Fight for $15

On April 15 fast food and care workers in 200 cities in the U.S. and elsewhere rallied for a raise in minimum wage — a visual story.

April 15 (like last March 15) was the day for coordinated U.S. and international rallies of fast food and care workers asking for minimum wage.

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND — APRIL 15: Police stand on guard as protestors picket outside McDonalds in Britomart on April 15, 2015 in Auckland, New Zealand. McDonald’s workers will join thousands of fast-food workers in an International Day Of Action protesting zero-hours contracts. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

Fast food chains workers, nurses, construction workers, care and security workers — who’ve been long engaged in a common struggle — organized protests for Wednesday in more than 200 cities in the U.S., Canada, Europe, New Zealand and elsewhere. What they want under the hashtag #Fightfor15 — and for some of them what their unions ask for — is a minimum wage of $15. The legal minimum salary in the U.S. is currently still at $7,25 an hour since 2009.

These workers can’t afford housing and to support their families despite working full time jobs in child care, elders care, security jobs, fast food chains, Walmart shops, McDonalds’ franchising (thousands of shops excluded from McDonalds’ own pay raises) or school teaching.

Chanting “Hold the burgers, hold the fries, make your wages supersize”, workers gathered in front of their working places and some of them went on strike.

New York City was very lively since the early morning.

Hundreds of construction workers showed up too.

In many cities, a conscious connection was made between #Fightfor15 planned protests and the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

Workers from Ferguson came up with some suprises.

Workers from the Fort Lauderdale airport, where minimum wage is currently at $5-$8 an hour, showed up with their purple t-shirts reading “poverty wages don’t fly”

In Miami…

Florida was one of the places with the highest number of testimonies from rallies. Getty photographer Joe Raedle went to the one at McDonalds in Miami Gardens.

MIAMI GARDENS, FL — APRIL 15: Protesters gather at a McDonald’s restaurant on tax day asking for higher wages on April 15, 2015 in Miami Gardens, Florida. Fast food workers in cities around the United States joined by adjunct professors, home care, child care, airport, industrial laundry, Walmart workers and others are asking for higher wages and other rights for working people. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

MIAMI GARDENS, FL — APRIL 15: Protesters gather at a McDonald’s restaurant on tax day asking for higher wages on April 15, 2015 in Miami Gardens, Florida. Fast food workers in cities around the United States joined by adjunct professors, home care, child care, airport, industrial laundry, Walmart workers and others are asking for higher wages and other rights for working people. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

In New Orleans, rallying since dawn, posters with “black workers matter” were raised too.

Similar thoughts in Chicago, where the Southside McDonalds was reportedly closed because of the strike…

While this is Memphis.

Boston…

Madison, Wisconsin…

Arizona.

But also Canada…

New Zealand…

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND — APRIL 15: Protestors picket outside McDonalds in Britomart on April 15, 2015 in Auckland, New Zealand. McDonald’s workers will join thousands of fast-food workers in an International Day Of Action protesting zero-hours contracts. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

And London, UK.

April 15, a protestor hands out leaflets on Marble Arch as a protest takes place outside the McDonald’s restaurant against low pay and poor working conditions. (photo Lynda Bowyer/Demotix)