Joe Jarosz
Northeast News
Sept. 4, 2014

To the far right, Andrew McConnell leads protestors in chants and song while some members of the group participate in civil disobedience and sit on the off-ramp for I-70.
To the far right, Andrew McConnell leads protestors in chants and song while some members of the group participate in civil disobedience and sit on the off-ramp for I-70.

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Thursday’s lunch rush outside a Northeast McDonald’s came to a screeching halt.

Nearly 200 protestors from various fast food chains including McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Papa John’s, Pizza Hut and Wendy’s gathered outside of McDonald’s, 1421 Prospect Ave., as part of a local and national effort to push the companies to pay their employees at least $15 an hour. The current minimum wage in Missouri is $7.50 an hour – 25 cents more than the federal minimum wage. Earlier this year, a state Senate committee advanced legislation that could raise Missouri’s minimum wage to $10 an hour in 2015.

From noon until about 1 p.m., Kansas City, Mo., police closed Prospect Avenue between 14th Street and Truman Road, as well as Interstate 70 ramps, as protestors flooded the streets. Around 30 protestors were arrested because they sat on the pavement for the highway off-ramp at the corner of 14th Street and Prospect Avenue. Sgt. Kari Thompson said the protestors were arrested for blocking traffic.

Andrew McConnell, who works at a McDonald’s in Kansas City, Kan. and was one of the more vocal activists at the protest, said they knew that arrests were a possibility. They didn’t care though, he added. McConnell was with the group Stand Up KC, a local faction participating in the nation-wide protest. McConnell at various times led the protestors in song and chants, including “No more Big Macs, no more fries, make our wages super-size” and “We are worth more.”