First Fast Food Union in the Nation

"Sign at Burger on Hawthorne" by Todd Mecklem

Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

In Portland, employees of fast food chain Burgerville are set to unionize, and it will be the first officially-recognized qsr union in the nation.  The workers have campaigned for over a year--including at least one strike in February of this year--for living wages, affordable health care, and predictable scheduling.  Burgerville is a privately-owned chain with 47 outlets through Washington and Oregon.  The union seeks to address the same concerns that have been at the center of broader, nation-wide discourse and legislative battles around labor practices in the retail and qsr industries, so this may turn out to be a monumental milestone for developments in the years to come.