[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – As fast-food workers across the nation prepare a new wave of strikes to raise their wages, McDonald’s workers will strike at the District’s Air and Space Museum and protests will be held at corporate-owned McDonald’s in Northern Virginia and Montgomery County, Md., in support of the movement.
Ronald McDonald and Uncle Sam characters will distribute food stamp applications, and lead Christmas carols with special lyrics. The protests are against poverty wages and in support of the workers’ call for a living wage and the right to have a voice on the job. Following an 11 a.m. press conference at the Air and Space Museum, strikers and supporters will travel to corporate McDonald’s stores for protests in Wheaton, Md., and Arlington, Va.
WHAT: One-Day Strike, Press Conference and Protest at McDonald’s Air and Space Museum
WHO: Striking McDonald’s workers, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Rev. Michael Livingston, past President of the Council of Churches; other allies, and more than 200 community supporters
WHERE and WHEN: Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, 600 Independence Ave., SW, at 11 a.m.
WHAT: McDonald’s protest and rally in support of Fast-Food Worker Strikes for Higher Wages to Boost America’s Economy
WHO: More than 50 local fast-food workers and supporters
WHERE and WHEN: Thursday, Dec. 5, Wheaton Mall McDonald’s, 2741 University Blvd., at 1:30 p.m.
WHAT: McDonald’s protest and rally in support of Fast-Food Worker Strikes for Higher Wages to Boost America’s Economy
WHO: More than 50 local fast-food workers and supporters
WHERE and WHEN: Thursday Dec. 5, 3013 Columbia Pike, Arlington, Va., at 1:30 p.m.
• McDonald’s low wages forces its workers to use $1.2 billion in federal subsidies for programs like food stamps.
• Maryland taxpayer cost = $101 million.
• Virginia taxpayer cost = $129 million.
A growing number of consumers and ordinary families are concerned that attempts by corporations in the fast-food industry to hold down wages are slowing the economy and forcing them into poverty.
Federal contract workers are calling on President Obama to guarantee higher wages through an Executive Order. There are more than 90,000 federal contract workers in the D.C. area earning at or near minimum wage.
As thousands of fast-food workers go on strike from coast to coast, fast-food workers, community and labor groups and faith leaders in the Washington, D.C., area will join the strikers’ call for wages that allow them to afford the basics, put money back into their local economies and no longer be forced onto public assistance programs to make ends meet.
Thursday’s actions will be part of many actions in cities across the country in support of the fast-food worker movement that started with 200 workers striking in New York City a year ago. The movement has grown steadily since then, with strikes and protests spreading to nearly 200 cities nationwide.
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