‘I cannot survive on $260 a week’: US retail and fast-food workers strike

theguardian.com:

Workers in America’s fast-food and retail sectors who worked on the frontlines through the dangers of the Covid-19 pandemic are continuing a trend of strikes and protests over low wages, safety concerns and sexual harassment issues on the job.

The Covid-19 pandemic has incited a resurgence of interest and support for the US labor movement and for low-wage workers who bore the brunt of Covid-19 risks.

The unrest also comes as corporations have often reported record profits and showered executives with pay increases, stock buybacks and bonuses, while workers received minimal pay increases. Workers at billion-dollar corporations from Dollar General to McDonald’s still make on average less than $15 an hour while often being forced to work in unsafe, grueling conditions.

On 2 May, Dollar General workers at a store in Marion, North Carolina, walked off the job over low wages.

Ashley Sierra has worked at Dollar General for two years and makes just $11 an hour, while only receiving part-time hours. A mother of three, she relies on family members to barely make ends meet. “My weekly paycheck is no more than $200, $260 at the max. I have three children, I cannot survive on $260 a week, it’s just not working. It needs to get upped to at least $15 an hour, the bottom is $15, because we work so hard for so little,” said Sierra.

Dollar General reported a profit of $3.2bn and their CEO was paid over $16.4m in 2021, 986 times the median pay of the company’s workers.

Sierra said the store was often understaffed and overstocked with items that block aisles, and that she feared for her safety over potential robberies and theft when she and just one other co-worker are working the entire store.

Dollar General did not comment on the company’s low