Tlaib, El-Sayed among those arrested during fast-food workers rally in Detroit
On Tuesday, hundreds of fast-food workers from McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendy’s gathered in Detroit to push for a $15 minimum wage and the right to union representation - blocking several lanes of traffic - and resulting in 18 people, including Rashida Tlaib, former state representative who is running for a U.S. House seat, and Abdul El-Sayed, former Democratic candidate for governor, being arrested by Detroit police for disrupting the peace. At a similar protest earlier in the day in Flint, Michigan, eight people were injured when a pickup truck plowed into the protesting workers; Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer and Flint Mayor Karen Weaver were in attendance but were unhurt. Similar protests in favor of wage increases for fast food workers are expected later this week in Chicago and Milwaukee, amongst other cities; McDonald's recently experienced large-scale walkouts protesting sexual harassment. The fast food worker protests adds to the increasing labor unrest in Michigan. On Sept. 17, University of Michigan nurses voted in favor of a three-day work stoppage to protest "…continuous violations of their workplace rights." Two days later, 98 percent of the 160 housekeepers, servers, cooks and door attendants at the Westin Book Cadillac Detroit hotel voted in favor of a strike. Last but not least, more than 160 road projects in Michigan came to a halt for nearly four weeks after heavy equipment operators stopped working.
See "Tlaib, El-Sayed among those arrested during fast-food workers rally in Detroit", Annalise Frank, Crain's Detroit Business, October 2, 2018