NEW YORK (AP) — Police handcuffed several protesters in New York and Detroit on Thursday as they blocked traffic in the latest attempt to escalate their efforts to get McDonald's, Burger King and other fast-food companies to pay their employees at least $15 an hour. 
 
 The protests, which are planned by labor organizers for about 150 cities nationwide throughout Thursday, are part of the "Fight for $15" campaign. Since the protests began in late 2012, organizers have switched up their tactics every few months. 
 
 Before Thursday's protests, organizers said they planned to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience to draw more attention to the cause. In the past, supporters have showed up at a McDonald's shareholder meeting and held strikes. The idea of civil disobedience arose in July when 1,300 workers held a convention in Chicago. 
 
 The movement, which is backed financially by the Service Employees International Union and others, has gained national attention at a time when the wage gap between the poor and the rich has become a hot political issue. Many fast-food workers do not make much more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which adds up to about $15,000 a year for 40 hours a week. 
 
 President Barack Obama mentioned the campaign earlier this week at a Labor Day appearance in Milwaukee. 
 
 "There's a national movement going on made up of fast food workers organizing to lift wages so they can provide for their families with pride and dignity," Obama said, as he pushed Congress to raise the minimum wage. "If I were busting my butt in the service industry and wanted an honest day's pay for an honest day's work, I'd join a union." 
 
 The National Restaurant Association, on the other hand, said in a statement that the protests are an attempt by unions to "boost their dwindling membership." The industry lobbying group said it hopes organizers will be respectful to customers and workers during the protests. 
 
 Union organizers said they expected hundreds to show up to Thursday's protests around the country. Previously, turnout has been fairly minimal in many places. 
 
 By late Thursday morning, protesters in some cities were standing in front of fast-food restaurants, chanting for higher pay and holding signs in both English and Spanish. 
 
 In New York, at least three people wearing McDonald's uniforms were hauled away by police officers after standing in the middle of a busy street near Times Square. About two dozen protesters were handcuffed in Detroit after they wouldn't move out of a street near a McDonald's restaurant. In Chicago, a couple of buses unloaded a group in front of a McDonald's restaurant, chanting "Stand up. Fight Back," while 100 people crowded on the sidewalk/ 
 
 Prospero Sanchez, who was at the McDonald's in New York, said the $11.50 per hour that he gets making pizzas at a Domino's Pizza restaurant is not enough to support him, his wife and two kids. He has worked at the same restaurant for 14 years, when he made $5 an hour. 
 
 He has asked his bosses for more money. "They said no," Sanchez, 32, said. 
 
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 David Runk in Detroit and Candice Choi in New York contributed to this report. ||||| Detroit ï¿½ Mya Hill watched in dismay as Detroit police handcuffed protesters who blocked traffic on the cityï¿½s east side as part of a day of protests throughout the nation to prod fast-food chains to pay their employees at least $15 an hour. 
 
 The protests, which were planned for about 150 cities nationwide throughout Thursday, are part of the ï¿½Fight for $15ï¿½ campaign. Since the protests began in late 2012, organizers have switched up their tactics every few months. Before Thursdayï¿½s protests, organizers said they planned to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience to draw more attention to the cause. 
 
 Protesters in Detroit had said they planned to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience. 
 
 ï¿½I didnï¿½t see any resistance or reaction by the people who were arrested,ï¿½ said Hill, a protester who lives in Lincoln Park. ï¿½They were put into the back of police cars. I was proud of them for being so brave.ï¿½ 
 
 The movement, which is backed financially by the Service Employees International Union and others, has gained national attention at a time when the wage gap between the poor and the rich has become a hot political issue. Many fast-food workers do not make much more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which adds up to about $15,000 a year for 40 hours a week. 
 
 Hill was one of about 100 protesters who marched through the parking lot of an east-side McDonaldï¿½s on Mack near Moross before dawn on Thursday, shouting slogans and bottling up the drive-thru lane. 
 
 Detroit police ticketed 24 protestors and arrested six others on outstanding traffic warrants. According to the Detroit Police Department, the arrests came about after a group of people abandoned the sidewalk and ended up blocking a lane of Mack. 
 
 According to Sgt. Michael Woody, there were 100 to 125 protesters at the McDonaldï¿½s when police arrived. 
 
