MLK Jr. Death Tied To McDonald’s Strike By Fasting For Higher Minimum Wage

The MLK Jr. death anniversary was purposefully tied to the McDonald’s strike that occurred today. Some of the New York City fast food workers went on a hunger strike by fasting.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the MLK Jr. death anniversary is being remembering 45 years later today. At the same time, the McDonald’s strike in New York City is demanding $15 an hour for fast food jobs.

The McDonald’s strike is joined by other minimum wage wage workers at Burger King, KFC, Domino’s Pizza, and others. Fast food workers purposefully planned their strike to coincide with the anniversary of the MLK Jr. death. The McDonald’s strike is supported by several groups, including Fast Food Forward, New York Communities for Change, UnitedNY.org, the Black Institute, the Service Employees International Union, and local clergy.

The MLK Jr. death occurred while Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was supporting a sanitation workers strike in Memphis. The 1,300 sanitation workers who walked off their jobs in February 1968 eventually received higher pay and safer working conditions.

Protester Jonathan Westin, executive director of New York Communities for Change, explained to reporters why the MLK Jr. death anniversary should be tied to the McDonald’s strike:

“We believe that it’s a continuation of a civil rights fight against low wages and for Martin Luther King’s movement to win dignity and living-wage jobs.”

Minister Kirsten John Foy, a civil rights activist at the National Action Network in Brooklyn, says it should be shaming that the MLK Jr. death would be marked by a McDonald’s strike:

“To think that in 2013 we’re having the same discussion about gaining a respectable wage and the right to organize as we had in 1968 is ludicrous.”

What do you think about the MLK Jr. death purposefully being tied to the McDonald’s strike in order to make a political statement?