Eat you heart out, Charles Dickens...

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"A woman who has been employed by the McDonald's Corporation for over 10 years says she was arrested last week after she confronted the company president at a meeting and told him she couldn't afford to buy shoes or food for her children.

     Nancy Salgado, 26, told The Real News that she felt like she had to speak out during McDonald’s USA President Jeff Stratton's speech at the Union League Club of Chicago on Friday for the sake of her children.
     'It's really hard for me to feed my two kids and struggle day to day,' she shouted as Stratton was speaking. 'Do you think this is fair, that I have to be making $8.25 when I've worked for McDonald's for ten years?'
     'I've been there for forty years,' Stratton replied from the podium.
     'The thing is that I need a raise. But you're not helping your employees. How is this possible?' Salgado asked.
     At that point, someone approached Salgado and informed her that she was going to be arrested."
— Crooks & Liars
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"[…] Chattel slavery has been abolished in most countries, whereas wage slavery still exists across the globe. Regulations and legislation has changed the atmosphere of wage slavery, work conditions have improved, compensation has become regulated, and education affects the status of the slaves. But they are all bound to their employer in some fashion.
     In the early years of the Industrial Revolution, wage slavery was as cruel, demeaning, and difficult as most chattel slaves were used to. As freedmen left their masters in search of the American Dream, they soon realized life wasn't that easy. They became bound to their landlords and shopkeepers through debt peonage. Each year crop prices fell and the cost of running a farm increased. Farmers had to buy materials, equipment, and supplies on credit just to get the planting season going. Credit prices were as much as 60% higher than cash prices, and shops were usually owned and run by the landowners. This kept these freemen in almost the exact same position as they were in during slavery.
     Wage slavery hasn't been limited to southern states. The northern industrialist had their ways as well; especially in the mining, lumber, and factory sectors. There were limited regulations on working conditions, compensation, and working hours. Laborers often worked long hours, 10-15 a day; and regularly involved young children. As Big Business grew, the control workers had over their conditions shrank. They became replaceable."
— Stefany Smith, Yahoo! Voices
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Contact Jeff Stratton here...