Protesters across the country on Wednesday called for pay of $15 an hour and a union for fast-food and other low-wage workersQuotes: "When future scholars come to write the story of our times, the Fightfor15 movement may well turn out to be historic. The spirited demonstrations around the country seem to be part of a process of a labor movement that is reinventing itself to meet the challenges of a radically new economy -- and a paralyzed government," says Nancy MacLean, a professor of history and public policy at Duke University."The campaign to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour is occurring against a backdrop of 40 years of falling real wages for millions of Americans. As the middle class has been hollowed out by economic restructuring and changes in public policy, more and more working families are finding they just cannot make ends meet and keep body and soul together on what they are paid," adds MacLean, president of the Labor and Working Class History Association.""As a historian of the 20th century United States whose focus is on political economy and labor history, I have been struck by how this Fightfor15 campaign is leading some of the wage-earners who face the toughest conditions to find their voices and call out for help. Fast food workers, home health care aides, early childhood educators and others are bringing attention to desperate situations that Washington, D.C., is too gridlocked to fix."Bio:Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe Professor of History and Public PolicyMacLean’s scholarship focuses on the role of social movements in changing American culture and public policy, with particular focus on the 20th century and on the roles of class, gender, race, and region in shaping these movements and determining their outcomes.http://sanford.duke.edu/people/faculty/maclean-nancyFor additional comment, contact MacLean at:nancy.maclean@duke.edu
