Protesters from Tampa Bay traveled to Miami Thursday to ride the wave of media attention surrounding the GOP debates.
A coalition of grassroots organizations took the trip together on a bus sponsored by Fight For $15 Florida. That group represents a union-backed effort to convince political leaders to raise the minimum wage (and inspire low-income earners to vote for ones that support doing so).
The protest included several stops at area fast food franchises and culminated with a march and protest against major Republican presidential candidates' position on the minimum wage, namely that there shouldn't be one.
The Fight for $15 umbrella encompasses fast food, childcare, and home care workers, many of whom struggle to meet their basic needs on $8.05 and hour, Florida's minimum wage, and often have to rely on government assistance.
Other groups joined as the night progressed, including Florida NextGen Climate, 1 Million Puerto Ricans for Health Care. Clusters of University of Miami students holding Sharpie-scrawled signs sporting phrases like “F*ck the GOP” and “Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer.”
Nadaije Paul Jajoute, 39, was one of the supporters for Fight For $15 that made the trip across Alligator Alley. She is
a childcare worker making $9.50 an hour working at an after-school program for the Hillsborough County School System. She currently lives with a friend after sleeping in her car since 2013 when she was locked out of a homeless shelter for staying late for math tutoring at Hillsborough Community College, she told CL.
Jajoute’s low wages have her stuck in the middle, she said.
She says she cannot get an apartment since her income is not three times the monthly rent that is required, does not qualify for income-based housing in Hillsborough since she does not make $21,000 a year, has been on the waiting list for Section 8 housing for three years and yet makes too much money to qualify for food stamps.
“To raise the wage five cents, ten cents, 45 cents every couple of years is an insult. It is not even keeping up with the cost of living,” said Jaijoute. “Now, $15, that is a conversation, we can start there.”
The Fight For $15 organization estimates that 64 million Americans and four million Floridians are struggling to get by being paid a wage under $15. The group began campaigning for higher wages after
strikes of fast food workers in New York City in 2012.
The organization has a dozen employees in Tampa Bay and has been actively protesting since 2013, including a February trip to the State Capital in Tallahassee. Organizers have been planning the Miami rally for the last month. This is not the first time Fight for $15 has rallied outside the GOP debates. According to the event organizers, the goal is to facilitate a peaceful march while making their demands clear to the candidates.
“We are not here to endorse any particular candidate,” said a Fight for $15 organizer that declined to give a name, “we will support any candidate that supports us.”
The group shouted popular protest slogans throughout the event, such as, “You want our vote?, Come get our vote!”
Bleu Rainer, 27, is a Checkers employee and Fight for $15 spokesman who shares a home with a family of six on Hillsborough Avenue and pays rent, rides the bus, and pays for food on $8.05 an hour.
He claims to be a victim of wage theft, and said he was forced into clocking out early so his employer doesn't have to pay him overtime. Rainer is often burned while being working long shifts, he said received backlash from a former employer, another fast food chain, after started participating in strikes and protests in 2014.
"I am not worried about retaliation, this is something we have to do," said Rainer, "I am fighting for future generations."
This article appears in Mar 10-16, 2016.