Kansas City fast food workers join national fight for $15 wage: ‘You work your butts off’
Richard Eiker likes to daydream about a comfortable retirement.
The 52-year-old McDonald’s employee pictures himself sitting in a decent apartment, beneath a roof that doesn’t leak, with a cup of coffee in his hand. Don’t forget the sugar and cream.
Maybe he’ll have brochures spread out on his kitchen table as he plans a trip to New York. Maybe he’ll see a Broadway play. Maybe Hamilton.
But then Eiker comes back to reality.
“It’s just a dream. Impossible to reach,” Eiker said in front of at least 100 people gathered at the McDonald’s at 3255 Main Street. “After working nearly a quarter of a century at McDonald’s, I still have barely enough to pay for my needs.”
“That ain’t right,” someone shouted from the crowd, gathered to demand union rights and a $15 minimum wage for fast food workers. Stand Up KC, a worker advocacy organization, assembled the noon rally.
The group is associated with Fight for $15, a labor organization trying to unionize fast food workers. The Kansas City rally was part of a national day of action, as workers gathered in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Miami and St. Louis. The demonstrations were scheduled ahead of McDonald’s annual shareholder meeting.
As Eiker gets older, he said he can barely afford gas and groceries, let alone put money away for retirement.
Eiker said for himself, and for millions of Americans, “all it takes is one car to break down, or a trip to the emergency room,” to wipe out several years of saving.
Because of the pandemic, Eiker’s hours were reduced. He was forced to cut prescriptions and to start visiting the food pantry.
“It’s up to us to band together as brothers and sisters in the struggle for true freedom and equality,” Eiker said. “That starts with holding these million dollar corporations accountable, and insisting that anyone who gives their blood, sweat and tears to a company deserves a living wage and a union.”
McDonald’s, based in Chicago, said Thursday that its hourly wages will increase an average of 10% over the next few months to $13 per hour, rising to $15 per hour by 2024. Entry-level workers will make at least $11 per hour; shift managers will make at least $15 per hour.
In a news release Wednesday, Stand Up KC said the corporation’s plan falls short, as it only benefits about 5% of McDonald’s workers and leaves out those employed at franchisee stores.
The vast majority of McDonald’s nearly 14,000 U.S. stores are owned by franchisees who set pay in their own restaurants.
Rep. Emily Weber, a Missouri Democrat from Kansas City, also took to the podium. As someone who worked in the retail and food industries, Weber said she knows how taxing the jobs can be.
“You work your butts off,” Weber said. “Double shifts. Long hours. Crappy conditions. No benefits.”
The crowd was full of people considered essential workers during coronavirus restrictions. But Weber said although they may have been called heroes in the pandemic, they were never treated as such.
Bill Thompson, 50, listened from the crowd Wednesday. Thompson, an employee at Burger King, said when his mother was placed in hospice with cancer last winter, he had to take six weeks unpaid leave to care for her.
He and his wife had to rely on her small salary as a home care aid making minimum wage. Things got tight, and they started visiting food pantries to guarantee they had something to eat each day.
Thompson said he wished he was given hazard pay during the pandemic. Each day he worried about bringing the virus home to his wife, who has diabetes, or his elderly mother-in-law.
“There’s no protection on the job at all,” Thompson said, adding that he’s also dealt with armed customers angry about an order.
Terrence Wise, a McDonald’s worker who emceed the rally, applauded the crowd for their courage in showing up.
“It’s going to take collective action, y’all, and days like today, many more, if we’re going to break the cycle of poverty in Kansas City,” Wise said.
Stand Up KC organized a similar rally in January, where they were joined by Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, who also advocated for a $15 minimum wage. Federal minimum wage is currently set at $7.25 an hour. In Missouri, it’s $10.30
As the rally came to a close, the group loaded back into cars and trucks, plastered with signs and magnets promoting workers rights, and the caravan headed to an area Wendy’s where nine workers were on strike.
Monica Roberts, 46, of Odessa, was with the group. She has been part of the Fight for $15 for at least five years, and has worked at Popeyes, McDonald’s, Hardee’s and KFC.
Her kids were adopted after they were taken from her because she couldn’t support them financially on $7.25 an hour, she said. They were ages 2, 4 and 7 at the time.
Roberts came out Wednesday for them.
“I want to show my kids anything is possible when you go out there and try to make a change in the community,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
This story was originally published May 19, 2021 at 3:17 PM.
