CHICAGO — Protesters gathered outside of a McDonald's restaurant Wednesday morning, pushing for an increase in their hourly wages to $15, one of a number of gatherings throughout the country.
Organizers expect to bring together 60,000 protesters in major cities across America and in more than 40 countries, as well as at more than 170 college campuses, including later Wednesday at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"People over the country are supporting us," Douglas Hunter, a McDonald's worker, said outside a McDonald's at Chicago and Laramie avenues. "We will win together."
Demonstrators carried signs reading, "Poverty jobs hold Chicago back" and "Lucha por $15," Spanish for "Fight for $15."
Maxx Boykin, lead organizer of Black Youth Project 100, said racial justice is economic justice.
"I have family and friends who have struggled with low wage jobs," he said.
The protests are a continuation of a campaign that began in late 2012.
The push is being led by the Service Employees International Union and has seen marches nationwide to build public support for raising pay for fast-food and other low-wage workers, although turnout has varied.
Last year, the campaign reached the entrance gate of McDonald's headquarters in Oak Brook before protesters were arrested after refusing to leave the property a day before the company's annual meeting.