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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis! Retail and Fast Food Workers Strike in Chicago's Magnificent Mile
Chicagos downtown Loop area is the heart of commerce in the city. But beginning at 5:30 A.M. today, fast food and retail workers there have gone on strike, following New York City fast food workers who walked off the job in November and again earlier this month demanding higher wages and better working conditions.
Organizers estimate about 500 workers, uniting under the name of the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago, will be striking today in industries long associated with low wages but unaccustomed to labor unrest. The campaign, backed by a coalition of Chicago unions and community organizations, has the lofty goal of winning a raise to $15 per hour for workers who make up nearly one-third of all jobs in the city.
Silvia Garduno, 27, works at a Sallys Beauty Supply store in the Loop. The night before the strike, Garduno explained that despite working at the store (one location of the largest retailer of professional beauty supplies in the world, according to the companys website) for three years, she earns $8.91 per hour.
Were the ones working our butts off, Garduno says. $8.91 is ridiculousespecially being downtown. Were worth more. The Loop sees about $4 billion in retail and fast food revenue each year.
In addition to low pay, Garduno says her work at Sallys is sometimes dangerous, like when she says her store was robbed, and is often full of indignities, like when she had to take time off to tend to her sick mother and was told she might be fired.
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http://www.thenation.com/article/174016/retail-and-fast-food-workers-strike-chicagos-magnificent-mile#
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)frazzled
(18,402 posts)First of all, the workers are not striking "in Chicago's Magnificent Mile." (whatever "in" means, rather than "on" . They don't even seem to be from the Magnificent Mile (cf. interview with Loop store clerk--the Loop is not part of the Magnificent Mile). The picture presents two workers striking in front of the Fifth-Third Center, which is nowhere near the Mag Mile, but in the westernmost part of the Loop, near Union Station.
You may think this is picky, but it's not. It bespeaks a reporter from far away not doing the proper legwork or fact-checking ... and that throws all kinds of things into doubt about the reporting. People reading this article in the city will be scratching their heads and dismissing it ... all because of lack of attention to significant details.
Hello ... if you saw an article saying workers were striking "in" Fifth Avenue, and then showed a picture and interviewed workers in Herald Square, it would be laughed at.
cali
(114,904 posts)Cirque du So-What
(25,941 posts)Laziness and detachment from the subject are all too common in journalism nowadays.
patrice
(47,992 posts)hay rick
(7,624 posts)Article here: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/labor/news/2013/04/24/61295/top-6-policies-to-help-the-middle-class-that-wont-cost-taxpayers-a-penny/
Excerpt:
reformist2
(9,841 posts)This kind of thing is going to spread like wildfire, and the internet is only going to promote support and awareness.
And once labor starts scoring a few victories, watch out...