To: CEOs McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut

NYC Fast Food Workers Strike

I stand with the fast food workers of New York City who walked out to ask for $15 an hour and the right to form a union. I believe that, here in America, everyone who works hard should be able to afford basic necessities like groceries, rent, and transportation for themselves and their families. Supporting your employees and their families with living wages is a critical contribution to achieving this vision.

Why is this important?

Last week, I met Alvin Turner and Baxter Leach, two of the Memphis sanitation workers who went on strike with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, just before his assassination.

They were fighting for the same things that we still are today: fair wages, safe workplaces, and a chance to raise their families with dignity. Forty-five years later, things haven't changed, and fast-food workers in New York City are taking up the call to action.

Fast-food workers today are being paid poverty-level wages that barely cover a quarter of what we need to live, forcing many good workers to rely on food stamps and other public assistance. And it's not just the workers who are paying the price—our communities and local businesses are suffering, too. Enough is enough.

This week, fast-food workers will rally in New York City's Harlem neighborhood to take a stand for our dignity as workers—and to help lift our entire economy. We're demanding $15 an hour and the right to form a union without intimidation. The Memphis strikers showed us that there is nothing to fear in standing up for what's right and ensuring we won't be ignored any longer.

Join us in demanding better wages for fast-food workers, to cover their basic needs and lift up our entire economy.

Remember, as Memphis striker Alvin Turner said: "In order to win, you have to stand up and be counted."

The civil rights struggle isn't over, and we cannot allow a $200 billion industry to pay workers so little that they must rely on food stamps or live in homeless shelters. Together, we can put money in the hands of workers and lift our entire economy as we work to rebuild the American Dream. Join us to say we won't stand for inequity.

Please sign this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Thank you for standing with us!

–Joseph Barrera, Kentucky Fried Chicken worker, Brooklyn