A group of local fast-food workers staged a one-day walkout on May 9, and the nation took note.
Then yesterday, the workers, under the rubric “St. Louis Can’t Survive on $7.35” (a reference to Missouri's minimum wage), hit the streets again, handing out leaflets to customers in front of a Jimmy John’s store in Soulard.
The actions are part of a coordinated national campaign that has directed non-union strikes in New York City, Chicago, and Milwaukee, with plans to expand to more cities, says labor organizer Rev. Martin Rafanan.
Why are they striking? Why now? And what, in this David-versus-Goliath battle, can the workers honestly hope to achieve?
Through Thanksgiving of last year, Rafanan, a Lutheran reverend, was working at a downtown emergency shelter with 125 beds. “In the shelter,” he says, “there were many people working full-time, but they were still homeless.”
Rafanan, who now works for the Missouri Jobs With Justice workers’ advocacy group, argues that “these corporations can afford to pay more. If you look at the food industry and their profits, you’ll see that their profits have gone through the roof, but they have not shared that money with their workers. If you’re helping a company to make huge profits, you deserve to participate in the success of the company…
“We’re trying to get the community to understand that these workers can’t survive on $7.35, and that these corporations are making out like bandits. Many of these companies get tax breaks to create businesses. Then the workers’ wages are so little, they have to be subsidized by us, and then the companies get more tax breaks. By God, they’re taking all the money! And what happens to their workers? These companies can afford to pay a full salary. I just heard that the six Walmart heirs have more money between them than the bottom 130 million Americans. The robber barons of the 20th century can’t hold a candle to what’s happening now. And we need to get money in the hands of people who’ll spend it to get the economy going."
Hence, the strike. “We had 100 workers from 30 restaurants leave work [for the May 9 protest], which is remarkable,” he adds. “They’re very vulnerable; they can be fired at a moment’s notice—so that was crazy-amazing to me. These are very courageous people who wanted to be heard.”
On the day of the strike, organizers delivered letters to managers saying that employees would be on strike for 24 hours before returning to their regularly scheduled shifts.
After the strike was over, something happened that was less publicized, Rafanan says. Community leaders, including ministers and elected officials, escorted the striking workers back to their jobs. They returned with a signed letter explaining the strike. It said that the organizers expected no retaliation, like loss of hours, pay, or termination.
"If anything happens, we'll be on it," Rafanan says. "In one case, a worker lost hours because of the strike, and we went in immediately and we had a conversation with management, and that person was returned to their shift immediately. So far nobody has been fired. Workers have the right to discuss their compensation and the idea of unions with their coworkers—that’s their right. We’re protecting their rights.”
That led to yesterday’s action, when StLouis735.org made good on the promise to continue to support workers who speak out by distributing leaflets at the Jimmy John’s in Soulard.
“We had an action [Thursday] because we continued to see some bad behavior at a Jimmy John’s restaurant,” Rafanan says. “There are still problems with some bad managers there. We were able to get one manager removed.”
This is the same Jimmy John’s where employees allege they have been forced to pose for humiliating photographs. According to this article in the Riverfront Times, the restaurant also often schedules employees for two short shifts in a single day, to circumvent rules that would permit them a break and a meal.
St. Louis is not alone in these strikes. Rafanan refers to the work he and his compatriots are engaged in as a “movement.”
“It’s sweeping the nation,” he says. “It happened first in New York, then moved to Chicago, then St. Louis, and now Detroit." He says that protests in other cities, including Miami, Seattle, and Oakland, among others, will be coming soon.
“There’s no question that this movement finds some of its antecedents in terms of strategy and process from the Occupy Movement,” he adds.
Low wages for these sorts of jobs are nothing new. So why the coordinated protests now?
“Frankly, it’s getting to a point where workers are too fed up to go on,” Rafanan says. “Bad treatment and low wages is a combination for no success in your life, so people are standing up now. Talk to people in these jobs. It’s stunning when you listen to what these workers have to say and what they go through.
"Labor unions and community groups are beginning to coalesce. Our parents and grandparents went through this, too. In the ’30s, being an auto worker was considered an unskilled job, until workers organized and made them into good, strong middle-class jobs. That’s what we need to do now.
“So far we’ve shown you can strike for 24 hours and not be fired, that the community is behind you. That’s empowerment. And they can now talk with each other about getting more compensation. The next step for workers is to bring a lot more people to the table. They’ve got to double or triple their size, and that’s hard work.”
Rafanan says the stakes are high. “I believe,” he says, “we’re in an all-out fight in America for the souls of workers.”
