"We Can't Survive on $7.25": Fast-Food Workers Kick Off National Day of Action for Higher Pay | Daily Digest 12/05/2013

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/12/5/we_cant_survive_on_725_fast

Fast-food workers are walking off the job in about 100 cities today in what organizers call their largest action to date. Today’s strikes and protests continue a campaign that began last year to call for a living wage of $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation. Early this morning, Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman and Hany Massoud headed to Times Square in New York City where a group of McDonald's workers were joined by a crowd of hundreds of supporters to kick off their strike. We hear voices from the protest and speak to Camille Rivera of United NY, part of the newly formed New Day New York Coalition, which has organized this week of action to fight income inequality and build economic fairness.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Juan, already this morning has been a very busy one. At about 6:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time,Democracy Now!'s Hany Massoud and I headed to a McDonald's just above Times Square to cover a scene that is playing out in over a hundred cities around the country.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: I’m Amy Goodman, this isDemocracy Now!, walking along 50th Street right near McDonald’s, where hundreds of workers—it’s about 6:30 in the morning—are coming to the McDonald’s to join other workers who have stepped outside.

PROTESTERS: We can’t survive on $7.25! We can’t survive on $7.25!

AMY GOODMAN: They’re chanting, "We can’t survive on $7.25," and they’ve walked into the McDonald’s. We’ll see what happens.

ANNE KLAEYSEN: [echoed by the people’s microphone] My name Anne Klaeysen, New York Society for Ethical Culture. This is a call to the living, to those who refuse to make peace with evil, with the suffering and waste of the world. This is the call to the human, not the perfect, to those who know their own prejudices, who have no intention of becoming prisoners of their own limitations.

REV. CHERI KROON: [echoed by the people’s microphone] Mic check! My name is Reverend Cheri Kroon. I am from the Flatbush Reformed Church. I am here because the Prophet Jeremiah said, "Do justice every morning." Do justice every morning. And in God’s economy, no one gets thrown away. In God’s economy, no one gets thrown away.

FLÁVIA CABRAL: [echoed by the people’s microphone] My name is Flávia Cabral, and I’m here to strike for the—our salary is not enough. Not enough. Salary is not enough. So we need more money for support our family. And we want benefit and union to this fast-food company. So we’re doing this for our family, to support them. It’s not enough money to support them.

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