Fast Food Workers Will Go on Strike Next Week

Fast food workers frustrated by low wages will participate in an organized, global walk-out in protest next week in as many as 150 cities, an advocacy group said Wednesday.

McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and KFC employees in the United States will demand a raise to $15-an-hour next Thursday, joined internationally by fast food employees also seeking higher pay, in as many as 33 countries.

The strike’s announcement, at a New York City McDonald’s on Wednesday, came days after fast-food workers and union leaders from across the globe came together for the first time at a meeting organized by the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering and Tobacco Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF). The Manhattan-based group leading the protests, Fast Food Forward, has led a “Fight for 15” campaign since 2012. The efforts have reportedly attracted fast food workers in Argentina, Morocco, Japan, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the Dominican Republic, among others.

“The highly-profitable fast-food industry needs to know we won’t stop fighting until our voices are heard,” Ashley Cathey said in a statement. Cathey is a McDonald’s worker from Memphis, Tenn., who makes $7.75 after six years on the job.

Throughout 2013, dozens of U.S. cities saw similar demonstrations.