Fast-food executives are claiming that the protesters who picketed fast-food restaurants nationwide last week were actually paid up to $500 to do so. The National Restaurant Association echoed the claims of the executives saying the strike was orchestrated to generate media attention. This theory comes from the fact that the Union does pay for strikers lost wages and arrest fines. However, all participants of the strike claim they received no monetary incentives.
See "Were Fast-Food Workers Paid to Strike and Protest?", Jana Kasperkevic, The Guardian, September 8, 2014