On Labor Day, thousands of fast-food cooks and cashiers went on strike in a record 400 cities, hospital housekeepers and nurses’ assistants joined the Fight for $15 at protests across the Midwest and candidates and those considering 2018 runs for governor in battlegrounds rallied with workers from Detroit to Des Moines, embracing their calls for $15 and union rights. The Chicago Labor Day events kicked off with hundreds of Chicago fast food workers on strike, underscoring the demand for unions. Workers and allies held a protest in the Pilsen neighborhood. The crowd then marched carrying signs reading “Illinois Needs Unions” and “Unions are the Solution to a Rigged Economy.” The day continued with a massive rally at the Thompson Center against Gov. Rauner. State workers, fast food, childcare, airport, nursing home, and other low-wage workers denounced the Governor’s attacks against unions and working class families and pledged to “Veto” him in 2018.
In cities across the region, hospitals are the factories of today. The healthcare industry has added 1.3 million jobs in the Midwest since 2011, while manufacturing employment has declined by 1.4 million over the same period, a new report by the National Employment Law Project shows. But a staggering share of those jobs fail to pay workers enough to support their families: 71 percent of service jobs at hospitals pay less than $15 an hour, the NELP study found. For every highly paid doctor, hospitals in the Midwest employ more than six low-wage cooks, house keepers, certified nursing assistants and other service workers. Throughout the day Illinois gubernatorial candidates expressed their support for workers, declaring unions the key to fixing an economy that is rigged to benefit the wealthy. Since launching on Nov. 29, 2012, the Fight for $15 has spurred wage hikes totaling more than $62 billion for 22 million underpaid workers, including more than 10 million who are on their way to $15 an hour, by convincing everyone from voters to politicians to corporations to raise pay.
Photo Credit: Fight for 15
