Nineteen fast-food workers were taken into custody Thursday morning on Chicago's South Side, according to police, during a protest demanding a $15-an-hour wage and the right to organize unions-one of many planned demonstrations across the country.
"I'm just fighting for what's right," said McDonald's worker Damien Mack, 22, as officers led him to a police vehicle.
By organizers' count, an estimated 500 people walked on to 87th Street, near State Street, between a McDonald's and a Burger King at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, chanting and singing the song "We Shall Not Be Moved." After about 15 minutes, police ordered the crowd to disperse. When they did not move, many of those who were sitting on the street were taken in police vehicles and told they had violated a city ordinance that requires pedestrians to exercise "due care."
It was the second time Tyree Johnson, 46, had been taken into custody as part of a protest, he said.
"Piece of cake," he said as police loaded him into a wagon on 87th and State streets. "Twenty-two years working at McDonald's, [I'm] still living in poverty. I won't lose no sleep."
The morning protest was one of two planned for the Chicago area Thursday; another is set for the afternoon in Cicero.
The low-wage workers' movement is financed largely by the Service Employees International Union. Fast-food workers in particular have been protesting in Chicago for more than a year.
Mayor Emanuel has promised that after November's statewide election he will support raising Chicago's minimum wage to $13 over the next few years. Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd), who was present at the protest, has co-sponsored an ordinance that would raise Chicago's wage to $15.
"We need to set our sights higher," he said.
The gathering marked the first time that home care workers joined fast-food workers in an effort to raise the minimum wage. Other local groups attended as well, including representatives of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, ARISE Chicago and Action Now.
"The whole progressive movement is out in full force," said Jacob Swenson-Lengyel of National People's Action. "Civil disobedience has a long history in labor, getting to the heart of labor tactics in the Depression era."
The restaurant lobby has maintained that actions such as Thursday's are "nothing more than labor groups' self-interested attempts to boost their dwindling membership by targeting restaurant employees," according to a statement last month from Katie Laning Niebaum of the National Restaurant Association."
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