re really all tired and fed up.”

People often look down on fast-food workers, he said, and assume that they don’t work hard. That isn’t true: They spend long days on their feet, sometimes without air conditioning, and they make next to nothing, he said.

The employee, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of being fired for talking to the press and for going on strike, said he doesn’t have sick days and when workers are sick, they have to bring a doctor’s note as evidence. That’s no easy feat without insurance or the money for a doctor’s visit, he said.

Two days ago his paycheck for the last two weeks came through. The total amount: $250.

“Who can survive off that?” he asked. “Everything else I can deal with it’s just the pay is not enough to survive on. I had to postpone my cell phone bill because I can’t even pay that.”

He’s single and lives with roommates, but they’re struggling financially, too. Despite his concerns about losing his job, he said he and his coworkers are too tired and fed up not to act. Inspired by the fast-food strikes he saw in New York City recently, he’s hopeful that today’s strike in Greensboro will be a step towards $15 an hour pay for him and other workers in his industry. And if not, that he can find a job somewhere else.

“If the pay was better, I would have no problem staying,” he said. “I like my job, the people that I’m serving. I know my customers by name. It’s just very, very stressful and we’re tired of not getting paid for the work that we do.”

Some of his coworkers plan to strike with him.  


Taco Bell spokesperson Ashley Sioson directed questions regarding the strike, wages, conditions and sick policy to the National Restaurant Association because "because [the strike] is a matter that impacts the entire restaurant industry." Someone could not be reached before this post. We'll add more coverage, including from today's strike in Greensboro, soon.

Read more about the strike here. 

Fast-food strike announced in Greensboro

Fast-food workers in Greensboro will join a nationwide strike tomorrow calling for higher wages, according to a press release. Organizers say the strike — that will span 50 cities including Raleigh, Durham and Charlotte —will be the biggest ever to hit the fast-food industry.

Workers at McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Little Caesars, Taco Bell, KFC and Bojangles will walk off their jobs in the four North Carolina cities. In Greensboro, workers and supporters will gather at 11:30 a.m. at 2606 Battleground Ave, next to a Taco Bell and in sight of a Wendy's. [An earlier flyer, left, says 2600 Battleground, but the press release this morning was more specific and listed 2606.]

The one-day action draws on fast food strikes in seven cities earlier this summer and is also a call for the right to form a union "without retaliation or unfair labor practices." It's already a federal right, but labor lawyers, workers and organizers say companies often violate the law with impunity.

The NC Raise Up campaign is calling for a $15/hour wage, a significant increase from the average fast-food wage in the state but still a far cry from a living wage, the release said.

Stay posted for more coverage from Alex Ashe and Eric Ginsburg.

UPDATE: Read this short article about one Taco Bell worker's reasons for participating in the Greensboro strike.

Prisoners launch hunger strike at three NC facilities

According to a release from the Prison Books Collective in Chapel Hill today, an unknown number of prisoners at three different prisons in North Carolina began a hunger strike Monday until the demands listed below are met. The prisoners are located at Bertie CI in Windsor, Scotland CI in Laurinburg and Central Prison in Raleigh. They have called for supporters to contact prison officials like Director Robert Lewis, march in protest at Central Prison, boycott goods sold in prisons and contact the media. Here are their demands, as listed in the press release:

PRISONERS' DEMANDS
Law Libraries. We are tired of being railroaded by the courts, and having our rights violated by prison staff and officers. NC Prison Legal Services are inadequate and oftentimes do not help us at all. A law library is needed to enable us to legally defend ourselves.

An immediate end to the phsical and mental abuse inflicted by officers.
Improve food, in terms of quality and quantity.

A better way to communicate emergencies from cells; many emergency call buttons are broken and never replaced, and guards often do not show up for over an hour. At least one prisoner has died this way.

The canteens that serve lock up units need to make available vitamins and personal hygiene items.

An immediate stop to officers' tampering or throwing away prisoners' mail.

Education programs for prisoners on lock-up.

The immediate release of prisoners from solitary who have been held unjustly or for years without infractions; this includes the Strong 8, sent to solitary for the purpose of political intimidation.

The immediate end to the use of restraints as a form of torture.

The end of cell restriction. Sometimes prisoners are locked in their cell for weeks or more than a month, unable to come out for showers and recreation.

The theft of prisoners' property, including mattresses and clothes. When on property restriction, we are forced to sleep on the ground or steel bed frames naked, with no bedding.

Medical privacy and confidentiality. Guards should not be able to listen in on our medical problems when on sick call.

Change our cell windows to ones which we can see through. The current windows are covered with feces and grime. Not being able to see out is sensory deprivation, and makes us feel dissociated from everything that exists outside of prison.

An immediate repair of cell lights, sinks, toilets, and plumbing.

Toilet brushes should be handed out with cell cleaning items.

The levels of I-Con, M-Con, and H-Con need to be done away with altogether.

When one is placed on Intensive Control Status (I-Con), one is placed in the hole for six months and told to stay out of trouble. But even when we stay out of trouble, we are called back to the FCC and DCC only to be told to do another six months in the hold, infraction free.