Why Iowa fast-food workers are going on strike

When I emigrated from Guanajuato, Mexico, to Des Moines 23 years ago, I was searching for the American dream.

My husband had just moved to Des Moines, and I met him here with our 1-year-old son. I took out a loan to make the trip, but I didn’t think twice — I knew the opportunities in America would be worth it.

Today, those opportunities seem almost completely out of reach. And now, more than two decades after taking the biggest leap of my life in moving to America, I have no choice but to take another risk to support my family: I’m going on strike.

For 17 years, I’ve been working as a cook at a McDonald’s in Des Moines. When I first started I was paid $6.50 an hour; now I am paid $9.90 an hour, which management tells me is the highest they can pay.

There are no benefits, such as health insurance, or vacation days to compensate me for hours spent over piping hot grills and bubbling oil. My family has grown  —  I now have three children and one grandchild, and the bills add up quickly. I am diagnosed with a chronic medical condition that requires constant medicine, but due to the lack of insurance I’m forced to pay out of pocket.

Sometimes if money is too tight, I decide I’d rather see my grandchild fed and I go without my medicine. My car is broken, but I simply can’t afford to get it fixed. I have to cut corners on every expense, even though McDonald’s make billions in profits thanks to its workers like me.

I can’t wait any longer for McDonald’s to pay its workers fairly, and I know the only way things will change is if I speak out. And so on Thursday morning, I will walk off the job with many of my McDonald’s colleagues — and we’ll be joined by workers from Wendy's, Burger King, Long John Silver’s and other chains — to demand $15 an hour and union rights. It will be the first-ever strike by fast-food workers in Iowa.

I first heard about the Fight for $15 campaign from my coworkers. This movement has proven that workers like me can change things: In New York fast-food workers won $15 an hour, and Los Angeles, SeaTac, San Francisco and Seattle have all raised their minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The Fight for $15 has also helped me realize that I’m not alone: almost half (48 percent) of all Iowa workers make less than $15 an hour. I am nervous to walk off the job, but it is also empowering to join with other underpaid workers who are coming together this year to finally make a change.

2016 is not just the first time I’m going on strike — it’s also an election year, and for the first time I feel like my voice matters. Since moving to the U.S., I’ve felt so invisible that I never bothered to vote in any election. Politicians didn’t talk about the things that mattered to me, like raising the wage or union rights. I believed companies and politicians alike were blind to my day-to-day struggles.

Not this year. For the first time, I’m going to the polls to support candidates who stand with workers fighting for $15 an hour and union rights. And I’m bringing my co-workers, friends, and family, too. The “Fight for $15” has proven to me that when workers like me band together and speak out, we can achieve life-changing victories. I know that we can win, and we will throw our full strength behind the candidate who believes that $15 an hour and union rights shouldn’t be some distant, unattainable dream, but a fundamental and basic part of being an American.

Angelica Serrano lives in Des Moines. For more information, see Fightfor15.org