CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE?
A nationwide protest organized by the uber-liberal Service Employees International Union (SEIU) blocked traffic in Charleston, S.C. as megaphone-wielding demonstrators sought to shut down the city’s “crosstown” artery. The SEIU is working to mobilize fast food workers – part of a broader effort by the administration of Barack Obama to target this fast-growing industry.
(For more on that, check out a recent article from Bill Wilson of Americans for Limited Government HERE).
According to Net Right Daily , the union – one of America’s largest and fastest growing organized labor groups – is borrowing home health care workers to artificially inflate its presence (and maximize disruption).
“These outside agitators with no direct ties to the restaurant or their employees are an intentional attempt by the union to increase tensions and create headlines grabbing lawlessness,” the website reports.
In Charleston, the demonstrators physically blocked vehicles from traversing the “crosstown” section of Highway 17 – which runs from the Arthur Ravenel, Jr. Bridge over the Cooper River to the Ashley River Memorial Bridge on the opposite side of the Charleston peninsula.
“They’ve completely rerouted all incoming traffic coming into Charleston,” one witness told FITS.
Pics from the protest seemed to indicate what one witness described as a “non-event,” with the police response doing more to back up traffic than the actual demonstration.
“More cops than protesters,” one tweeted.
@fitsnews pretty much a non event more cops than protesters 15 arrests none resisted yawn pic.twitter.com/oBdsUBh1Dd
— Cedar Posts (@CedarPosts) September 4, 2014
However numerous motorists in the Charleston area reached out to FITS reporting major delays related to the protest.
The protestors are demanding an increase in the national minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour – another shameless sop to labor unions that would do more harm than good.
FITS does not support raising the minimum wage, we support abolishing it.
RAPID REACTION
@fitsnews It is completely disrupting school carpools/pick ups. #CHS #fitofrage
— Libby Perry (@epperry1) September 4, 2014
93 comments
This is nothing but a case of the “have nots” not wanting to do a thing to better their situations., but demanding more money. Why not learn a trade that pays $15 an hour, instead of attempting to bully our legislators into spending tax payer dollars to sit around a craft long winded bills, then subsequently wasting more tax payer dollars to vote on it.
So you believe there are tons of jobs “out there” paying fifteen dollars. Not in South Carolina.
There is if you apply yourself. If you’re a high school drop out who has no work ethic, then you’re stuck making $8/hr at McDonalds.
A high school diploma is not worth the paper it is written on any longer. We have folks running our schools with Doctorates that could not pass advanced high school course 50 years ago. The folks running our school boards are a fraternity!
And they Drive BMW’s, LOL.
This is such total BS.
Further, School boards are elected by the public. Anybody can run.
Still they are a Fraternity !
Not having one makes you worth even less. How are you going to get a college or technical school education if you don’t have the brains and ambition to finish high school.
For people who prepare themselves for the workforce and are qualified in something other than rendering poor service at a fast food restaurant.
You work your way up by doing a good job and obeying the law. Of course you do not have to work in America if you really do not want to the government will take care of you. Wonder what will happen when all the debt really comes due.
You work your way up by doing a good job and obeying the law.
“Hey, you know that burger flipper named Johnny over there who has been our best worker for 20 years, and he hasn’t broken one rule, not even once? I definitely think he’s CEO material. What do you say?”
“Yes, I agree. Johnny! We’d like to make you CEO. Here’s your million dollar salary, an Audi, and a mansion in a gated community.”
“Holy cow! It’s just like that guy who commented on FITSNews said! Hard work really does pay off!”
Johnny drove to the golf course in his Audi, which conveniently runs off of unicorn farts, to live happily ever after.
After getting 17 holes-in-one, he walked up to the 18th hole when suddenly he was abruptly woken up by two police officers forcefully evicting him from the his home, which had gone into foreclosure.
so, your stupidity is here or to go ?
You sure have a high opinion of yourself as well as the American worker. Those jobs are for people in school or working part time for a reason. I ran a drive in grill before I finished high school. Set your sights a little higher there Smuts!
If you’re flipping burgers after 20 years you’re doing something wrong.
Not if that’s what you want to do, there is honor in all work – but not all work is worth $15 an hour.
If that’s what you want to do, after 20 years you need to own the place not working for minimum wage.
Yes, I would also like to know where these multitude of $15 /hr jobs are located. Maybe they can open a Fantasyland in SC.
they are paid $ 5:00 per hour for selling dildoes.
South Carolina’s “non manufacturing” average wage is $12.93 per hour, manufacturing wage is $16.29
Not bad for unskilled, 8th grade education employees.
