So today workers around the country at various fast food places including McDonald's, Wendy's, and KFC are going on a strike as an effort to unionize and get wages to go from $7.25/hour to $15/hour. I'm sorry, but if you don't like the job, tell your boss to shove it. Find something better. If you proved successful in your role at that KFC, then take whatever work ethic you achieved with you elsewhere.
I faced potential unemployment earlier this year. It is a scary proposition to be facing. But, I was willing to lower my standards to maintain financial responsibility for myself and my family. It all worked out for me, but now I make a good living (for a clean company, might I add), yet I have a burden of a drive to get there everyday. Yet, if either my significant other or I were to lose employment, we would be okay.
Enough of my bragging. I have read three pieces so far about individuals who are struggling. One guy has gone from $8 to $8.15/hour in a nine year span. I'm sorry, that's got to be a shitty feeling, but maybe it is him that's the problem. Maybe he works for a greedy company. Maybe he only proved he was worth $.15 more an hour. Another a woman 24 years of age with three kids upset she has to work her hours at night and that she struggles to support her family. I don't readily know her story, but 3 kids by 24 years old smells like she made some mistakes. I'm sure she loves her kids and all, but seriously that is not your employer's problem. That is not the corporations' fault. Yes they do most likely make profits in the numbers we cannot imagine, but just because you allowed yourself a certain path in life doesn't mean you are allowed to protest for no good reason.
I admit, I do not do much research in these types of posts I write. I go off my gut reaction. I get protesting for better working conditions, but that is not the topic at hand. Real quick point from the article about the poor guy at Burger King who got a fifteen cent raise - a quarter of workers in the US make $11/hour or less. But at least you are working. Minimum wage is being pushed to go from $7.25/hour to $9. Seems fair. That's MINIMUM wage. And people are willing to accept illegal immigrants working jobs that "nobody else wants." Buck up. If you have to mow lawns every day, mow the goddamn lawn. But to ask for an over one hundred percent pay raise is ridiculous.
My heart doesn't bleed for the corporations. But I am a reasonable man. The quality of their product is questionable anyways, and the quality of the people working at a fast food place may be questionable at best as well. I am trying very hard not to put down the people who work there. But you shouldn't try to make a career out of being the guy who takes the pickles off my cheeseburger.
Sure there are probably some great success stories from these workers. But those people probably spent a lot of their time breaking their ass to do so. When I wasn't getting paid well at my last job, I destroyed it for a year. I calculated that I had earned enough EXTRA money for my company to hire another me and maintain profit. I demanded a raise. I didn't get it. But I did earn some opportunities from my work ethic that 2 years later got me to where I am today. My old company was making money hand over fist, and now we know through dubious means, and I couldn't get them to budge. The only raise I got was less than $1000 over a four year span, and I was a major contributor to my group. If I walked out of my job in protest in an effort to make double my pay, I would've been replaced with a person who could provide a certain percentage of my production at a much smaller percentage of my salary.
I understand some situations are tough. My girlfriend was a single mom for years before me. She worked her ass off when she had free time and now we are doing well, and she only needs herself to get by. And always has been that way. People can make it better for themselves if they try, not demand it.
Again, no real facts here, just my initial thoughts. Now, if you told me there was racial motives by the corporations or squalid working conditions then I get the argument. Go back to work and earn some more for your family of 4.
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