Move Fast Food Forward.
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Dear Lucas,
Yesterday something incredible happened: 400 fast food workers organizing with NYCC and the Fast Food Forward Campaign commemorated the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by walking off their jobs for a symbolic 24 hour strike, demanding $15 an hour and the right to form a union without intimidation.
To see workers flood the streets holding signs that read "I am a man" and "I am a woman," just like those held by the striking sanitation workers who Dr. King marched with in Memphis in 1968, it's hard not to feel that yesterday we witnessed history in the making.
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In this moment our country is at a crossroads. 60% of the jobs that we lost in the recession were middle class jobs that afforded workers the ability to provide for themselves and their families. Since then, those jobs have been replace with low wage jobs that leave full time workers living in poverty, and worsening the already crisis level of income inequality in New York.1
The workers out on strike yesterday weren't just fighting for themselves, or even for all of the low wage workers in the fast food industry. Their fight is for the heart and soul of this country—for a future where the belief that hard work leads to a decent life and a brighter future for your children remains an American value.
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Last night on his new show, "All In", Chris Hayes said:
"All successful social movements are built … out of multitudes of tiny miracles just like the one we saw today in New York City. A single person, an accretion of people… who decide against the odds, against great risk, with no protection, to do something courageous. To speak up for their dignity. To proclaim themselves fully human. That is what the striking fast-food workers did today." 2
It's amazing to see the hard work of NYCC members being recognized on national television, but the truth is on any given day of the week in neighborhoods across New York, NYCC members are standing up against neglect landlords, against education policy that puts corporate greed above the future of our children, against the malfeasance of the big banks. The truth is that NYCC members make these tiny miracles happen every day.
In Solidarity and Awe,
Jonathan Westin
Executive Director
New York Communities for Change
Sources:
2.) http://video.msnbc.msn.com/all-in-/51435760#51435760
Photo Credit: © Lita Riddock
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