Fast Food Strikers block intersection in Temple Terrace

Share

Fast food workers are striking Thursday across the nation demanding a minimum wage of fifteen dollars an hour; here in the Tampa area, nearly 100 supporters chanted on the sidewalk in front of a McDonald’s restaurant at the corner of 56th Street and Fowler Avenue in Temple Terrace.

At one point the protesters sat in the intersection blocking traffic for 5 minutes until they were confronted by police and ask to move. WMNF spoke with some of the striking workers. That includes McDonald’s employee who gave her name as Mandy. She walked out on her shift and joined the picket line.

But becoming a manager is not necessarily the answer. Anthony Moore works at a nearby Burger King.

A spokesperson for McDonald’s refused to be interviewed on tape. Instead, they issued an email statement, which reads:

“At McDonald’s we respect everyone’s rights to peacefully protest. The topic of minimum wage goes well beyond McDonald’s- it affects our country’s entire workforce. McDonald’s and our independent franchisees support paying our valued employees fair wages aligned with a competitive marketplace. We believe that any minimum wage increase should be implemented over time so that the impact on owners of small and medium-sized businesses – like the ones who own and operate the majority of our restaurants – is manageable. Additionally, we believe that any increase needs to be considered in a broad context, one that considers, for example, the impact of the Affordable Care Act and its definition of “full time” employment, as well as the treatment, from a tax perspective, of investments made by businesses owners.”

“It’s important to know approximately 90% of our U.S. restaurants are independently owned and operated by franchisees who set wages according to job level and local and federal laws. McDonald’s does not determine wages set by our more than 3,000 U.S. franchisees.”

Here are some photos of the Fast Food Strike.

//www.youtube.com/embed/Nu_z1-63r-g?list=UUqvMYeJ-iGoICYxFuXDy33A

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

student meal
Next school year Hillsborough public schools are offering free meals

Hillsborough Public Schools are offering students free meals for the...

Correspondence Through Poetry. A Mind-Numbing Week.

Father Verses Sons: A Correspondence in Poems by Herbert Gold...

The sound of change: Music’s influence on anti-war and human rights movements

Throughout history, music has served as a powerful catalyst for...

a man in a tye dye shirt talking on a radio microphone
Recreational pot for Florida is on the ballot this fall—let’s talk about it

In four months, Florida voters have the opportunity to vote...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Follow us on Instagram

Surly Voices
Player position: