I'll Miss Those McNuggets

by Shana Ogren Lourey

Walking into the bank the other day, I greeted the woman working there and asked how her day was going.  "New paperwork," she mused. "More policies to know and follow."  She held up a piece of long paper with a diagram and many useless looking instructions on it.  I sighed in response, "I hate paperwork.  It seems to get in the way of work."

We talked for a moment more, relating to one another in a more personal way than we usually do.  When we said goodbye and walked out, I remembered and missed my days working as a union organizer.  Helping employees form unions allowed me the rare opportunity to try and connect with many different kinds of people about the things that matter most for all people — family, food, shelter, respect.

Fast food workers have finally stepped up their game.  Employees working at the chains Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wendy's, and McDonald's have held recent work walk-outs in a variety of cities across our country. Similar to holding one-day strikes, fast-food workers are trying to fight for the ability to unionize and to receive a higher wage. They are asking for what in many cases is almost a wage double, to go from the average start of a California $8 an hour minimum wage to a starting wage of $15 an hour instead. 

The average yearly salary for fast food workers here in San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles is about $21,000.  You can start off working entry level, making $8.40 an hour, or be more senior and between $9.95 to $12.55 per hour.  Is this a living wage?

The next big step that the employees planned was encouraging and organizing a nationwide walkout from the chains this last Thursday, August 29.  This project was backed by SEIU (Service Employees International Union) and a collection of different workers' rights and religious organizations.

My grandpa, Quentin, was a big influence in my life.  He met my grandma, Paula, during a march in a workers' picket line.  They were both YIPSELs — Young People's Socialist League members.  In his last words from a coma-state before dying at age 93, my grandpa quoted one of his favorite classic songs, shouting out, "I'm sticking to the union, 'til the day I die!"  My two year old precocious son, Quentin, is named after him.

Little Quentin and I both love to eat Chicken McNuggets from McDonald's.  I put salt and honey on mine and Little Q eats his four-pack untarnished.  Maybe it's time to hold our money back as a way to stand united with McDonald's employees.  We should at least do so this Labor Day.