Roughly 1,300 fast food workers are expected to attend a national convention over the weekend in suburban Chicago, where they will discuss their future efforts to unionize and demand high higher wages.

Kendall Fells, a Service Employees International Union representative, said the workers will be asked to do "whatever it takes" on Friday and Saturday to raise minimum wages to $15-an-hour and organize a union, Fox News reported.

"We want to talk about building leadership, power and doing whatever it takes depending on what city they're in and what the moment calls for," said Fells, an organizing director of the national movement.

The service workers union has supported the fast-food protests and strikes since the movement began in New York City in late 2012 by providing funding and organizing events. Fells said future plans would be "more high profile" as demonstrations are expected to involve more instances of civil disobedience.

One demonstration resulted in the arrest of more than 130 protesters outside of the McDonald's Corp. shareholder meeting earlier this year.

"I personally think we need to get more workers involved and shut businesses down until they listen to us," said Cherri Delisline, a 27-year-old single mother who has worked at McDonald's for 10 years.

Recent efforts by President Barack Obama's administration have pushed to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from $7.25 an hour. The current minimum wage amounts to roughly $15,000 annually for a person working 40 hours a week.

However, fast food workers and advocates for the minimum wage hike argued that $10.10 isn't enough to provide for most of the workers in the industry who have families and children to provide for.

Delisline, who earns $7.35 an hour, said she and her four daughters live with her mother in Charleston, South Carolina, but still have trouble affording to pay the utilities, mortgage and resources for the children.

"To have a livable wage, it's going to need to be $15 an hour," Delisline said. "We make the owners enough money that they have houses and cars, and their kids are taken care of. Why don't (they) make sure I can be able to do the same for my kids and my family?"

The restaurant industry and some economists against the raise have insisted that such a considerable increase would result in many businesses closing down and cutting jobs. The National Restaurant Association added Thursday that a $15-an-hour wage wouldn't close the income inequality gap and also claimed unions started the campaign to boost dwindling membership.

"Instead of demonizing an industry that opens doors for workers of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels, the focus should be on finding better solutions to lift individuals out of poverty," said Scott DeFife, the restaurant association's executive vice president of policy and government affairs.