NEW YORK -- Fast-food protests are planned for several U.S. cities, including Oakland, on Tuesday as labor organizers look to bring attention to practices they say illegally deprive workers of their wages.

The protests are planned for about 30 cities, but it's not clear what the scope of the turnout will be. It's part of an ongoing push by labor groups to build support for pay of $15 an hour and the right to unionize.

Organizers have also been referring workers to attorneys, who filed lawsuits in three states last week saying McDonald's was stealing their wages.


(FILES) Demonstrators march outside a McDonald&#8217;s restaurant near New York&#8217;s Times Square as part of a nationwide protest of fast food workers

The protests by labor groups since late 2012 have captured national media attention and served as an important backdrop for President Obama's push to lift workers' wages. The White House wants to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, or about $21,000 a year for full-time work. That's up from the current pay of $7.25 an hour, or $15,000 a year, which was last raised in 2009.



"The lawsuits that were filed last week put McDonald's on notice that fast food workers are aware that they're getting their money stolen," said Kendall Fells, who works for the Service Employees International Union but said he was "on loan" to the campaign for higher wages.

Fells said the actions would target McDonald's restaurants, although fast-food workers from across the industry would participate.

The lawsuits filed in California, Michigan and New York against McDonald's detail a variety of "wage theft" allegations. In Michigan, for example, workers said they were made to wait before clocking in for their shifts so restaurants could maintain a target ratio of labor costs as a percentage of revenue. The suit describes a detailed monitoring system by McDonald's that closely tracks such metrics at its more than 14,000 restaurants in the U.S.

While such practices are widespread across the industry, lawyers said they targeted McDonald's because of its size and position as an industry leader.



For Tuesday, organizers have scheduled protests in cities including Detroit; Memphis, Tenn.; Milwaukee; and Oakland.

Brendan Brosh, a spokesman for James' office, said the New York City public advocate plans to propose legislation that would establish a hotline where workers could anonymously report actions that amount to wage theft. The legislation would also give city agencies expanded authorities to investigate wage theft, he said.

Brosh said James will also call on McDonald's to amend its franchise agreements to "punish franchisees that engage in wage theft."