CUP: Store

Talking Trash: Throwing Out the Big Apple

City Studies

Happy Meals?

Fast food chains are all over New York City, and they employ thousands of workers. Is this large workforce being treated fairly? What rights do fast food restaurant workers have? What rights do they want?

In the spring of 2014, Mrs. Harrington and Mr. Moody’s ESL classes worked with teaching artist Chelsea Wagner at the Academy of Urban Planning in Bushwick to find out. Students took a field trip to restaurant chains in the neighborhood and interviewed a community organizer and a fast food worker. They created this not-so-happy meal box explaining wage rights on one side, and the right to unionize on the other.