The largest fast-food strike to date

>>> civil rights hero congressman john lewis who yesterday helped commemorate the 50th anniversary of the march on washington for jobs and freedom was back in atlanta today and there he reportedly saw on televisions strikes outside fast food restaurants across the country. john lewis then went and joined one of those picket lines in atlanta.

>> i do not understand how people survive.

>> right.

>> when they're --

>> yes, sir.

>> in a country like ours, we can do much better. sometimes we're too quiet.

>> you're right.

>> sometime you have to find a way to make a way out of no way. sometimes you have to find a way to get in the way.

>> to find a way to get in the way. the average employee at a fast food restaurant in this country makes $8.94 per hour. we talked about repeatedly on this show, spoken with workers here in this studio, they tell us that is not enough. today an industry that had never been faced a large-scale strike had its workers walk out in 6 o cities in 1,000 stores across the country. the largest such strike of its kind. these workers are demanding a raise to $15 an hour and right to unionize. from new york to los angeles , marking the first time for fast food workers to protest there, to seattle, to boston, to milwaukee, to wilmington, to detroit, to charlotte, the largest city in a right-to-work tate in the south. today's demonstrations are an indication of just how the movement has grown over the last several months. a first week on this show, we covered a one-day fast food worker strike then being called the biggest job action ever in that industry. then last month, more than 2,000 fast food workers went on strike in seven cities including chicago, st. louis, kansas city , missouri, flint, michigan, new york, milwaukee, detroit. not only has the movement grown, but it has captured the national imagination.

>> $15 an hour. what do they think, those arches are made of gold?

>> earl eaier today we reached out to several companies to see if they had anything to say. i'd very much like to discuss the issue with the representative of any of them. less than a handful responded. mcdonald 's issued a statement. " mcdonald 's aims to offer competitive pay and benefits to our employees. it will be business as usual for us." folks at burger king told us their restaurants provided an entry point into the workforce for millions of americans during this time. customer service and quality will remain a top priority in all burger king restaurants." the statement by wendy's, downright passive/aggressive. they're proud to provide a place for thousands of people who come to us asking for a job can enter the workforce at a starting wage, gain skills and advance with us or move on to something else." company line here seems to be the fast food industry is a fwaetway of opportunity for young people looking to get ahead. the reality is something quite different. the fast food industry not made up of a bunch of teenagers looking to earn extra spending money for the summer. average age is 35. a third of them h are 40 years old. a third of them are women. 55% of fast food workers, it's their full-time job. joining me, jan schakowsky , from illinois. congresswoman, who is a woman of congress doing joining a strike like this?

>> well, this gets to the heart of our economic problem in this country which is income inequality . yes, those arches are made of gold for people like ceo donald thompson who makes over $13.7 million in his pay package last year. but i met fast food workers today at mcdonald 's who have been working there for a decade and still making $8.50 an hour. you an not live on that kind of wage, and they end up turning to the government for support, so we end up subsidizing donald thompson and the profits that mcdonald 's.

>> what do you say to the people watching this and saying, look, this is between the employees of mcdonald 's and their employer? this is a private market encounter that happens between people seeking work and those who are looking to hire folks, and it's not really any of your business, respectfully, congresswoman, what they pay their workers.

>> look, this is an entire industry that is paying poverty wages in this country, and thousands and tens of thousands, maybe millions of people who simply can't make it on those kinds of wages, and i think that forming a union, getting $15 an hour, which makes a modest income of about $31,000 a year, if you get to work full time , is something that is a proper demand. and actually these workers are acting -- are going to the employers, are going to these companies. i'm standing with them because i think we need it for our economy. if they got paid more, we're going to see millions of jobs created because there are going to be consumers in the marketplace.

>> you're going to go back to washington. in session in a week. what can you do as a member of congress to help them?

>> there's a couple of things. the president has called for a $9 minimum wage . we have a bill in congress that george miller has introduced. congressman miller. $10.10 an hour. and in fact, the president could with an executive order do something about the low-wage workers, 2 million of them, that are contract workers for the federal government . that would be a good start.

>> so the president can actually sign an executive order that would mandate a living wage or higher wage for those workers who happen to be working for private firms contracting to the federal government . mcdonald 's, for example, on army bases and federal facilities. he could do that with the stroke of a pen?

>> that would be, i think, a very good signal that we don't think those poverty wages that are paid to millions and millions of workers across the country are good for our economy and certainly not food for those families.

>> congresswoman jan schakowsky of the great state of illinois . thank you so much.

>> thank you.

>>> fox news host bill o 'reilly gets caught lying about republicans being barred from the march on washington yesterday, and the truth is way better than the lie. i'll tell you what actually happened, next. but