Fight for $15: Fast-food workers demonstrate on South Willow Street

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Fast food workers and union members protest on South Willow Street Feb. 5, 2016.
Fast food workers and union members protest on South Willow Street Feb. 5, 2016.

MANCHESTER, NH — As presidential candidates criss-crossed the state on Saturday in a final push before Tuesday’s primary vote, fast-food workers and union organizers came together for the state’s first high-visibility demonstration in a movement that is seeking $15 wages and union benefits for workers at two locations on South Willow Street.

Protestors outside Burger King on South Willow Street as part of the Fight for $15 national movement.
Protestors outside Burger King on South Willow Street as part of the Fight for $15 national movement.

The protestors, who arrived by bus, shut down access to Burger King and Wendy’s on South Willow Street at 2 p.m., chanting, and holding signs.

Manchester police officers were called on by the restaurant managers to put the protestors on notice that they were trespassing, and were ordered to leave. The protestors moved to the street, shutting down four lanes of traffic, eventually retreating to buses under threat of arrest.

The national Fight for $15 movement has been organizing protests around the country, with a focus this week on New Hampshire.

“Wherever 2016 candidates go this election season, fast-food and other underpaid workers are following to demand $15/hour and union rights,” according to a statement issued by the group, which is backed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). A similar action was held in Iowa ahead of last month’s Republican debate there.

They protested at the November 10 Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee and on the same day as the Republican presidential debate in Iowa in January. They also demonstrated at the Democratic presidential contest in Charleston, South Carolina in January.

According to the group, 45 percent of workers in New Hampshire, or some 281,000, are paid less than $15/hour, making the need to raise pay a major issue in the run-up to the primary.

In a 2015 Interview with TIME, Burger King co-founder David Edgerton addressed the protests, saying fast food workers pushing for higher wages could spell the end of the “dollar menu,” and usher in an era of higher-quality, more expensive convenience restaurants.

“What’s going to happen, really, is you’re going to see less and less of the quick and dirty kind of places,” said Edgerton, who now serves on the board of Avantcare, a company that makes nutritional products to help treat addiction. “You’re not going to be able to run these places [paying workers] $15 an hour or whatever it will be,” he told TIME.

The protestors were also expected to be out in force Saturday night ahead of the final GOP debate at Saint Anselm College.

Protestors with support from SEIU members stopped traffic on South Willow Street Saturday in a protest for higher wages and the right to unionize.
Protestors with support from SEIU members stopped traffic on South Willow Street Saturday in a protest for higher wages and the right to unionize.

A full statement about the protest released by the organizers on Feb. 5 is below:


Days Ahead of Primary, Fight for $15 Spreads to New Hampshire

Just days before the New Hampshire primary, cooks and cashiers from McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, and other chains will walk off their jobs for the first time across the Granite State on Saturday to demand $15/hour and union rights. With voters in the state citing the economy as their top concern, fast-food workers also announced that they will protest with other underpaid workers outside the GOP debate in Manchester Saturday evening to stress that the 45 percent of workers in New Hampshire who are paid less than $15/hour are a voting bloc that cannot be ignored.

The workers’ strike follows a wave of walkouts coinciding with presidential primary debates in Wisconsin, South Carolina, and Iowa, and comes as low-paying jobs are dragging down communities across New Hampshire: 45 percent of workers in the state, or some 281,000, are paid less than $15/hour, making the need to raise pay a major issue in the run-up to the primary.

“My three young kids are growing so quickly, and on $8 an hour I can’t even afford jackets for them in the winter,” said Megan Jensen, who is paid $8/hour at KFC in Manchester, and who will be a first time voter in the New Hampshire primary. “I’ve never walked off the job before, but I can’t wait any longer for fair pay. Everyone deserves at least $15/hour and the right to a union, and candidates who are flying into New Hampshire this week need to know that we are taking this demand to the polls.”

Fast-food workers started organizing in New Hampshire after seeing how workers in neighboring Massachusetts have won pay increases and made $15/hour a top-tier political issue by joining together and going on strike. Workers at a string of Boston-area hospitals including Boston Medical CenterTufts Medical Center, and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital have won pay raises to $15/hour in recent months. In July 2015, 35,000 home care workers across Massachusetts won an unprecedented statewide $15/hour minimum wage through a contract negotiated with Gov. Charlie Baker. And in January, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh called for raising the city’s minimum wage to $15/hour during his State of the City address.

Wherever 2016 candidates go this election season, fast-food and other underpaid workers are following to demand $15/hour and union rights. Days before the Iowa caucus, fast-food workers walked off the job for the first time in the state, drawing widespread attention hours before a GOP debate in Des Moines.

Earlier this year, a walkout by hundreds of fast-food workers in Charleston prompted a statement of support by the Democratic National Committee and an impromptu visit from  Sen. Bernie Sanders, who grabbed a bullhorn and  praised the strikers just moments before he took the floor for that night’s Democratic debate. And in November, following a nationwide strike in 270 cities and an evening protest outside the GOP debate in Milwaukee, the first question directed at candidates that night asked them to respond to the demands of fast-food workers seeking $15 and union rights.

The Fight for $15 strike events in key primary states shows the political power of underpaid workers who, just three years ago launched their movement for higher pay and union rights in New York City. By repeatedly going on strike and raising their voices, fast-food, home care, child care, and other underpaid workers have made income inequality a dominant theme in the 2016 presidential race.

Entrance polls from Iowa revealed that inequality weighed heavily on voters’ minds, and candidates are responding: In June, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton told fast-food workers at a national convention in Detroit, “I want to be your champion,” and said that “what you’re doing to build the Fight for $15 movement is so important.”

In recent months, Clinton has held round-table meetings with home care and child care workers fighting for $15/hour and union rights. Prominent elected officials including U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison have called for raising the minimum wage to $15/hour. And the Democratic National Committee voted in August to make $15/hour an official part of its 2016 platform.

Workers will also continue to collect signatures on their Fight for $15 Voter Agenda, a five-point platform that launched late last year and calls for $15 and union rights, affordable child care, quality long-term care, racial justice and immigration reform—issues identified by underpaid workers as key factors in whether they will go to the polls for a candidate. They will put politicians on notice that, as a voting bloc, workers paid less than $15 could swing elections all across the country.

A recent poll of workers paid less than $15/hour commissioned by the National Employment Law Project showed that 69 percent of unregistered voters would register to vote if there were a candidate who supported $15/hour and a union; and that 65% of registered voters paid less than $15/hour would be more likely to vote if there were a candidate who supported $15/hour and a union. That’s 48 million potential voters paid less than $15 who could turn out if there were candidates who backed higher pay and union rights.


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About this Author

Carol Robidoux

PublisherManchester Ink Link

Longtime NH journalist and publisher of ManchesterInkLink.com. Loves R&B, German beer, and the Queen City!