The Iowa workers are part of a national movement that's staged strikes and protests across the country over the past few years.
Today, Thursday, is four days before the Iowa caucuses, and the day of the last Republican debate before those caucuses. So Iowa fast food workers decided it was a good day to draw attention to their fight for $15 an hour pay and the right to join a union. It’s a fight that should resonate with plenty of Iowa workers. One of the workers writes in the Des Moines Register that:
The Fight for $15 has also helped me realize that I’m not alone: almost half (48 percent) of all Iowa workers make less than $15 an hour. I am nervous to walk off the job, but it is also empowering to join with other underpaid workers who are coming together this year to finally make a change.
2016 is not just the first time I’m going on strike — it’s also an election year, and for the first time I feel like my voice matters. Since moving to the U.S., I’ve felt so invisible that I never bothered to vote in any election. Politicians didn’t talk about the things that mattered to me, like raising the wage or union rights. I believed companies and politicians alike were blind to my day-to-day struggles.
There are plans for an attention-getting finale on the day:
The walkout is part of a daylong series of protest[s] that will end with a 1,000 person march on the GOP debate.
This is a long fight that won’t be won all at once, but workers have already made significant progress getting the minimum wage raised in several cities and states. And you don’t win if you don’t fight.
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