Why not learn a trade that pays $15 an hour
Because they may not be capable of learning such a trade? Because they may not be able to afford things to not only learn a trade, but prove they know it (certification, degree, etc.)? Because they may not have the time to learn a trade due to working 2-3 jobs to stay afloat? Because maybe they tried to learn a trade, it didn’t work out, and now they’re up to their eyeballs in student loan debts? Because maybe they used to work in a trade, but it got outsourced? Because maybe if a bunch of poor people suddenly flooded a few given trades, the pay would drop for that trade due to a higher supply of workers?
The existence of a higher-paying job that a poor person may not be capable of getting does not justify the exploitation of that poor person as cheap labor and the exploitation of the taxpayer by getting them to subsidize their workers to further lower their labor costs.
You could be the poster boy for not bettering yourself. You make me wonder how the generations before us, and before welfare, ever made it without inflated wages and handouts.
You’re making things too complicated. Just put them in camps.
“Just put them in camps.”
Then they would be a community and everything alright.
:)
What is civilization?
Something Republicans loathe.
Hey California is giving them free weed.
You want $15/hr., stay in school.
Besides the fact they are so lazy they are laying in the street instead of standing, listen to them justify the raise they want in the audio: http://www.thebryancrabtreeshow.com/wants-mcds-to-give-you-15hour-start-by-learning-how-to-speak-english/
This group of SEIU idiots trying to grow their ranks on the backs of the low information crowd forget some important details:
– Only 2.9 percent of wage earners earn the federal minimum wage.
– Most minimum-wage earners are teenagers or young adults, not heads of families.
– Over half of minimum-wage earners are between the ages of 16 and 24.
– Two-thirds only work part time
– Two-thirds of minimum-wage workers live in families with incomes above 150 percent of the poverty line.
– Over half of all Americans started their careers making within $1 of the minimum wage. almost none stay there long.
– Two-thirds of minimum-wage workers earn raises within a year—without the government’s help.
Lower the minimum wage to $5.00.
Look around. Lots of “retirees” working in these minimum wage jobs.
Also not sure where you came up with all those “numbers” but I have some pretty good inklings.
Why lower it to just $5.00?? Make them work for free. That’ll show ’em.
“Minimum wage” isn’t “Permanent wage”. For many it’s a starting point, just because you start there doesn’t mean you have to stay there. If they want $15/hr. tell them to work harder and become a shift manager.
Change “for many” to “for almost all”.
BENGHAZI!!!!!!
Folks with low I.Q.s do not understand your rationale!
Come on, you could have just come out and said SCBlues.
Yea, I suspect those stats are generated by some Koch funded organization, or the Fake News Network.
If you and SCBlues don’t like the stats, go Google.
Did you folks take Koch’s millions?
and lots of retirees are very limited as to what they may earn and continue to receive the SSI benefits they paid in by arbitrary restraints from the porgressivists and menscheviks that set it up.
Shhhhh, leave those kinds of facts putt of this debate.
Why $5. Its already 30% less than it was 40 years ago. Just eliminate it, right? Certainly thats what the Republicans would say. The Koch Brothers have already said having a minimum wage leads the Fascism.
I’m being a little facetious here, my point is that a minimum wage really accomplishes very little in reducing poverty. Don’t believe my stats, I’m tired of doing all the work, Google it yourself. Start with “bls federal minimum wage statistics”.
Who said I didn’t believe your statistics? I just don’t see what they have to do with the debate, unless the point is we don’t need to worry about 2.9% of wage earners. As I said, we may as well get rid of it. I certainly don’t want to be accused of being a Fascist.
Besides there is massive underreporting of people working for less than minimum wage, anyway. Waiters and Waitresses are largely exempt from the law. They are supposed to be assured that tips will at least guarantee them min. wage, but most restaurants don’t follow that rule. They simply report the wait staff as making min. wage whether they are or not, and fire them if they object.
That massive “underreporting” works in the other direction. Most waiters and waitresses make far more than minimum wage and very few report all of their earnings.
So I guess you are saying the stats are not really reliable. So we don’t really know for sure. That is probably true. Although while we may not know the exact numbers, I think we all know there are a ton of people out there making minimum wage or less. Its just a question of whether we care or not. One side does, one side doesn’t. And that exactly as I would expect.
The Koches and those similarly situation have been saying the minimum wage will destroy the country since it was enacted. Just like the 40 hour work week; the eight hour work day; mandatory breaks; child labor laws; and occupational safety laws. The more things change the more they stay the same.
