Media Advisory for November 10, 2015 – Fresno
Contact: Tom Webster, (661) 412-3414
Thousands of Underpaid Workers Mobilize to Win $15 Wage and Paid Sick Days by 2020
with Nov. 2016 Ballot Initiative
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Fast Food, Home Care, Child Care Workers to Protest, Part of 500 Protests Nationwide Calling for $15, Union Rights
FRESNO, Calif. – Working families will stand together with fast-food workers for the largest-ever strike to hit America’s fast-food industry on Nov. 10 – one year from Election Day – with walkouts planned for a record 270 cities, including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento and San Francisco. Workers who are leading the Fight for $15 in California have partnered with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California to secure a better future for the state’s families with a November 2016 ballot initiative that would raise the statewide minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020 and guarantee six paid sick days to all California workers.
Thousands of fast-food, home care, and child care workers will join underpaid workers and allies in 500 cities nationwide to demand that elected leaders nationwide stand up for $15/hr and union rights and march through the City’s streets.
The strike comes as underpaid workers say they’ll be taking the Fight for $15 and union rights to the ballot box to show candidates of all political stripes that the more than 60 million Americans paid less than $15/hr are a voting bloc that can no longer be ignored. There are 3.2 million workers in California paid less than $15/hr.
WHO: Fast-food, home care, child care, and other underpaid workers
Community allies
WHAT: March followed by rally with local home care, child care, other underpaid workers to demand $15/hr., union rights
WHEN: November 10, 2015
WHERE:
Manchester Mall, Fresno – 10 a.m.
March from Manchester Mall to McDonald’s
Manchester Mall
Northwest parking lot, 1901 E. Shields Ave., Fresno
McDonald’s
3115 N. Blackstone Ave., Fresno
McDonald’s – 10:30 a.m.
3115 N. Blackstone Ave., Fresno
Rally and press conference
Load buses for Oakland, CA – 11 a.m.
Frank Ogawa Plaza/Oscar Grant Plaza – 4:30PM
1 Frank H Ogawa Plaza, Oakland
The Nov. 10 nationwide fast-food strike and city hall protests—which will include dozens of Fight for $15 rallies in battleground states like Ohio, Florida and Virginia—are part of the growing political engagement by the Fight for $15, a group of workers BuzzFeed said, “could make up a powerful new voting bloc.” And the Associated Press said the workers are displaying, “increasingly potent political muscle.”
The Raise California’s Wage and Paid Sick Days Act of 2016 was filed Nov. 4 by Fight for $15 worker leaders and SEIU California. The statewide initiative will raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 by 2020 and guarantee that every full-time worker will receive at least 6 days per year to care for themselves and their families.Forty-two percent of workers in America are paid less than $15, including 48% of women, 54% of African Americans, and 60% of Latinos.
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