Police arresting fast-food workers and their supporters outside McDonald's headquarters

a reply to: jhn7537

No employees ... no business... no profit...

Well there are plenty monkeys at the zoo I suppose.

The minimum wage doesn't work in the UK!

Jobs that could pay better Don't... they get minimum wage.

It's all a huge rip...wealth needs a rebalance in the Western World.

a reply to: rigel4

The issue here is that there are workers who will happily work for minimum wage, so there isn't some short on available workers. So, the people demanding higher wages can demand all they want, but when you have people willing to do the job for cheaper you really don't have much to bargain with, especially considering the job takes zero education and zero skills..

originally posted by: jhn7537

originally posted by: VoidHawk

originally posted by: jhn7537

originally posted by: VoidHawk

originally posted by: terriblyvexed
I'm going to get burned for this, no one likes cold hard truth, but if your working at McDonald's, you are in a entry level job.

In that case the business owners should only get entry level profits! Right?

Sorry dude, but you're wrong! Anyone who goes to work should expect at minimum a living wage.

No, because the owner takes all the risk and has put out all the capital. Not really an apples to apples comparison...

That could be said for almost any business!

And in most all businesses the owner takes the lions share of the profits. It's because they are risking everything. They are also putting out the money to run this company taking all the risk, especially knowing how often businesses close nowadays..

And they pay their employee's a decnt wage!
McD's do not!

a reply to: VoidHawk

Look at the type of work they are doing. Paying someone $15 per hour to take a fast food order is crazy... Who do you think those wages will be passed on to, the owner of the McDonald's or the customers? The customers will be the ones dealing with it. Flipping burgers or taking an order at a McDonald's register was never supposed to be a "livable wage" type job. This isn't some career you live comfortably on and raise a family w/ a mortgage... If you want to earn more money then go to a trade school or go back to college, but don't expect McDonald's to pay you like a nurse who earns $15 per hour...

The reason you don’t want to hear it, is that it is impossible to refute.

Anyone here who thinks we have the resources to as the song goes “save the poor from their lot.” Is simply not thinking.
There have always been poor, there are poor now, and there will always be poor, as long as man is free.
When freedom is gone so are the poor, for they then become the enslaved.

some of us are worth more than others. I know you hate to hear that, and that it sits at the heart of every argument you try to make, eating away their foundations .

a reply to: VoidHawk

I'm wrong?

Look I'm your average uneducated redneck, but what I lack in book smarts,I makeup for in common sense.

When I found out my wife to be was pregnant,I was working a minimum wage job as a carpet cleaner. I knew that wasn't going to work, so I put forth all my available time into learning a skill.

I became a 3g welder, and was making 16 an hour. Now your telling me these people working a job that requires no skill, deserve to just jump to the front of the line, and make the same wages as a skilled laborer?,

I sorry dude, but your wrong.

I'm always quite amused when a company releases a statement that mentions they "respect everyone's right to peacefully protest" while riot gear-laden policemen hog tie and drag them away.

originally posted by: terriblyvexed
a reply to: VoidHawk

I'm wrong?

Look I'm your average uneducated redneck, but what I lack in book smarts,I makeup for in common sense.

When I found out my wife to be was pregnant,I was working a minimum wage job as a carpet cleaner. I knew that wasn't going to work, so I put forth all my available time into learning a skill.

I became a 3g welder, and was making 16 an hour. Now your telling me these people working a job that requires no skill, deserve to just jump to the front of the line, and make the same wages as a skilled laborer?,

I sorry dude, but your wrong.

Your logic is faulty.
You say that because you worked hard and educated yourself you deserve more than those at McD's. Ok, but I bet there's plenty who work at McD's that have educated themselves to a higher level than you, so should you now be paid less than them? That is what your logic states!

originally posted by: ArchAngel_X
I'm always quite amused when a company releases a statement that mentions they "respect everyone's right to peacefully protest" while riot gear-laden policemen hog tie and drag them away.

Police arrested 110 protesters Wednesday outside McDonald's corporate campus. The group of protesters had marched up the driveway of McDonald's sprawling campus in suburban Chicago. They were met by about 250 law enforcement officers, including state police in riot gear, and were asked to leave. When they refused, the strikers were taken into custody, according to the Oak Brook police department in Illinois.

CNN

The minimum wage should be a livable wage and the people are demanding this.

If it were me in that pic I'd be deadweight and limp. You can arrest me if you want but you'll have to carry my butt to the paddywagon. (I'm over 6' tall and 260 lbs.)

If corporate sweat shop exists in the US it would be McDonalds.I've worked full time in one 10 years ago.Just awful.Their best yearly evaluated employers received a 10¢ an hour raise after a year.Keep it...

Police arrested 110 protesters Wednesday outside McDonald's corporate campus. The group of protesters had marched up the driveway of McDonald's sprawling campus in suburban Chicago. They were met by about 250 law enforcement officers, including state police in riot gear, and were asked to leave. When they refused, the strikers were taken into custody, according to the Oak Brook police department in Illinois.

I wonder what they will get for dinner tonight ?

10 to 1 it will be Burger King !!

a reply to: terriblyvexed

OT question...sorta...I've often wondered how difficult it is to learn to drive a semi. Is it like driving a big car, or is it a lot different? Maybe I should PM this question, I'm not sure how much topic drift it is...

a reply to: VoidHawk

No your logic is faulty.

