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McDonald’s

McDonald’s Workers Strike Over Widespread Sexual Harassment

September 20, 2018 Naomi LaChance, Truthdig.com , , , ,
McDonald’s workers in 10 U.S. cities plan to strike Tuesday at lunchtime over sexual harassment and subsequent retaliation at the fast-food company. “Whatever [anti-harassment] policy they have is not effective,” Mary Joyce Carlson, an attorney with Fight for $15, a fair pay organization, told The Associated Press. Carlson has been working with 10 McDonald’s workers who filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about predatory workplace behavior including groping and propositions for sex. “I couldn’t deal with it physically, just going into the workplace,” Tanya Harrel said. Harrel, who claims to have experienced sexual harassment twice from two different coworkers over the course of a month at a New Orleans McDonald’s, filed a complaint with the EEOC backed by the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund.

Labor Groups Drop #OurWalmart. Who Will Fund Their Fight?

June 3, 2016 Dave Jamieson, www.huffingtonpost.com , ,
By Dave Jamieson for The Huffington Post - In 2013, Janet Sparks and five co-workers went on strike at a Walmart store in Baker, Louisiana. The group rode in a caravan to Bentonville, Arkansas, taking their grievances to the company’s shareholder meeting. The experience of walking off the job in protest was exhilarating, but also unnerving. “It’s always a scary thing for a worker to go up against the largest employer in the U.S.,” Sparks, 55, said. “There are co-workers around you who are afraid. But we believed in what we were doing.”

Brazil Opens Federal Investigation Of McDonalds

March 4, 2016 Giovanna Frank-Vitale, www.popularresistance.org , , ,
By Giovanna Frank-Vitale. March 3, 2016 - Today a federal prosecutor in Brazil opened a criminal investigation (attached) into alleged “fiscal and economic crimes” by McDonald’s. The prosecutor’s office said it will look into suspected tax evasion and violations of Brazil’s franchise and competition laws. He issued an indictment against McDonald’s, which will require the company to appear before the federal prosecutor for a deposition and to turn over all documents related to the case. This just broke in Brazil. It’s a criminal investigation into how McDonald’s does business and it could have major implications for how the company conducts its operations around the globe and could prompt similar investigations worldwide. It’s a huge development—the equivalent here in the States would be the Justice Department opening an investigation.

McDonald’s Franchise Owners: Fast Food Giant “Facing Its Final Days”

October 19, 2015 Nick Bernabe, www.theantimedia.org ,
By Nick Bernabe for Antimedia - San Diego, CA — Embattled fast food giant McDonald’s is making headlines yet again. The company has just launched its much advertised all-day breakfast program, but as that campaign rolls out, franchise owners are voicing their concerns over what may be the company’s dying days. As we covered at Anti-Media in June, the McDonald’s franchise has been shrinking for the first time in the company’s over 40 year history: “McDonald’s announced in April that it would be closing 700 ‘underperforming’ locations, but because of the company’s sheer size — it has 14,300 locations in the United States alone — this was not necessarily a reduction in the size of the company, especially because it continues to open locations around the world. It still has more than double the locations of Burger King, its closest competitor.”

NLRB Hands Fight For $15 Major Victory

August 28, 2015 Dave Jamieson, www.huffingtonpost.com , ,
By Dave Jamieson in The Huffington Post - McDonald's, Burger King and every other company that relies on a franchise business model just suffered the legal setback they've been fearing for years. The National Labor Relations Board ruled on Thursday that Browning Ferris Industries, a waste management company, qualifies as a "joint employer" alongside one of its subcontractors. The decision effectively loosens the standards for who can be considered a worker's boss under labor law, and its impact will be felt in any industry that relies on franchising or outsourcing work. McDonald's, for instance, could now find itself forced to sit at the bargaining table with workers employed by a franchisee managing one of its restaurants.

5,000 Workers Descend On McDonald’s Shareholder Meeting

May 21, 2015 Jack Temple, www.PopularResistance.org , , ,
Marching behind a giant banner that read, “McDonald’s: $15 and Union Rights, Not Food Stamps,” 5,000 cooks and cashiers massed at the company’s corporate headquarters Wednesday to kick off the largest-ever protest to hit the burger giant’s annual shareholder meeting. Fed up with pay that drives them to rely on public assistance, angry over the company’s springtime publicity stunt disguised as a wage increase, and emboldened by recent moves by elected leaders in New York and Los Angeles to raise pay to as high as $15, workers surged into the streets outside McDonald’s corporate headquarters, doubling the size of the previous year’s historic protest.

McDonald’s Announces Corporate Shake-Up, Workers Vow To Rise Up

May 5, 2015 Deirdre Fulton, www.commondreams.org , ,
On the same day that McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook announced sweeping changes aimed at "returning excitement" to the behemoth—and struggling—fast-food chain, thousands of McDonald's cooks and cashiers vowed to descend on the the company's annual shareholder meeting in Illinois later this month to demand higher wages, fairer treatment, and the right to organize. "We may not have a seat in the room, but we're sure that McDonald's will hear us when we say that its turnaround needs to include investment in and respect for its employees," saidAdriana Alvarez, who has worked at McDonald's for five years, and was one of 101 workers arrested at a peaceful sit-in at last year's shareholder meeting. Her story is common among McDonald's employees, tens of thousands of whom have taken to the streets to protest poverty wages in recent fast-food strikes and walk-outs.

