Bay workers join fight for $15 minimum wage

Hundreds of fast food workers and their supporters in San Francisco and Oakland participated Tuesday in a nationwide action to demand a $15 minimum wage.

Demonstrations kicked off in San Francisco at 6 a.m. today and will continue in Oakland into the evening as part of the Fight for $15 day of action happening in hundreds of cities across the U.S.

Currently, the minimum wage in San Francisco and Oakland is $12.25 per hour. Last Wednesday, Fight for $15 leaders and Service Employees International Union California filed an initiative for the 2016 ballot that would raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 by 2020 and guarantee at least six sick days for all full-time workers, according to SEIU officials.

Early this morning in San Francisco’s Mission District, a group of 250 to 300 workers, peace leaders, and elected officials gathered at the McDonald’s restaurant at 2801 Mission St., demanding that companies respect their right to a minimum wage and defend their fight to live in the city, officials with the nonprofit Causa Justa Just Cause said.

Afterward, the group marched to 16th and Mission streets to call attention to the issue of low wages, higher rents, and increasing displacement and to demand action by elected officials, according to Causa Justa Just Cause.

This afternoon, workers and their supporters planned to gather at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse at 661 Washington St. in Oakland to call on Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley to drop the charges against the “Black Friday 14” protesters who chained themselves to BART trains last year.

The day of action will conclude with a march to Frank H. Ogawa Plaza to join a Fight for $15 rally at 4 p.m.