With a boost in morale from recent victories in California, Pennsylvania and New York, local fast food workers active with the Fight for $15 movement are planning on walking out on their jobs Thursday to draw attention to their plight.
While the Fight for $15 movement is typically associated with fast food workers, in recent years it has included certified nurses' assistants, child care workers, adjunct college instructors and others. Many such workers will take part in Thursday's action in other ways.
At 6 a.m., some fast food workers plan to commence a labor strike in which they will walk out of their respective places of employ to join a picket line demanding a $15 an hour minimum wage as well as better treatment in general.
As with past events of a similar nature, the hope is to steer political leadership's will favorably toward their cause.
"American families are being forced to scrape by because big corporations are ripping off workers, ripping off taxpayers, and ripping off communities," reads a media release heralding the event. "To get richer and richer, big corporations manipulate the rules to avoid paying fair wages and their fair share of taxes, forcing working people and taxpayers to foot the bill."
At noon, they'll join home care and child care workers as well as other low-wage earners who struggle to make ends meet for a town hall-style event at 1505 N Nebraska Ave.
Public officials will also attend, including Tampa City Council members Guido Maniscalco and Lisa Montelione.
Related actions are expected to occur nationwide.
The biggest action takes place in Orlando at the McDonald's off of International Drive, which is deemed the world's biggest McDonald's.
Activists hope to persuade that store's management to reconsider worker wages in the hope to cause a ripple effect within the fast food giant when it comes to worker pay.
"If they change their ways, the idea is that the industry will follow," said Fight for $15 organizer Kelly Benjamin.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2016.