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Fast-food workers strike for fair wages and trade union rights in 130 cities across the globe

Fast-food workers walk out on strike in 130 cities in 33 countries to demand pay rises and the right to unionise from £120bn industry

Fast-food workers walked out on strike in cities across the world on Thursday to demand pay rises and the right to unionise.

Miami protest organiser Muhammed Malik said protests had been called in 130 cities in more than 33 countries.

In the United States, there were 150 separate actions including walkouts in fast-food restaurants in Miami, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Houston.

And there were similar protest in Dublin, Seoul, Casablanca, Panama City, Geneva, London and dozens of other cities.

In Italy yesterday the three main unions called their members out.

In New York, demonstrators gathered outside a pizza chain after demonstrating outside McDonald’s shops in the city.

They wore T-shirts saying “McStrike” or “stick together for $15” and carried signs saying, “Fair pay, respect for our rights.”

The workers are demanding their pay is doubled to $15 (£9) an hour.

“Fast food is a $200 billion-a-year (£120bn) industry,” said Fred Jones of the Fight for 15 Coalition, which organised a protest in Philadelphia.

“Fast-food CEOs make millions a year. Can’t they share some with workers?”

“Fast-food workers in many parts of the world face the same corporate policies — low pay, no guaranteed hours and no benefits,” said Service Employees International Union president Mary Kay Henry.

Median pay for fast food workers in the US is around $18,500 (£11,000) a year, 20 per cent short of the US Census Bureau’s poverty threshold for a family of four.

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