Fast food workers are striking across the country to demand raising the minimum wage to $15. Workers across 270 cities timed the large-scale walkout to be exactly one year from 2016 election.
Nearly 64 million Americans are paid less than $15 an hour, and organizers are calling the group "a voting bloc that can no longer be ignored." Early Tuesday morning, protests were already sweeping the country.
Striking workers crossing Hennepin Ave Bridge in Minneapolis in the #FightFor15 pic.twitter.com/2bjOyw1iIN— MNFairEconomy.org (@FairMN) November 10, 2015
Outside fast food restaurants across the U.S., protesters held homemade signs.
Miami I'm the house! #Fightfor15 pic.twitter.com/F5V7aPu5to— KOMBATROCK (@KOMBATROCK) November 10, 2015
"We are the lungs of the company, without us they could not breathe" - Vance #FightFor15 #Vegas pic.twitter.com/EiqqabEZf6— Astrid Silva (@Astrid_NV) November 10, 2015
While a large bulk of the protesters are fast food workers, home-care workers, child-care workers, and other underpaid employees also joined their ranks, according to organizers.
Protesters planned to gather outside city halls in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Ohio and Richmond, Virginia, among other cities nationwide later in the afternoon.
On the march to City Hall with @CTUL_TC and @JCA_MN #FightFor15 pic.twitter.com/ImF7xI2GVB— NCJW Minneapolis (@NCJWMinneapolis) November 10, 2015
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, protesters are planning strikes and city hall protests. The "Fight for $15" demonstrators plan to march on the Republican presidential debate at the downtown Milwaukee Theatre, set to be held at 9 p.m. ET.
#FightFor15 members marching around the intersection of Western and Milwaukee holding up traffic. pic.twitter.com/cqhqVWk0cS— THE HERALD (@HWCTHEHERALD) November 10, 2015
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio joined the protesters who gathered outside a McDonalds in downtown Brooklyn just after 6 a.m. ET.
"We have well over 1 million people who don't make $15 per hour," de Blasio told the crowd. "A million people trying to struggle to get by. And this movement shined a light on that reality and said, 'We are not going to go on like that.'"
Mayor Bill de Blasio speaking at fight for $15 rally #Brooklyn #FightFor15 #mayordeblasio #fastfood #newyork #rally pic.twitter.com/KixzKaomg8— Louise Wateridge (@lywateridge) November 10, 2015
DeBlasio is not alone in his support of the mandatory increase in wages. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration has ordered a $15-an-hour minimum wage for fast-food workers to be put in place by 2018 in the city and 2021 in the rest of the state.
Los Angeles has taken similar steps to ensure that a $15 minimum wage is in place by 2020.