 ï¿½The Detroit Police Department recognizes the right for citizens to assemble and protest,ï¿½ Woody said in a statement. ï¿½However, it must be understood that there are still laws as it pertains to protesting. Citizens ... cannot become disorderly, block or impede the movement of other citizens. 
 
 ï¿½Unfortunately, there were several individuals involved in today's protest who did engage in these activities.ï¿½ 
 
 According to Woody, no force was used during any of the arrests and all of the protesters were compliant during the processing phase. 
 
 ï¿½They were in a traffic lane on Mack Avenue and preventing people from getting by,ï¿½ Woody said. ï¿½We told them they had the right to protest as long as they did it on the sidewalk. There was no force used by our officers and no resistance from the protesters.ï¿½ 
 
 According to Woody, protesters quietly complied when told to put their hands behind their backs for cuffing. 
 
 ï¿½People were put into cars and quickly taken from the scene to minimize the emotions of the crowd,ï¿½ he said. 
 
 Deputy Police Chief Steve Dolunt added protesters were given the option to leave before police acted. 
 
 ï¿½But they wouldn't," Dolunt said. "People were trying to get to work and get their kids to school but couldn't get through. The problem was exacerbated by the road construction on Mack." 
 
 The road is currently down to a single lane due to the ongoing construction. 
 
 Hill said she came to the protest with many co-workers in order to secure a $15 an hour minimum wage and the right to form a union. 
 
 ï¿½Iï¿½m asking for a living wage, not a minimum wage,ï¿½ Hill said. ï¿½I have to put gas in my car. I donï¿½t want to have to decide if Iï¿½m going to pay DTE or my rent.ï¿½ 
 
 Hill has worked at a Checkers in Lincoln Park for the past four years. She also works a second job at a dollar store. 
 
 ï¿½I work 13 hours a week at Checkers,ï¿½ said Hill, the mother of a 1 ï¿½ year old son. ï¿½Rather than give us 20 hours a week, they hire more than they need in order to keep the hours down.ï¿½ 
 
 The National Restaurant Association said in a statement that the protests are an attempt by unions to ï¿½boost their dwindling membership.ï¿½ 
 
 In New York on Thursday, at least three people wearing McDonaldï¿½s uniforms were hauled away by police officers after standing in the middle of a busy street near Times Square. 
 
 On Monday, Michigan increased the minimum wage to $8.15, the first in a series of steps that ultimately will boost the stateï¿½s minimum wage 25 percent over four years to $9.25 in 2018. It then will automatically rise annually based on inflation. 
 
 Michigan joined nine other states in approving mandatory wage hikes, and its rate is now the ninth highest in the country. Mondayï¿½s increase marked its first minimum wage hike in seven years. 
 
 Supporters of the measure said the new wage will put more money in the pockets of 1 million Michigan wage earners and help the working poor. Under the new law, the stateï¿½s base hourly wage will rise well above the $7.25 federal rate. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Raise Michigan proposal for $10.10 failed to make the Nov. 4 ballot because the stateï¿½s election board eventually determined it didnï¿½t have enough valid registered-voter signatures. Before its demise, it helped prod the Republican-controlled Legislature ï¿½ joined by many Democrats ï¿½ to raise the minimum wage in four stages. 
 
 Twenty-year-old Kaya Moody of Detroit works at a McDonaldï¿½s elsewhere in the city and just this week had her pay upped to the $8.15 an hour. Moody marched with the others. 
 
 The single mother says $15 an hour ï¿½would mean I could actually provide for my day-to-day expenses.ï¿½ 
 
 Detroit police said they brought in officers usually assigned to school patrol to assist at the protest. 
 
 ï¿½It wasnï¿½t a violent situation,ï¿½ Woody said. ï¿½They had the right to protest, and they made their point very well.ï¿½ ||||| FILE - In this March 17, 2015 file photo, dozens of fast food workers and their supporters protest workplace conditions in front of a McDonald’s restaurant, in New York. Fast-food labor organizers say they’re expanding the scope of their campaign for $15 an hour and unionization, this time with a day of actions including college campuses and workers from other low-wage industries. (Mark Lennihan, File/Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK — Fast-food labor organizers say they’re expanding the scope of their campaign for $15 an hour and unionization, this time with a day of actions including other low-wage workers and demonstrations on college campuses. 
 
