Portside

A hard look at the campaign by retail and fast-food workers to earn a living wage.

The fast food strikes are part of a broader movement by low-wage workers for higher pay and union representation that has caught fire over the past year. Targets include a range of employers, including Wal-Mart, federal subcontractors, warehouses, retail stores and car washes. This low-wage service and retail worker movement has tapped into a vein of discontent. But it has also created hopes for change through the fledgling campaign’s remarkable successes.

The biggest walkout yet begins this morning -- and the strikes could have far-reaching implications for labor

Beyond just better wages, the workers at the forefront of the FFF campaign are demanding to be treated with greater respect and dignity.

These fast food campaigns, and the recent strike wave against Wal-Mart, represent the most dramatic challenges by the embattled U.S. labor movement to two industries that increasingly define the new U.S. economy.

The gulf between CEO pay and staff McWages is shockingly wide: a strike serves this system of super-exploitation right

Alleging unpaid wages and repeated retaliation, McDonald’s workers in central Pennsylvania launched a surprise strike at 11 this morning. The strikers are student guest workers from Latin America and Asia, brought to the United States under the controversial J-1 cultural exchange visa program. Their employer is one of the thousands of McDonald’s franchisees with whom the company contracts to run its ubiquitous stores.

Small but highly publicized strikes by Walmart retail and warehouse workers last fall set the labor movement abuzz and gained new respect for organizing methods once regarded skeptically.