(WWJ) Workers at McDonalds, 20405 Conant in Detroit, have put in a legal strike notice and plan to protest outside the restaurant this afternoon urging customers to support their effort for $15-an-hour wages -- and a union.
A fast food workers union? That's the goal of the legal strike notice, supporters say, and it means legally workers there can't be fired for protesting or for forming a union. "It makes it easier for workers to join together in a union," an organizer said.
The strike comes as presidential candidate Bernie Sanders -- known as the 'pro union' candidate -- touches down for a major rally in Detroit. Sanders came out in support of a Detroit Teamsters initiative on Friday, Tweeting, "Workers should never have to choose between feeding their families and paying for their health insurance. I'm proud to stand with the members of @Teamsters Local 337 who are on strike, and call on Sygma to stop intimidating workers."
He has not weighed in on the McDonalds strike notice, though a key point of his campaign platform says he would double union membership in his first term, if elected.
According to organizers of the Fight For Fifteen event, nearly half, 48 percent, of all non-union workers in the U.S. now say they would join a union if they could -- a four-decade high.
"Workers' renewed push for unions comes as a response to what many see as rigged political and economic systems. Workers are demanding Unions for All as a solution to win higher pay, strengthen communities, amplify workers' voices in politics and ensure a better future for all," organizers said in a press release. Public support for unions has hit record high in recent years. The most recent Gallup poll in Aug. 2019 found public support for unions at 64 percent – nearly a 50-year high – including 82 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of Independents. As public support for unions has grown, worker militancy on the job has surged: In 2018, more workers in the U.S. went on strike or participated in work stoppages than any year since 1986, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Workers demanding unions also are making their voices heard on the 2020 campaign trail. Democratic presidential candidates have stood on strike lines with McDonald's workers in the Fight for $15 and a Union, as well as Stop and Shop workers, auto workers, Chicago public school teachers and more. Each of the top-tier Democratic candidates has released a strong labor plan to make it easier for millions more workers to join together in unions, no matter where they work.
"Collectively the plans are the most ambitious set of labor law reform proposals from presidential hopefuls in decades," organizers said.