Small Percentage Of McDonald’s Workers Get Pay Raise

April 2, 2015 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org , , , ,
McDonald's plans to raise the average pay of about 90,000 of the 750,000 McDonald's US workers to around $10 an hour, but the increase will not benefit workers at the vast majority of the restaurants, because they are operated by franchisees, who make their own wage decisions. The pay increase, for workers at roughly 1,500 company-owned U.S. restaurants, will take effect on July 1. Starting wages at the restaurants will move to $1 above the locally mandated minimum wage. Workers groups said the move by McDonald's, which is also adding benefits such as paid vacations, fell short of their goals. The raise is only at "company-owned restaurants," only about 10% of its 14,350 stores nationwide. The rest are owned by franchisees, who "operate their individual businesses and make their own decisions on pay and benefits for their employees." The National Labor Relations Board general counsel ruled differently on Dec. 19 that the Oak Brook, Ill., company "engages in sufficient control over its franchisees' operations...to make it a putative joint employer with its franchisees, sharing liability for violations of our Act."

McDonald’s Sues Seattle Over $15 Wage, Cites 14th Amendment

March 17, 2015 Bill Fold, www.thebillfold.com , ,
McDonald’s is not having a very good week. First, McDonald’s asked the band Ex Cops to play a gig at the McDonald’s SXSW Showcase, using the words “There isn’t a budget for an artist fee (unfortunately).” Then, just as the furor of McDonald’s asking artists to play for exposure—”as well as POSSIBLY mentioned on McDonald’s social media accounts like Facebook (57MM likes!)”—is dying down, we get this: Last summer, the City of Seattle passed a law that will raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 per hour. But in a bizarre twist, Ronald McDonald and friends are suing the city. On March 10, they’ll be in a federal courtroom, complaining that the new minimum wage violates a constitutional provision that was written to protect newly-freed slaves after the Civil War.

McDonalds Responsible For Determining Wages At Franchises

July 30, 2014 Candice Choi, www.abcnews.go.com , , ,
McDonald's is coming under intensifying pressure for labor practices at its U.S. restaurants. The National Labor Relations Board said Tuesday that the world's biggest hamburger chain could be named as a joint employer in several complaints regarding worker rights at franchise-owned restaurants. The decision is pivotal because it could expose McDonald's Corp. to liability for management practices in those locations. It also comes as protests for higher pay have captured national attention, with labor groups calling for pay of $15 an hour and the right to unionize. Organizers had been pushing to get McDonald's named as a joint employer at franchised restaurants, a move intended to give them a centralized and powerful target. In the U.S., the vast majority of McDonald's more than 14,000 restaurants are owned and operated by franchisees. The same is true for many other fast-food chains, including Burger King and Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza hut. As such, the companies have sought to distance themselves from the pay protests by saying they don't determine wages at its franchised locations. Heather Smedstad, senior vice president of human resources for McDonald's USA, said in a phone interview that the company has never been determined to be a joint employer in the past and that it would fight the decision by the labor board.

McDonald’s CEO: ‘We Will Support’ Minimum Wage Hike

June 5, 2014 Mark Gongloff, www.huffingtonpost.com , , ,
McDonald's might finally have figured out that paying its low-wage workers more would actually be a good thing for McDonald's. McDonald's CEO Don Thompson recently suggested his company would support a bill, proposed by President Barack Obama, raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from $7.25. Such a wage hike likely wouldn't satisfy his workers, some of whom recently stormed the company's Oak Brook, Ill., headquarters demanding $15 an hour. But it would be a noticeable shift in attitude for the world's biggest restaurant chain, which has so far been neutral as the debate about higher wages has roiled around it. "You know, our franchisees look at me when I say this and they start to worry: 'Don, don't you say it. Don't you say we support $10.10,'" Thompson said during a little-noticed talk at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management last month, according to a Chicago Tribune report. "I will tell you we will support legislation that moves forward." Thompson, who made $9.5 million last year, has been on the defensive about worker pay since at least last July, when the news media discovered McDonald's had a financial-advice website for its employees (no longer available) recommending they get second jobs and not turn on their heat.

Commentary: Why I Marched On McDonald’s

June 5, 2014 William J. Barber, www.washingtonpost.com , , , ,
Recently, I marched with McDonald’s workers from three dozen cities to the company’s corporate headquarters outside of Chicago. After they refused to leave the corporate campus of the fast-food giant with its $5.6 billion in profits last year, 101 workers were arrested. I knew I had to come when the workers invited me to share some of the lessons we have been learning in North Carolina about civil disobedience — and moral support. I watched my new friends sit down. I watched the police gather. I prayed with the McDonald’s workers as the police looked on and then slapped plastic handcuffs on more than 100 of the workers and arrested them. I could not help but think of the historic arc of the civil rights movement. For all the gains we have been making, the treatment of low-paid workers by some of the most profitable corporations in the world ranks high in the more significant causes of the growing inequalities in the U.S. I have helped lead the fight against backward laws passed by an extremist group of legislators that, three years ago, took power in North Carolina. Last year, national media discovered us, calling us the Moral Monday protesters.

Meet Moms Who Crashed McDonald’s Shareholder Meeting

May 27, 2014 Yes! Editors, www.nationofchange.org , ,
Casey Hinds showed up at her first McDonald's annual shareholder meeting in Illinois Thursday—to crash it. For months, she and five other nutrition-blogger moms prepared to confront McDonald's executives about marketing strategies aimed at children, like the use of cartoons and celebrities. They're part of a nationwide network called #MomsNotLovinIt, organized by the nonprofit Corporate Accountability International (CAI) to curb the marketing of junk food to kids and the rise of diet-related disease. Hinds had never done anything like this, she told YES!, and she was nervous. Outside the meeting, hundreds of protesters had gathered for the second day in a row to demand better pay for low-wage McDonald's workers (138 people were arrested Wednesday for trespassing—and 101 of them were McDonald's workers). When Hinds and the other moms arrived inside the meeting, they found that, rather than being invited to approach the microphone with their concerns, this year they had to submit questions ahead of time to be screened by CEO Don Thompson. Only one of the six moms who prepared statements were invited to speak.
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