Black and white shirts filled the streets on April 15 as approximately 200 students, community members, and workers marched in support of a $15 minimum wage.
Fight for 15 is a campaign that started in 2012 when hundreds of fast food workers went on strike in New York. Since then, the Fight for 15 movement has reached more than 200 cities, 35 countries and six continents, helping to organize people to fight for a $15 minimum wage and a union to represent people in service working jobs.
The April 15 demonstration started at the University of Memphis and ended at McDonalds on Highland Avenue near the U of M campus.
The communications organizer for the event, who did not want to give her name or go on the record, said that the organization chose to march to McDonalds because many of the people there work for fast food places.
Ashley Cathey is a fast food worker and joined the Fight for 15 about two years ago when some members of the organization from St. Louis came to McDonalds where she worked and asked her if she wanted to make $15 dollars an hour.
“I want to be a part of it because I feel like the money that we make with $7.25 [minimum wage] and having to put money to the side and scuffle to pay bills… I was just fed up with it and I decided to join the [the movement],” said Cathey.
When she joined, the organization was only four months old, but she was willing to put in the work to see a change. She has been working at the McDonalds on Highland Avenue, one of the demonstration sites, for seven years and has only gotten a raise from $7.25 to $7.70.
“They have threatened me plenty of times, telling me: ‘If you go on strike, we are going to fire you’, but they don’t know that I know the law that you can’t fire me because that’s against the law, I can practice my rights.”
Cathey said that when she first began to participate in the movement, her employers at McDonalds started cutting her hours but, once they saw the support that she was getting from Fight for 15 members, they started giving her hours back and making sure that she took the required breaks for her shifts.
Although the movement started with fast food workers, it has expanded to include workers in other service jobs. Homecare and convenient store workers joined the fast food workers at the University of Memphis for the protest. Students, faculty and staff from the University of Memphis also came out to join the fight.
Dennis Laumann, an associate history professor at the University of Memphis, was among the supporters of the protest.
“I’m a big supporter of a living wage and I think workers deserve a wage that allows them to live a decent life and provide for their families and themselves,” he said.
Laumann said he has friends who are in low paying jobs who are “struggling to get by.”
“If you know anybody who’s working class they’re struggling with these issues,” said Laumann.
When asked if the university allowed him as a professor to be openly and actively protesting on campus, Laumann said he was “allowed to believe what [he] wants to believe.”
“The University can’t control my political activities as long as I do my job and I don’t impose my politics on students, I’m free to speak my mind,” said Laumann.
Chris Johnson is also an associate history professor at the U of M, and has been very active in supporting he Fight for 15 movement. “I wouldn’t describe myself as being involved with the movement I’m just a community supporter and a community ally,” said Johnson.
He said, “It’s important that their voices be heard,” referring to the workers that are fighting for the $15 minimum wage.
He supports the cause and specifically addressed the adjunct professors at the U of M, saying that the tuition money the university makes from classes they teach is “super exploitative” compared to how much they are paid.
Lindsey Smith is a junior at the University of Memphis and is a member of the Progressive Student Alliance, a campus organization. She announced in front of the administration building that members of the PSA had delivered a letter to University President David Rudd that was “a demand that President Rudd pay the campus workers $15 an hour.”
“We know that, as students and as just general citizens of the United States, that it is our responsibility to support low wage workers and their fights because one day we will be in the work field,” said Smith.
Smith said the PSA has sent President Rudd other letters and requests in the past about various issues, but in the year and a half that she has been involved with the organization he has not responded.
“It’s just wrong how people don’t make enough money to survive, and we feel that it is our duty to support these workers,” said Smith.
Rosie Bingham, Vice President of Student Affairs at the University of Memphis, came outside to tell the crowd that they had to move off of the administration building stairs.
“You are the elders. You are making history. I walk with you,” said Betty Tyler, director of the Arize V Renaissance Center, before the group began the march to McDonalds.
The organization’s next action is Friday May 1 at 12 p.m. There will be a march at Bass Pro Shop downtown. People interested in attending or marching can meet members at 444 N. Main St. or visit fightfor15.org.
