On Wednesday morning, SEIU-turned-fast-food worker spokesman Kendall Fells appeared on Bloomberg Television spouting rhetoric and making believe that the strikes that are to take place on Thursday in “more than 100” cities are all part of grassroots uprising for higher wages that started in New York in 2012.
The fact is, Mr. Fells must have ingested too much French fry grease because he is really full of it.
In December 2009, the Service Employees International Union concocted a plan to unionize the fast-food industry and shroud their campaign under the veil of a “living wage campaign.”
Use a living wage as a vehicle to excite, build momentum, build worker lists/ID potential leaders and potentially support collective bargaining. We believe that we will have enough traction with an ordinance to use as a legitimate tool for organizing and potentially as legislation to raise standards.
Since 2009, the SEIU has spent tens of millions of dollars devoted to unionizing the fast-food industry.
The union has dispatched dozens of SEIU staffers like Kendall Fells into phony “worker centers” (or Worker Organizing Committees)–all at the expense of existing SEIU members and all according to the SEIU’s 2009 blueprint.
As the SEIU plans to lay seige to hundreds of fast-food restaurants on Thursday, the union is planning to pull home-care aides out into the streets, as well as engage in “acts of civil disobedience” (seizing private property) to draw media attention to its campaign.
S.E.I.U. officials are encouraging home-care aides to join protests in six cities — Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Seattle. Union leaders say the hope is to expand to more cities in future strikes.
According to the New York Times, the SEIU’s campaign is not without critics within the union.
Within the S.E.I.U., there has been some grumbling about why has the union spent millions of dollars to back the fast-food workers when they are not in the industries that the union has traditionally represented.
But Ms. Henry defended the strategy, saying that underwriting the fast-food push has helped persuade many people that $15 is a credible wage floor for many workers. She said it prompted Seattle to adopt a $15 minimum wage and that San Francisco was considering a similar move. She also said the campaign helped persuade the Los Angeles school district to sign a contract for 20,000 cafeteria workers, custodians and other service workers that will raise their pay, now often $8 or $9 an hour, to $15 by 2016.
On Monday, Barack Obama used his bully pulpit as President to send a clarion call of approval to the SEIU’s plan, stating:
“If I were looking for a good job that lets me build some security for my job, I’d join a union,” the President said to raucous applause. “If I were busting my butt in the service industry and wanted an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work, I’d join a union…I’d want a union looking out for me and if I cared about these things I’d also want more Democrats looking out for me.”
With his close ties to the SEIU, one must wonder if the SEIU wrote the script for the President’s Labor Day message, just as it wrote the script that will be unfolding on Thursday.
