It was a sunny morning at a McDonald’s on Foothills Blvd in Roseville, California, just a 15 minute drive from Sacramento. At around 7:30 am workers from different fast food and retail chains gathered to stand in solidarity with McDonald’s workers marching that day in Chicago at the McDonald’s shareholders meeting.
McDonald’s is one of the largest fast food companies in the world. They are on all six continents, and the only one they are not on is Antarctica. According to Forbes, McDonald’s is an over $104 billion corporation. This is why it makes no sense for a company that profits so much, to pay workers so little. But this is the way the capitalist system works: companies racing to get the highest profits by giving the lowest living standards to their workers
As workers gathered to show solidarity, the rally began with a prayer from a local Burger King worker. Next up another local Burger king worker, former McDonald’s worker, and Western Workers Organizing Committee member named Holly, got up to speak about the struggles of raising a child on a starvation wage. She said, “Its time we are paid for our work..we work hard and deserve to be able to feed our families..we do the work but they make the money…”
Next, Don, a local OURWalmart member and former McDonald’s worker, spoke on the struggle of starvation wages. He said, “People are trying to feed their families, it is not fair that our corporate bosses take in billions while we take in pennies.”
To finish the rally a pinata of Donald Trump was held up and WWOC leader Dominic spoke about Trump’s attack on immigrants and the struggle of McDonald’s workers. After that to finish the rally, workers took turns on the Trump pinata and led chants such as,”What do we want? 15! When do we want it, now!” And “Hold the burgers, hold the fries, make our wages super sized.”
The struggle for a living wage continues against the greed of large corporations. The working people of Sacramento have shown that they are committed to this fight. But higher wages are just the first step. Only when all of the wealth created by the workers goes towards the needs of the workers will we truly see justice.
