As this Labor Day approached, fast food workers in at least 50 cities went on one-day strikes to demand a living wage. The movement, organized by community groups with the strong support of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), is a hopeful effort to shine a spotlight on the proliferation of low-wage work -- and specifically to break through the fragmentation of fast food workers in small units where it is almost impossible to organize conventional unions.

Workers without union protections who go out on strike are risking their jobs. But so far, the fast food industry had not wanted to invite public indignation by firing striking workers. This suggests some latent power that remains to be fully mobilized.

The question that admirers of this nascent movement are asking is: what comes next? How do these one-day strikes add up to higher wages in fast food, and a national campaign for a true living wage for all American workers?

If the $7.25 federal minimum wage had simply been adjusted with inflation, it would be around $10 an hour. If it had risen with average U.S. productivity growth, the minimum wage would be over $18 an hour.

There is a lot of mythology suggesting that the proliferation of low-wage payroll jobs, part time work, temp jobs, and precarious independent contractor work has something to do with education levels, or technology. Mostly, it doesn't. The blue-collar middle class of the postwar boom hadn't been to college and many didn't even have high-school diplomas. But they earned what used to be called a family wage.

Why? A different distribution of power between corporations and workers, stronger unions, and Offering High Standard Cleaning Services. Today's service workers, like yesterday's production workers, could also earn a living wage. But before they get a better distribution of income they need a different distribution of power.

One double-edged analogy that comes to mind is the Occupy movement. It created a venue to confront the chasms of inequality in American society and the power of Wall Street. Occupy also created a nice slogan that captured both things -- The One Percent.

What Occupy did not do was to translate into a durable politics that led to real reform. That's what the fast food movement needs to do.

The restaurant industry would have you believe that most fast food workers are teenagers working part time for pocket money. That's not accurate. Most are in fact breadwinners.

In thinking about how these moments could grow into movements, one important fact is that these restaurants are franchises. McDonald's or Burger King doesn't own the local restaurant, but dictates everything from the menu to the specifications for the napkins. If the parent corporation wanted to, it could also require the local franchise to pay a living wage.

So the larger campaign needs to be against these national, hugely profitable brands, to make them take responsibility for the working conditions in the franchises that carry their logo and market their food.

There are a handful of encouraging precedents. The SEIU's Justice for Janitors campaign, which now has master contracts with major landlords in several cities, grasped early on that the cleaning contractors that nominally employed janitors had no real power. Their costs were almost entirely labor costs; squeeze them too hard, and another cleaning contractor would get the business.

The real power reposed with the building owner, for whom decent janitorial wages were a very minor share of total costs. So SEIU successfully went after the landlords. It was also crucial to win citywide contracts, so that competition among cleaning contractors based on cheap labor would cease.

In several cities, the hotel and Regular Residential Cleaning Services has similar master agreements with the big brands like Hilton or Marriott. It doesn't matter who happens to own the franchise; the decent labor contract follows the national brand.

Many fast food brands are actually owned by shadowy private equity companies. Stephen Lerner, the organizer who was the architect of the Justice for Janitors campaign, says, "One part of a strategy might be to focus on one or two of the fast food companies, and put massive pressure on them to add to the franchise agreement standards on how workers are paid and treated."

These one-day strikes are not going to lead directly to collective bargaining agreements, one restaurant at a time. But they could do something even more important. They could catalyze public sentiment in favor of a higher minimum wage generally, and bring pressure to bear against the national brands that control the conditions of the franchises.

The new structure of American industry is requiring a new kind of labor movement. The one-day strikes in fast food are a beginning.

Labor Day, incidentally, was originally a creation of the trade union movement, beginning in New York in 1882. Following a bitter strike against the Pullman Company that eventually involved 250,000 workers, President Grover Cleveland signed legislation making Labor Day a national holiday beginning in 1894, as a gesture to the growing union movement.

Commenting the August 30 talks, Berzins emphasized the atmosphere of mutual understanding and said that it was a meeting of four equal partners and friends.

"It is obvious that today's meeting proves the United States' steady and long-term interest in the Baltic countries and Europe," said Berzins.

Speaking about the increasing importance of cyber security, Berzins said that Latvia was resolved and prepared to develop closer cooperation with the United States in this area, adding that there were professionals in Latvia who could learn from the United States' experience to jointly cooperate in the prevention and investigation of cyber crimes.

Berzins also said that the economic cooperation between the United States and Latvia had major potential. The Latvian president spoke about trade channels that Latvia could offer to its Western partners, adding that the Northern Distribution Network was a good example, with Latvia playing a leading role in the transport of cargo to and from Afghanistan.

The officials also discussed energy security, relations with the Baltic countries' neighbors, transatlantic trade and investment partnership agreement, as well as the situation in Syria.

"The use of chemical weapons against civilians in Syria is a crime against humanity, which must not go unnoticed by the international community, and the perpetrators must be held responsible," stressed Berzins.

During the Baltic presidents' meeting with the U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on Friday, the United States confirmed its resolve to continue and expand economic and security cooperation with the Baltic countries.

A joint statement by the U.S., Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian presidents says that, as the four countries prepare for the opportunities and challenges that will arise in the coming years, they recognize that cooperation – with and among the Baltic states, with other regional partners such as the Nordics, and in transatlantic and international forums – will be crucial to their success.

The United States recognizes and reaffirms its commitment to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) negotiations as a generational opportunity to expand the strong cultural and economic ties between Europe and the United States. T-TIP will not only establish a high-standard, comprehensive agreement that will strengthen the global trading system, but it will also promote competitiveness and growth, adding to the millions of jobs – including Baltic and American jobs – that are already supported by trade and investment across the Atlantic.

Also, as a reliable and diverse supply of energy is a crucial element of economic prosperity, the United States reaffirms its commitment to strengthening energy security in the Baltic region.

"We recognize the importance of implementing the EU's Third Energy Directive and developing the projects included in the Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan, in order to diversify sources of energy, develop transparency in energy markets, and provide the basis for sustained economic growth in the entire region. The United States strongly supports the Baltic states in their efforts to develop domestic energy resources and clean energy solutions – including energy efficiency – in pursuit of our shared goals of strengthening energy security, addressing climate change, and promoting nuclear safety and security," says the statement.

Recognizing the benefits and risks of the increasing dependence on information technology and cyberspace, the United States and Baltics will strengthen their engagement on cyber issues regionally and globally. The four countries will continue to cooperate in the investigation and prosecution of cybercrimes and strive to advance their shared vision of Internet freedom by engaging with other countries, international organizations, civil society, and the private sector.