Low-wage workers protest across the city for higher pay

Calling it the “biggest fight for $15” yet, about 50 people gathered outside a North Side McDonald’s restaurant Monday morning to demand higher wages and the right to form a union.

The protesters — a gathering of “low-paid” workers in a variety of industries — planned marches and rallies throughout the day across the city, in coordination with similar planned protests nationwide and globally.

“I’m a single mom, and I don’t make enough money to support myself or my three kids,” said Lakesia Collins, a nursing home worker assigned to a dementia unit. “On behalf of our nursing home workforce, I can definitely say, we are [over] worked, underpaid and underappreciated.”

Organizers planned a large rally downtown later Thursday to protest what they say is extreme corporate greed at the expense of workers barely making ends meet.

The movement is fighting for a $15 minimum wage nationwide.

“Working people share one struggle: It’s the fight for basic fairness and economic justice,” Collins said.

The protesters targeted McDonald’s, saying the corporation undercuts wages across the country by paying “poverty wages.”

Later Thursday, the company responded.

“We proudly invest in the future of those who work in McDonald’s restaurants,” said Lisa McComb, a spokesperson for McDonald’s. “In addition to raising the minimum wage for employees at our company-owned restaurants, we also offer employees access to Archways to Opportunity, a set of programs McDonald’s pays for which helps them earn a high school diploma and get needed tuition assistance so they can work toward earning a college degree.”

The protest appeared to have little impact on business at the restaurant. A steady stream of customers came and went, including Oxana Bourakovska, holding a large cup of coffee.

“It makes sense because $10 an hour is no money at all,” said Bourakovska, 43, who works in marketing and lives in the Edgewater neighborhood. “They should pay more — much more. [McDonald’s] makes much bigger money.”

Diane Hammett, a small-business owner, said a national $15 minimum wage would be disastrous for the economy.

“It’s going to hurt the businesses,” said Hammett, 69, pulling out of the drive-thru. “The profit margins [for small businesses] are so low that the owners will not be able to sustain it.”

Later Thursday, the group of protesters grew to about 100 people. They gathered outside Elite Staffing at 1400 W. Hubbard St. to protest the company’s relationship with Pactiv LLC and McDonald’s.

Pactiv is a major McDonald’s supplier and creates their McCafe coffee cups.

Protesters entered the building and tried to give a letter the company’s head of operations, but no one answered the door.

Dominique Bouie, a 27-year-old Joliet woman, has worked at the Pactiv factory in Romeoville. She criticized the company for failing to give workers breaks and poor working conditions.

“I hope we win this thing,” Bouie said, because at the end of the day, “we just want to take care of our families.”

Protesters held signs reading: “McJobs cost us all” and pretended to make a cup of McDonald’s coffee, adding ingredients like “poverty wages.”

Elite Staffing declined to comment on the protest.