Two hundred fast-food workers in New York City walked off the counter in a one-day strike last November, in some cases joining picket lines on the sidewalks in front of the restaurants. They were asking employers for a wage they could live on—$15 an hour—along with the right to organize. They walked out again in April, doubling their numbers. Soon, workers in Chicago were walking out. Then Saint Louis. Then Detroit. By May 30, Seattle was the seventh city to join the wave.

Seattle's strike was extraordinarily successful: Rather than employees leaving while the restaurants remained open, at least eight—and as many as 14—restaurants had to shut down completely. Then on August 1, eight people were arrested demonstrating in front of a McDonald's downtown.

If there is a ground-game battle under way in America between the low-wage worker and the corporate fat cat, this is it. Last year, McDonald's reported $5.5 billion in profits; Burger King profited $652 million; and Taco Bell's parent company, which also owns Pizza Hut and KFC, reported a 73 percent growth in profits for a $458 million haul.

If just a fraction of those profits were used to pay better wages, workers could each make thousands of dollars more a year. But in reality, workers say their wages and hours are still too low to cover basic living expenses.

So this week, organizers are supersizing their plans: On Thursday, August 29, they're calling for a national strike of low-wage workers. Specifically, says Caroline Durocher, who was the very first striking worker locally, they are also asking "coffee workers in Seattle to walk off their jobs to demand a fair wage."

Catch that, Emerald City?

They're asking your barista to walk off the job—equating corporate coffee giants like Starbucks (which profited $2 billion last year) to fast-food behemoths like McDonald's, Burger King, and Taco Bell.

There are 33,000 fast-food workers in the Seattle region, according to federal statistics that were mined by pro-labor group Working Washington, which is helping organize the strikes with other labor-backed groups. That number grows when you factor in coffee workers. But the long-range goal is to incorporate low-wage workers from sectors outside the fast-food industry, says Working Washington spokesman Sage Wilson, "and baristas are one of them."

Read our whole fast-food feature on barista wages, their tips, their horror stories, their union backing, and what the companies have to say >>