If they have a better trade then they should work in that trade.

Maybe your not a liberal, but your way of thinking is a lot like one, and I just can't understand the concept of taking from others to make things fair.

That seems to be how you/they think. Don't earn anything just take from others.

I mean really what kind of argument was that? Because someone chooses not to improve their lot in life, but are higher educated than me,I should have to make less?

A job at McDonalds or any other fast-food joint is not meant to be a "livable wage". These jobs are for high school or college kids to help them earn money while they are going to SCHOOL to become professionals and fill the kinds of jobs that pay a LIVABLE WAGE. - See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: ScientiaFortisDefendit

If these jobs are only for high school kids, why are we seeing more and more retired and adult workers at these establishments? Just because these are fast food businesses, doesn't give them car blanch to hire workers at a poverty rate. At 7.25 an hour, it works out to $1.20 for 10 minutes of work. Whether they're teenagers or adults, 10 minutes of work is work no matter how old you are. A 17 year-old can flip a burger just as well or maybe even faster than a 35 year-old. If you never worked in the food industry, I personally can tell you it's hard physical work. To label an age group as only being worthy of a substandard wage, or that the people who work at minimum wages are all drug addicts and single mothers is simply stereotyping people who make only minimum wage.

Lets be fair, fast food restaurants are not the only businesses that take advantage of the minimum wage rate. America is supposedly a leader of the free world and an example of human rights, yet we don't value education as being essential for a strong economy. We don't provide a basic human right to health care which the majority of industrialized nations have recognized as a basic right for their citizens. Of course, our minimum wage is far below other industrialized nations. We should be ashamed of ourselves by allowing our basic human needs to be trampled upon by corporations, the banking and insurance industries and our own government.

The cost of a college education is sky rocketing and soon most middle class Americans will not be able to afford a college education. So when that time arrives, we will find more and more people working at minimum wage jobs.

You think our minimum wage is reasonable? Take a look at all these other industrialized nations minimum wages, and most of them provide their workers with universal healthcare coverage. You have to ask yourself, does America have the right to point out another country's lack of human rights when they ignore the needs of their own citizens?

Australia - 16.88
Belgium - 11.69
Canada - 9.95
France -12.22
Ireland - 11.09
Luxembourg - 14.24
Monaco - 12.83
Netherlands - 10.99
New Zealand - 11.59
San Marino - 11.49
United Kingdom - 10.02

As stated before, it will be US, the consumer, that will be paying for the increased wages. The individual owners won't be paying the extra cost out of pocket, they will defer the cost to us. So for everyone that wants these people to receive $15 an hour, remember your argument when the price of a Big Mac triples.

OK, if the minimum wage is raised to $15 an hour, this means the tax rate for these individuals increases and their earned income credit goes away. Also other government sponsored programs are put in question (food stamps, housing allowance, health care, etc). Getting a higher minimum wage has nothing to do with purchasing power.

Having read the article and the postings the following can be stated:

The first thing that all of these protestors seem to have forgotten, is that all of the different McDonalds Restaurants, are all franchises. That means that the individual McDonalds are owned and operated by different people. Those owners ultimately do not answer to McDonalds Corp. McDonalds Corp, can not nor does it have any right, under the terms of the Franchise agreement, to dictate or tell the owners how much to pay their employees. And so picketing and protesting the Corp offices, really will do nothing, save set a person up not to move up from the franchise to the corp offices.

Now while it is acceptable to protest, of that there is no doubt, however, if it is private property, then the owners of said property can say yes or no. And in this case, there is a good chance that they told the protestors that they needed to leave, and if the protestors did not leave, then the corp had all right to call the police, and have charges pressed, along with sending the lot of them to jail.

It seems as those the protestors would rather spend time complaining about their situation, instead of doing something constructive, like improving themselves and going for the better jobs. Even a convience store, that is a corp store pays more and have upward mobility for those who show the skills and drive. But most companies tend to have pay caps, where once pay has been reached at the cap, the person either tries to go for a new position, or leaves to find another job.

originally posted by: terriblyvexed
I'm going to get burned for this, no one likes cold hard truth, but if your working at McDonald's, you are in a entry level job.

If you want better wages get a better job.

I know,I know, but the rich people are keeping them from getting an education, and leaving them to poor to find better jobs.

I'm so sick of hearing about corporate greed, if you don't like your life change it.

What a view! Some people aren't in a position to change their lives in the manner which you mean.

I'm sick of it all, too, but it doesn't mean I say, "oh well, let them eat cake".

a reply to: SpaDe_

God forbid anyone work their tail off and open a business to make a profit these days. You will be branded if you do, you have been warned - See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

You may have worked your tail off to start a business and are now living the "good life", but to keep that "good life" you hired workers that have now created you excessive profits. To ignore the value of your "slave work force" is ignoring the fact that they are now creating for you enormous profits which you couldn't do with a one man workforce. Don't you think your workers deserve some measly part of those enormous profits?

There comes a point in life where money can't buy you happiness, and making a million is not as exciting as it once was. The Walmart family is reaping in billions of profits every year! To not share some of that excess to the workers who are helping you to create those profits is really self-centered, shows that you don't value your workforce, and you definitely have no cares for the common man. Do you really think if they paid all their workers an extra $5.00 it would break the bank?