I’m saying no such thing about the BLS stats. I’m just repeating what the IRS says about tax cheats, they estimate we lose 3.4 trillion dollars a year to dodges, cheats, shelters and the like. Frankly, I don’t care about the 2.9%, we have a more than adequate safety net for them.
I don’t want the gubamint to get one more dime but I also don’t want to pay $10 for a freaking hamburger, (unless it’s a really good one with a hefe weitzen, pickle spear, some home fries and the right relishes, garnishes and condiments.)
Only good hefe weitzen you’re going to get will be in Germany
Paulaner will do here in the states but NOTHING beats a case of Schneider or Erdinger bought fresh at the “Penny Mart”!!!!!
Boy do I wish I was in K-Town, Sembach or the Rod & Gun Club in Vogleweigh!!!!
Planning on going back as “Space A” in the next year or two if the balloon does not go up
I’ll take a UFO, Shock Top or a Blue Moon but the you’re right, the best is by far from Deutschland, preferably served by pretty girls in a big Stein, under a big tent in October with 2,000 of your closest friends sitting at the picnic table with you eating brauts and singing John Denver songs badly or even better dancing badly to an oompahpah band..
I like Blue Moon myself (draft – not bottled) and without the orange peel – please!!!!!!!
I would prefer chilling out at a certain unnamed local place in Southern Germany where the schnaps barrels are 400 years old to the rancour of Octoberfest, But each to his/her own.
That being said, It will soon be braut season fer sure!!!!!!
We used to have some hellateous beer & brat parties at Sembach/Rheim-Stein during the Bosnia gig!!!!
btdt. when it cost me money out of my personal pocket to do a job, it’s time to quit. (I did) it’s the hole analogy. couldn’t charge enough… too many undocumenteds running around lowballing everything. they living 10 to a trailer, happy to work for next to nothing.
Crap a dollar is worth less than 30% of what it was when Obama took office. Think I am wrong,go figure your prices of essentials today when your salary has increase only 3% since then. Wake up Little Susie its time to go Home!
Actually I am self employed. My income took a nose dive during the Great Recession, and still has not fully recovered, but its getting close. I am making about the same thing I was 10 years ago, but way more than I was making in 2008. That said on an inflation adjusted basis the bottom 75% of Americans haven’t had a raise since the Clinton Administration, and before that it was during the Carter Administration. .
Col. is one of the biggest Koch suckers on this thing. Old and jobless too, I bet.
Not hardly, I’m normally at work by 8 and usually quit around 6. I play Army 4-5 days a month and do a little volunteer and “for profit” carpentry/construction here and there. Old? Yeah, older than some, I was working when the minimum wage was $2.65 – I hope to work about 8 more years and then do a little more volunteer work and a lot more fishing.
it’s all relative…………..
MY first job that had social security taken out was .75 cents/hour working at a drug store lunch counter follwed by bailing hay for $1/hour and then bagging groceries for $1.5/hour all during 1969.
Got on at UPS working on the dock in 1970 during my senior year in HS and started out at $2.50/nr (like Richard Pryor’s “Mudbone” said: that was big money in them days”). Went over $3/hr right before I graduated HS in 1971 and we were shit hot
We made more in 3-4 hours than some mill workers made in 8 hours. I still have my final UPS paystub before i went into the Army and it netted $50 & change.
When i got out of the army in 1974 my final LES (which I kept) netted $400 for the month and that included jump and pro pay and I had made buck sergeant 6 months prior
Self service gas at the K-Mart in Spartanburg in 1971 was 17 cents/gallon in 1971 and Sunoco “220 (104 octane high test0 was 33 cents/gallon.
You could buy a brand new stripped down Ford Mavereck for $2000.
All that changed after the Yom kippur War in 1973 which brought about the oil “embargo”.
Inflation went out the roof and there were shortages of every damn thing. It was like the country had been kicked in the balls and it has never been the same as far as I’m concerned.
A lot of the ills we are seeing now had its origin in the 1974-1975 recession which was brought about by the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
I have a right to not have to pay $10 for a hamburger.
Let them eat cake.
It’ll just to your hips and make your ass even bigger.
“It’ll just to your hips and make your ass even bigger”
You must eat lots of cake as you’re about the biggest ass I’ve come across in a long, long time.
My 32″ waist size says otherwise, 32″ that’s probably the diameter of one of your thighs.
My 32″ waist size says otherwise, 32″ that’s probably the diameter of one of your thighs.
Actually, let them eat burgers, the ones they make.
Well if you want a good hamburger it might cost $ 10, but you don’t need to be eating that fast food crap anyway. I’ve been boycotting fast food restaurants for years because the food is awful.
