Hundreds of New York City fast-food workers, fed up with poverty wages and abusive working conditions, walked off the job this Thursday, demanding minimum pay of $15 an hour and the right to organize and collectively bargain without fear of retaliation. The strike echoes a similar walkout that took place in the city last November and exemplifies how low-wage non-unionized workers across the U.S. are organizing to fight back against exploitation.
Meanwhile, striking workers this week choked shipping traffic at ports in Hong Kong (the world’s 3rd-largest port) and Brazil, disrupted banks in Cyprus and shut down schools in Denmark and Swaziland. Norway is bracing for a strike at key onshore oil platforms next week.
In the U.K., Parliament and the press are in a tizzy over leaked documents from the nation’s biggest union discussing a co-ordinated general strike being planned with other unions to protest the government’s austerity policies.
Lori Theresa Waller is rabble.ca‘s labour reporter. For more news from picket lines and workplaces around the world, see her weekly round-up of the top labour stories.
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