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"FORTUNE &amp;#8212; The fast-food protests are going global! The news was trumpeted all over the Internet last week as the workers and organizations behind strikes targeting the low wages and stingy benefits doled out by employers like McDonald\u2019s \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMCD\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t, Wendy\u2019s \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWEN\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t, and Burger King \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBKW\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t announced that their next moves would cross America\u2019s borders into more than 30 countries spanning six continents.\nThe workers\u2019 global campaign grabbed plenty of attention, but the strategy itself isn\u2019t new.\n\u201CThere is certainly precedent,\u201D says Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.\nTo determine the origins of this approach, you have to take a trip back to the 1800s, when workers in Britain and India jointly protested the way the East India Company (yes, of the Boston Tea Party) treated its Indian workers, Bronfenbrenner says.\nToday, people may remember the solidarity U.S. miners showed in the late 1980s as mine workers in South Africa protested the country\u2019s apartheid system. Those efforts in the U.S. included boycotts of companies that did big business in South Africa, like Royal Dutch Shell \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRDSA\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t.\nMORE: Europe revives an old, ugly tradition: Expulsion\nWhat might count as the biggest-ever global strike came a few years later, in the mid-1990s, when workers from the United Steelworkers Association protested proposed changes that tire maker Bridgestone/Firestone had made to a labor contract. Workers staged a nearly 12-month campaign against the company that reached 86 countries and even saw foreign workers visit the United States to lend their support.\nLabor groups have used multi-national protest tactics in recent years, such as the 20-year Justice for Janitors campaign by the Service Employees International Union &amp;#8212; one of the organizations that have supported the fast food workers &amp;#8212; which has reached custodians in Canada.\nFast-food workers plan to strike in 150 cities on Thursday, including 33 international sites. There\u2019s a protest planned at a Burger King in Germany, strikes are set for fast-food restaurants in Venice, Milan, and Rome. And a demonstration will take place at a Buenos Aires McDonald&amp;#8217;s. There are flash mobs planned at five McDonald\u2019s in the Philippines. Workers in U.S. cities will strike on Thursday as well, including first-time walkouts in Philadelphia, Sacramento, Miami, and Orlando.\n\u201CThe Fight for 15 in the U.S. has caught the attention of workers around the world in a global fast-food industry where workers have recently been mobilizing,\u201D says Ron Oswald, general secretary of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco, and Allied Workers\u2019 Association &amp;#8212; a group that\u2019s helping to organize the protests.\nThe global worker protest isn\u2019t a new idea, but is it an effective one?\nActually, yes, says Bronfenbrenner, namely because workers in foreign countries are more likely to protest working conditions than Americans. \u201CGlobal protests aren\u2019t easy, but they\u2019re easier to pull off than nationwide strikes in the U.S. Places in South America or South Africa have a greater tradition of striking in solidarity than we do.\u201D\nMORE: Pfizer admits to potential job losses in AstraZeneca takeover\nGlobal strikes and boycotts are especially effective if they target regions where a company wants to grow. \u201CIt\u2019s all about researching companies and understanding where their growth and profit is,\u201D Bronfenbrenner says. \u201CIf [workers] can pull [protests] off in those countries, it\u2019s more significant.\u201D\nFor what it\u2019s worth, McDonald\u2019s said in its latest earnings call in late April that it saw growth opportunities in the United Kingdom, Russia, France, and China. Fast-food workers haven\u2019t planned any strikes in Russia, France, or China, but protests are planned at McDonald\u2019s restaurants in 20 cities in the U.K.\n\u201CThere\u2019s no magic bullet,\u201D Bronfenbrenner says, but a global movement helps \u201Cshow the company that it\u2019s bigger than just one country, and that they\u2019re going to have to deal with workers everywhere.\u201D"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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