Spirited Rally at McDonalds in Oakland Demands $15 Dollars an Hour Minimum

Video of rally at McDonalds restaurant in downtown Oakland on December 5, 2013.
Photos, video and editing: Jonathan Nack

Protest Rocks Oakland McDonalds – Part of nationwide day of actions

by Jonathan Nack
December 5, 2013

OAKLAND – A lively protest took over the parking lot of a McDonalds restaurant on Jackson Street in downtown Oakland today. The rally, which completely blocked the restaurant's drive through, demanded a $15 an hour minimum wage for fast-food workers.

Young workers celebrated and danced as much as they protested. They appeared excited to be coming together to organize.

The rally was part of a day of nationwide actions at McDonalds restaurants across the country. A reporter for the New York Times, Steven Grteenhouse, decribed today's actions as, “the biggest wave of job actions in the history of America’s fast-food industry.” [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/nyregion/fast-food-workers-in-new-york-city-rally-for-higher-wages.html ]

The nationwide actions were organized by Fast Food Forward, [ http://fastfoodforward.org/ ] a a joint effort by labor and community groups led by Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Demonstrations were planned for over one hundred cities.

In Oakland, the rally was mobilized for by East Bay Up the Pay, and was supported by labor groups such as SEIU Local 1021 and the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE)
[ http://workingeastbay.org/ ]; and community groups such as the Oakland chapter of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) [ http://www.calorganize.org/ ]

Despite the fact that the rally completely blocked the restaurant's drive through for more than an hour, police never came to clear it. For full story: https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/12/05/18747325.php