Fast food and retail workers in St. Louis, Missouri, walked off the job Wednesday in the third major strike of its kind in recent weeks, according to reports.
The local CBS affiliate reported that last night and this morning, seven St. Louis fast food restaurants have been forced to halt operations because workers refused to come to work.
Over the course of Wednesday and Thursday, over 100 employees at approximately 30 different St. Louis-based restaurants walked off the job, demanding the right to form a union and a raise from Missouri's $7.35 hourly minimum wage to $15 per hour.
The "STL Can't Survive On $7.35" campaign is being spearheaded by the organizing group St. Louis Jobs With Justice. And while a living wage is a central demand of the campaign, Missouri Jobs With Justice director Lara Granich says that at organizing meetings, the most common complaints have to do with issues of dignity.
Workers overwhelmingly express that they're not being treated with respect by their employers. Rasheen Aldridge, a striking Jimmy John's employee, described the disparaging treatment workers in his store are subjected to in a video for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch"We're treated like crap basically. It's almost like new-day slavery."
"Increasingly, fast food jobs are the only options for St. Louisans, but these workers can't even afford to pay for rent, food, or carfare," said Rev. Martin Rafanan, director of STL Can't Survive on $7.35, in a statement. "If the workers earned more, fast food workers would spend that money at local businesses here in St. Louis and help lift our economy."
