Protests over pay at fast-food restaurants lead to arrests

Scores of protesters were arrested in cities across the country Thursday after the protesters blocked traffic in their effort to get fast-food companies to pay all employees at least $15 an hour.

In New York, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, Kansas City, Denver and elsewhere, labor organizers and restaurant employees launched another round of demonstrations.

According to the union organizing the event, protests were planned in 150 cities as part of the “Fight for $15” campaign. Since the protests began in late 2012, organizers have switched up their tactics every few months.

The movement is backed financially and logistically by the Service Employees International Union and others. Many fast-food workers do not make much more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which adds up to about $15,000 a year for 40 hours a week.

Prospero Sanchez, who was protesting at a McDonald’s in New York, said the $11.50 per hour that he gets making pizzas at a Domino’s Pizza restaurant is not enough to support him, his wife and two kids. He has worked at the same restaurant for 14 years.

President Obama mentioned the campaign earlier this week at a Labor Day appearance in Milwaukee.

“There’s a national movement going on made up of fast-food workers organizing to lift wages so they can provide for their families with pride and dignity,” Obama said, as he pushed Congress to raise the minimum wage. “If I were busting my butt in the service industry and wanted an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work, I’d join a union.”

The National Restaurant Association, on the other hand, said in a statement that the protests are an attempt by unions to “boost their dwindling membership.” The industry lobbying group said it hopes organizers will be respectful to customers and workers during the protests.

Here’s a sampling of protests from around the country:

In New York, at least three people wearing McDonald’s uniforms were hauled away by police officers after standing in the middle of a busy street near Times Square.

About two dozen protesters were handcuffed in Detroit after they wouldn’t move out of a street near a McDonald’s restaurant.

In Chicago, a few hundred fast-food workers and their supporters blocked traffic on a busy South Side street Thursday morning until police moved in and took nearly two dozen into custody.

Atlanta police say about 10 people accused of ignoring repeated demands to leave a street in front of a McDonald’s restaurant were arrested and charged with blocking traffic.

Three people were arrested in Denver after they sat down in the middle of busy Colfax Avenue near the state Capitol.

This story was originally published September 4, 2014 at 3:20 PM with the headline "Protests over pay at fast-food restaurants lead to arrests."