SEIU’s ‘Occupy’ Fast Food

Global efforts continue by SEIU to convince everyone they should be able to raise a family on McDonald’s entry level wages. Hoping for a global minimum wage revolt, instigating by organizers has taken place all over the globe: In Europe, Lorenz Keller, who works for the Swiss trade union Unia, said that members from his group were protesting outside several McDonald’s branches in Zurich and would soon start actions in Geneva. Banner-waving activists in New Zealand were the first to hit the streets Thursday, as they protested outside a McDonald’s in Auckland. In the Philippines,young protesters held a singing and dancing flash mob inside a McDonald’s on Manila’s Quezon Avenue during the morning rush-hour. In Japan, where protests were planned in 30 cities, co-organizer Manabu Natori failed to find a Ronald costume in time, but was encouraged by the public response to a protest for a higher minimum wage, held outside a downtown Tokyo McDonald’s. The use of Occupy style techniques are no coincidence: One U.S. Chamber of Commerce official says the protest is a sham. “These union-produced, made-for-media protests have repeatedly failed to gain support from more than a handful of actual workers,” said vice president Glenn Spencer, in a statement. For workers and organizers of the strike, the media attention on a global basis is huge. “The Occupy Movement is not dead,” says Witold Henisz, management professor at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. “I’m forecasting a period of tension and political activism over what’s fair and what’s right.” Read it all here.