 Kendall Fells, organizing director for Fight for $15, said Tuesday the protests will take place April 15 and are planned to include actions on about 170 college campuses, as well as cities around the country and abroad. 
 
 At an event announcing the actions in front of a McDonald’s in New York City’s Times Square, organizers said home health care aides, airport workers, adjunct professors, child care workers and Wal-Mart workers will be among those turning out in April. 
 
 Terrence Wise, a Burger King worker from Kansas City, Missouri, and a national leader for the Fight for $15 push, said more than 2,000 groups including Jobs With Justice and the Center for Popular Democracy will show their support as well. 
 
 “This will be the biggest mobilization America has seen in decades,” Wise said at the rally as pedestrians walked past on the busy street. 
 
 The plans are a continuation of a campaign that began in late 2012. The push is being spearheaded by the Service Employees International Union and has included demonstrations nationwide to build public support for raising pay for fast-food and other low-wage workers, although turnout has varied from city to city. Last May, the campaign reached the doorsteps of McDonald’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois, where protesters were arrested after declining to leave the property ahead of the company’s annual meeting. 
 
 Fells, an SEIU employee, said April 15 was picked for the next day of actions because workers are fighting “for 15.” 
 
 “It’s a little play on words,” he said. 
 
 Fells noted that while the push began as a fast-food worker movement, it has morphed into a broader push for low-wage workers and is now shifting into a social justice movement with the involvement of “Black Lives Matter” activists joining in in the April protests. Still, he said McDonald’s Corp. remained a primary target. 
 
 “McDonald’s needs to come to the table because they could settle this issue,” he said. 
 
 In a statement, McDonald’s said it respects people’s right to peacefully protest, but added that the demonstrations over the past two years have been “organized rallies designed to garner media attention” and that “very few” McDonald’s workers have participated. 
 
 In addition to the ongoing demonstrations, organizers have been working on multiple fronts to make the legal case that McDonald’s Corp. should be held accountable for working conditions at its franchised restaurants. That finding is seen as critical in being able to negotiate with one entity on behalf of workers across the chain, rather than dealing with the thousands of franchisees who operate the majority of McDonald’s more than 14,000 U.S. restaurants. 
 
 McDonald’s and other fast-food chains have maintained that they’re not responsible for hiring and employment decisions at franchised locations. 
 
 One closely watched case addressing the matter began this week, when the National Labor Relations Board began hearings on complaints over alleged labor violations at McDonald’s restaurants. The board’s general counsel had said last year that McDonald’s could be named as a joint employer along with franchisees in the complaints. 
 
 The hearing is scheduled to resume May 26 and is set to be a lengthy legal battle. Whichever side loses is expected to appeal, with the possibility of the case eventually heading to the Supreme Court. 
 
 In a statement, McDonald’s has said the board’s decision to name McDonald’s as a joint employer “improperly strikes at the heart of the franchise system.” 
 
 “The SEIU put a target on McDonald’s back more than two years ago; the Board has now joined in taking aim, and has done so by managing the McDonald’s case in an unprecedented manner,” the statement said. 
 
 Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
– Dozens of protesters have been arrested in at least two cities so far today during nationwide protests seeking $15 an hour for fast-food workers, reports the AP. At least three people in McDonald's work clothes in New York's Times Square and about two dozen demonstrators at a Detroit Mickey D's were handcuffed and taken away because they were blocking traffic, cops say. Protesters in about 150 cities are participating in the Fight for $15 campaign, according to union organizers who planned the event. The current minimum hourly wage in Michigan is $8.15; in New York, it's $8, reports the National Conference of State Legislatures. About 100 protesters—some wearing T-shirts that simply said "$15," as per Mashable—convened in the parking lot of a Detroit McDonald's, spilling out onto a nearby street, where police reportedly asked them to leave, reports the Detroit News. When they wouldn't, the cuffs came out. "They were in a traffic lane … and preventing people from getting by,” one local sergeant says. “There was no force used by our officers and no resistance from the protesters.” Although the National Restaurant Association says unions are just trying to "boost their dwindling membership," protesters say their beef is strictly with not being able to afford to live. A Detroit mom tells the News that she's "asking for a living wage, not a minimum wage—I have to put gas in my car. I don’t want to have to decide if I’m going to pay [the energy bill] or my rent."