Arizona fast food workers protest for higher wages
May 15, 2014, 4:12 PM | Updated: 7:20 pm
PHOENIX — Fast food workers in the Valley joined those in 149 other U.S. cities and 33 other countries in protesting their low pay Thursday.
They’re calling for a $15 per hour wage and the right to form a union without retaliation.
More than 100 of them marched to the Burger King at Seventh Street and Baseline Road on Thursday morning.
That’s where Amanda Sierra has been working for the past five months. She said that her current $7.90 per hour wage isn’t enough.
“It’s hard to provide for families and people that are struggling with their house, rent, milk, everything,” she said.
Sierra said her employer doesn’t understand what the people who work at the restaurant are going through.
“There are pants nowadays that cost $21,” she said. “I have to work a couple of hours just to buy one pair of pants.”
Sierra said she took the job five months ago because it was the first one she could find.
Sierra also said that the working in the kitchen is deplorable.
“They don’t have air conditioning in the back,” she said. “I would sweat. I get busy. I get tired. And you’re doing ‘multitasks.’ You’re doing the work of three people.”
The protests were organized by the Service Employees International Union, which claimed in press releases that fast food workers would “walk off the job” to join the protests.
But Sierra didn’t. She said she was able to join the protest because it was her day off.
When asked if any of her fellow employees that were on duty actually did walk off, she said “no,” claiming they were too intimidated by management to walk off.
See videos of the Phoenix demonstration:
• Picketers move inside Burger King
