Chicago Fast Food and Retail Workers Board Bus to Join Striking St. Louis Workers

CHICAGO — Early Thursday morning, members of the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago will board a bus to St. Louis in a show of solidarity with fast food workers going on strike at multiple fast food restaurants in the city.

The Chicago workers walked off their jobs on April 24 and formed strike lines at 30 separate downtown locations, later returning successfully to work accompanied by clergy and community members who supported their call for $15 an hour and the right to form a union without intimidation.

WHAT:
Dozens of Chicago fast food and retail workers and community supporters boarding a bus for St. Louis to join striking fast food workers

WHEN:
Thursday, May 9, 2013
5 AM

WHERE:
Outside 123 W. Madison in the Loop

WHY:
To show their support for workers in St. Louis, who inspired by strikes in Chicago and New York, are standing up and going on strike to fight for a living wage and the right to organize a union without retaliation

The April 24 strikes in Chicago were the largest in city’s history to involve either fast food or retail workers—and the largest in the country to combine the two industries. Strike locations included McDonald’s, Macy’s, Forever 21, Subway, Sally Beauty Supply, Dunkin' Donuts and Niketown. Crowds of community supporters thronged to strike locations throughout the day, and filled the streets of the Magnificent Mile and the Loop in the thousands in a worker-led march terminating in front of the flagship Rock N Roll McDonald’s.