So you want to deny people the option to get a sub $10 hamburger?
Based on what I see coming out of the fast food places, yep.
Though you think you know what’s best for everyone, they might have a problem with you helping to pass laws forcing your beliefs on them, especially in the context of their behavior not hurting anyone else.
I understand that it’s unpopular right now to allow people freedom and choice, but one day it might come back into vogue.
These people are embarrassingly stupid, which dovetails nicely with their career choices. These jobs, non-management ones that is, are not meant to sustain a family, but rather a high school kid, college student, or a second income job. Only an reality disconnected imbecile would think differently.
Won,t be long before they go to breaking windows,starting fires and pilfering from working folks again. Been there done that!
Damn, a entire generation of spatula flippers make a stand. The response will be priceless ! Guess why the burger is not made right ?
yeah, I ordered it with two pubic hairs not one!
Damn I’m born, I want my money due, I works.
Where are the MRAP’s?
It’s Charleston, Riley’s reign isn’t going to do a damn thing except maybe offer them refreshments.
They have no other use for MRAPS, why not deliver refreshments?
How dare someone want a pay raise? Especially minorities. Plus I don’t want to pay an extra 75¢ for my shitty ass Chic-fil-a.
You come across as someone who would prefer Churchs Chicken over Chic-fil-a.
You want a raise, increase your skill level and earn that raise. Nobody said minimum wage was a permanent wage. Most people who start out there don’t stay there for more than a year.
Actually, I prefer Zesto’s. How would fastfood workers making more money adversely affect your life, besides a slight increase in the price of cheap crappy food?
Ah, the chicken white people prefer. If their wages go up, do other peoples wages go up? Do those making $15/hr now get to bump up to $22.50? How would it affect me, would those people who work in warehouses, grocery stores, in manufacturing and transportation all jump to $15/hr? Don’t you think that will increase prices of everything?
You need to look higher in that equation.
Mayor Riley, why are these scofflaws not in jail?
Today, I will abstain from the fast food drive-thru’s that I normally frequent when out and in search of food. I figure there is a good chance I might get a little extra “mayonnaise” or other adulterants in my Big Mac.
I don’t want food that has a higher sperm count than I do.
Let us hope that the SEIU does not do for the fast food industry what the United Auto Workers did for the auto industry and Detroit.
Hmmm, the two most unionized manufacturing industries in the US are the auto industry and the steel industry. Lets compare the state of those industries to the state of the non-unionized textile industry. Which is in better shape?
You know what you get at fast food restaurants when minimum wage goes to $15/hr?
Employees hired gets cuts to cook staff, and maybe one or people up front. Touch screen ordering, and call centers in India placing drive-thru orders. It’d get to the point where buying robotic for cooking and assembly would be cheaper than employees. Japan already has bars that have no bartenders, you punch in what you want on the screen, swipe your credit card, and it delivers your drink to you. It wouldn’t take a genius to program it to build Big Macs.
Unions represent employees through collective bargaining. Unions do not want the minimum wage hike to garner more member. Unions are pushing for a minimum wage hike nationally. President Obama has called for the hike in the midterm election year 2014. Unions stand to benefit from a minimum wage hike simply because their collectively bargained contracts are pegged to the federal minimum wage. Unions can demand higher wages from unionized corporations with a higher minimum wage.
Let’s give them a boost in their bottom line and 1.) end employer withholding of all taxes, 2.) pass down to them the employer contributions to SSI & all insurances (Obamacare got that covered), 3.) no withholding of any union dues and let them pay all of those things directly. They earn more than minimum and have more fringe, but unskilled labour that sees baby daddy only when some other checques are doled out, perhaps needs to go their prodigal ways.
Also don’t see no illegals that don’t mind under the counter sub minimum wage in that picket line on Spring Skreet
These people are disrupting the flow of people that are trying to go to work, pick up kids or maybe people that are trying to go shopping……. Geez, go get a job and work until you get a better job or move up in the job that you have. Quit trying to push your agenda like this….. I can’t stand this type of behavior.
They should be arrested!
the simple answer is that when workers get too scarce or too expensive owners look to automation. Look at farming, auto manufacturing, and other labor intensive endeavours. Robots are building cars, large computerized equipment is doing most farm tasks, and if workers get too expensive, your next fast food meal will come out of an automated kitchen. McD’s is already using call centers to take drive-in orders and dispense change. it does not take much of a leap to imagine computerized automated cooks.
Sure, the Union would love for someone to join and make more money. The more money you make. The bigger the Union’s cut.
If ya homestead ya job then ya homestead the pay.