Hundreds of O’Hare Airport workers to strike next week as part of Fight for $15 protests

CHICAGO — Hundreds of workers at Chicago O’Hare International Airport will strike Tuesday, Nov. 29, after the Thanksgiving holiday rush, as part of a nationwide day of protests the Fight for $15 movement is calling its largest and most disruptive yet.

The Fight for $15 asserted Monday that after the election of Donald Trump to the White House it “won’t back down” from opposing a presidency it perceives as threatening an “extremist agenda to move the country to the right.”

The campaign announced protests at 20 airports and acts of mass civil disobedience at McDonald’s restaurants in 340 cities, and said it expects “tens of thousands” of people to participate.

Airport and fast-food workers will be joined by child care workers, home care workers and graduate assistants, who have joined the movement to raise wages.

In addition to demanding a $15 minimum wage and union rights, the campaign said it will keep up “unrelenting opposition” to efforts to “block wage increases, gut workers’ rights or health care, deport immigrants, or support racism or racist policies.”

“On Nov. 8 our fight got tougher, but it only recommits our resolve,” Kendall Fells, organizing director with the campaign, said in a conference call with reporters.

The protests are taking place on the fourth anniversary of the Fight for $15’s first major protests at McDonald’s restaurants in New York, avoiding the busiest Thanksgiving travel days.

The protests are scheduled to begin at 6 a.m. with strikes at McDonald’s restaurants. The airport protests are to start at noon.

O’Hare is the only airport where workers are going on strike. About 500 O’Hare workers — who include baggage handlers, cabin cleaners, janitors and wheelchair attendants — committed to a strike after a vote Thursday. They are employed by private contractors.