US fast-food workers demand better pay amid growing violence

A bill making its way through the Senate would set the hourly wage at $15 nationwide, to be enacted over six years

Maria Torres followed eight sprinting co-workers into the kitchen’s walk-in fridge, screaming “Gun!” They locked the door against an armed intruder.

“He was threatening everyone with a gun,” the 58-year-old McDonald’s cook said, recalling that morning last December in the Princeton Park section of Chicago. “He came in very erratic. We couldn’t understand what he was saying.”