US fast-food workers help launch PH alliance for higher wages, union rights

By: 10 years ago

Filipina Albina Ardon (second from left) and Moses Brooks (left), fast-food workers visiting from the United States, spoke at the first Respect Fast Food Workers’ Alliance meeting in the Philippines. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

NEW YORK CITY — Fast-food workers from across the Philippines convened in Manila on Monday morning in the first-ever national meeting to launch a Filipino fast-food workers movement for higher pay and union rights in that country.

Dozens of Filipino fast-food workers from all parts of the country, labor leaders, visiting American McDonald’s workers who are leaders of the US fast-food worker movement for higher wages and union rights met Monday, November 17 at Franz Burger on Scout Delgado Street, Bgy. Laging Handa, Quezon City.

Filipina Albina Ardon and Moses Brooks, McDonald’s workers visiting from the United States spoke at the first Respect Fast Food Workers’ Alliance meeting in the Philippines.

The launch of the movement in the Philippines coincides with a visit from American McDonald’s workers who have been at the forefront of the two-year-old fast-food worker movement in the United States for $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation.

Meanwhile, American McDonald’s workers from Chicago have touched down in Buenos Aires, kicking off the South American leg of the Global Fast-Food Worker Tour, which began last week and brought the McDonald’s workers’ demand for fair wages and union rights to Japan, the Philippines, Denmark, Scotland, England and France.