Fast-food workers to next president: Raise wages to $15

Fast-food workers and labor organizers aim to capitalize on the upcoming presidential debates in Michigan and flex their political might by protesting Thursday — and again on Sunday — to demand employers offer $15-an-hour wages.

"It's to help workers get a decent wage and form a union," Tyrone Stitt, 43, a maintenance employee at a Taco Bell in Flint, said of the protests today. "I feel like the corporations are making billions of dollars off the backs of low-paid workers — and they aren't paying people what they are worth."

The demonstrations — which workers have been staging in metro Detroit for more than two years — are expected to involve hundreds of employees, including Stitt, and emphasize demands for more pay, better working conditions and calls for racial justice, organizers said.

The wage stagnation that's driving the 2016 campaign

Organized with the help of a group calling itself the Fight for $15, the demonstrations are timed to coincide with presidential debates, primaries and caucuses, as the calls for increased wages seem to gather momentum — and move into the political arena.

"Workers have been doing this all over the country," said Kendall Fells, the national organizing director of the Fight for $15 group. "They're saying: I don't care if you are a Democrat or a Republican or you're running for dog catcher or for president. We want $15. We want a union. We want racial equality in this country. And they're going to vote for the candidate who will force those issues, no matter what political party they are from — or what their name is."

The protests — and subtext of racial equity — may especially resonate with voters in Michigan, especially those in Detroit and Flint, as the candidates highlight their different views and sharpen their attacks on each other as they seek the presidency.

Organizers also hope the issue mobilizes people to vote.

A poll commissioned last year by National Employment Law Project found 65% of registered voters who were paid less than $15 an hour would be more likely to vote if there were a candidate on the ballot who supported $15 an hour wages and a union.

Stitt, who said he has been working at Taco Bell for 18 years, said he earns just $8.50 an hour — and that's not a livable wage. He also, he said, is a voter looking for candidates who support raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Workers who walk off the job to participate in the protests will receive some compensation through a fund set up for this purpose, organizers said.

Poll: Trump holds 10-point lead in Michigan GOP primary

On Thursday, GOP candidates Donald Trump, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are set to face off at the Fox Theatre in downtown Detroit.

In Flint, which is in the national spotlight because of the city's water crisis, protesters plan to gather again on Sunday as the Democratic candidates, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, debate at 8 p.m. in Whiting Auditorium.

Michigan's primary is March 8.

Moreover, economists — like the politicians in and running for office — are divided over whether raising the minimum wage would make it harder for low-skilled workers to find employment and whether it would be beneficial to the economy.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have said they back a $12-$15 minimum wage. They also have made a divide between rich and poor a part of their campaigns. Republican contenders have opposed raising the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, saying it will hurt job growth.

A survey done last year for the Employment Policies Institute showed that nearly three-quarters of the economists who responded oppose a federal minimum wage of $15 an hour, and a majority said it would hurt youth and adult employment.

Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have set minimum wages above the $7.25 federal level. Some cities also have set minimum wages above their states' level.

Michigan's minimum wage is $8:50 an hour, up from $8:15 last year. The state minimum wage is set to increase to $8.90 an hour on Jan. 1, 2017, and $9.25 an hour on Jan. 1, 2018. The law allows employers to pay tipped workers and teens  — 16-19 years old  — less.

Workers in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Texas have been trying to make the case for a $15-an-hour minimum wage.

In Detroit, workers have targeted national fast-food restaurants such as McDonald's, Wendy's and Taco Bell. They also have been increasingly timing demonstrations to political events in hopes of sending a clear message to officials in office.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez visited Detroit last August and listened to workers  — some in tears  — tell him how little they earn and why they joined Fight for $15. Perez, along with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and labor groups leaders, spoke passionately about raising wages.

In November — a year before the presidential elections — protesters staged what they described as their biggest-ever strike nationwide, gathering in more than 200 cities and kicking off a campaign coordinated with labor unions that was aimed at pressing candidates to support a $15 wage floor.

Detroit fast-food workers strike for $15-an-hour wage

During that protest, about 200 workers demonstrated outside a west-side McDonald's in Detroit as cold rain fell, and later, about 300 protesters converged on the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center downtown to rally and deliver their message directly to elected officials in Detroit.

"What workers have figured out through the process is that politicians can raise wages for them, and that's a way for them to get $15," Fells said. "A lot of these workers have never voted, never been in the political process, but they realize politicians have the power to change their lives, and they have the the power to move politicians to action."