Fight for 15 is a campaign that started in 2012 when hundreds of fast food workers went on strike in New York. Since then, the Fight for 15 movement has reached more than 200 cities, 35 countries and six continents, helping to organize people to fight for a $15 minimum wage and a union to represent people in service working jobs.
The April 15 demonstration started at the University of Memphis and ended at McDonalds on Highland Avenue near the U of M campus.
The communications organizer for the event, who did not want to give her name or go on the record, said that the organization chose to march to McDonalds because many of the people there work for fast food places.
Ashley Cathey is a fast food worker and joined the Fight for 15 about two years ago when some members of the organization from St. Louis came to McDonalds where she worked and asked her if she wanted to make $15 dollars an hour.
“I want to be a part of it because I feel like the money that we make with $7.25 [minimum wage] and having to put money to the side and scuffle to pay bills… I was just fed up with it and I decided to join the [the movement],” said Cathey.
When she joined, the organization was only four months old, but she was willing to put in the work to see a change. She has been working at the McDonalds on Highland Avenue, one of the demonstration sites, for seven years and has only gotten a raise from $7.25 to $7.70.
“They have threatened me plenty of times, telling me: ‘If you go on strike, we are going to fire you’, but they don’t know that I know the law that you can’t fire me because that’s against the law, I can practice my rights.”
Cathey said that when she first began to participate in the movement, her employers at McDonalds started cutting her hours but, once they saw the support that she was getting from Fight for 15 members, they started giving her hours back and making sure that she took the required breaks for her shifts.
Although the movement started with fast food workers, it has expanded to include workers in other service jobs. Homecare and convenient store workers joined the fast food workers at the University of Memphis for the protest. Students, faculty and staff from the University of Memphis also came out to join the fight.
Dennis Laumann, an associate history professor at the University of Memphis, was among the supporters of the protest.
“I’m a big supporter of a living wage and I think workers deserve a wage that allows them to live a decent life and provide for their families and themselves,” he said.
Laumann said he has friends who are in low paying jobs who are “struggling to get by.”
“If you know anybody who’s working class they’re struggling with these issues,” said Laumann.
When asked if the university allowed him as a professor to be openly and actively protesting on campus, Laumann said he was “allowed to believe what [he] wants to believe.”
“The University can’t control my political activities as long as I do my job and I don’t impose my politics on students, I’m free to speak my mind,” said Laumann.
Chris Johnson is also an associate history professor at the U of M, and has been very active in supporting he Fight for 15 movement. “I wouldn’t describe myself as being involved with the movement I’m just a community supporter and a community ally,” said Johnson.
He said, “It’s important that their voices be heard,” referring to the workers that are fighting for the $15 minimum wage.
He supports the cause and specifically addressed the adjunct professors at the U of M, saying that the tuition money the university makes from classes they teach is “super exploitative” compared to how much they are paid.
Lindsey Smith is a junior at the University of Memphis and is a member of the Progressive Student Alliance, a campus organization. She announced in front of the administration building that members of the PSA had delivered a letter to University President David Rudd that was “a demand that President Rudd pay the campus workers $15 an hour.”
“We know that, as students and as just general citizens of the United States, that it is our responsibility to support low wage workers and their fights because one day we will be in the work field,” said Smith.
Smith said the PSA has sent President Rudd other letters and requests in the past about various issues, but in the year and a half that she has been involved with the organization he has not responded.
“It’s just wrong how people don’t make enough money to survive, and we feel that it is our duty to support these workers,” said Smith.
Rosie Bingham, Vice President of Student Affairs at the University of Memphis, came outside to tell the crowd that they had to move off of the administration building stairs.
“You are the elders. You are making history. I walk with you,” said Betty Tyler, director of the Arize V Renaissance Center, before the group began the march to McDonalds.
The organization’s next action is Friday May 1 at 12 p.m. There will be a march at Bass Pro Shop downtown. People interested in attending or marching can meet members at 444 N. Main St. or visit fightfor15.org.