When I first met Patrick Leeper, it was a couple of weeks after his trip to Chicago to support fast food workers. He was still excited. I’d recognize that look anywhere. It’s a look I’ve seen many times over the years as an organizer. It’s the expression from the feeling you get when you’ve been fighting a long time and realize that you’re part of a bigger movement, that you’re not alone.
Patrick, like an estimated 3.5 million other workers, is employed by the fast food industry. I’m using the term “employed” very loosely, since 90 percent of these workers work for minimum wage, get part-time hours and receive no benefits. Migrant workers are the only other industry that pays its workers worse.
The resistance to inhumane work conditions and low pay has been bubbling beneath the surface for some time. The first organized walkout of industry workers happened in New York City last month. The walkouts moved to Chicago, St. Louis and Detroit with other cities in the planning stages. Low-wage workers were sick and tired of being sick and tired.
In the St. Louis metro area, Patrick and other workers mustered up the courage to walk off their job for one day in protest of the oppressive work conditions. Workers from McDonald’s, Jimmy Johns, Domino’s Pizza, Wendy’s, Arby’s, Church’s Chicken, Chipotle’s and other fast food sites were among the 30 locations hit on May 9-10.
Dozens of community and faith leaders were organized to walk the workers back to their jobs to make sure they didn’t experience any retaliatory actions by management. So far, no such actions have been reported.
Patrick, who works at Chipotle’s in the U. City Loop, says he has experienced first hand the notorious wage theft practices of the fast food industry. At the first of the year, Patrick says he was assigned to work at another location which was short an employee, but he says he still hasn’t been paid for the hours he worked. Other workers say they are forced to work before or after they’ve clocked in, work overtime without getting paid extra or work through their meal breaks. These allegedly unpaid hours, they claim, benefit the profit margin of the company.
Speaking of profit, it’s no surprise that this is a $200 billion industry. These companies need to quit crying broke when workers are simply asking for a decent wage.
I talked to Patrick since he returned to work. He still feels empowered and hopeful.
“I’m gonna keep standing up for what I believe in, but we need to continue to build support for our cause,” he said. “We have to make more people aware of what corporate greed does to our lives.”
American’s addiction to fast food fuels this industry, so consumers do have a dog in this fight. We need to add our voices to the workers’ demands for dignity in the workplace and a livable wage. If you believe workers really “Can’t Survive on $7.35,” as the slogan says, then get ready for the next round.
