Hundreds of McDonald’s workers are striking across 10 cities to demand that McDonald’s take steps to address rampant sexual harassment in its restaurants. The plan is for workers to walk out during the lunchtime rush in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, New Orleans, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas City, Orlando, and Durham.
Members of local Fight for $15 Women’s Committees called for the walkout and took a strike vote last week to approve of the work stoppage. The committees were formed after McDonald’s workers filed 10 sexual harassment charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in May with the support of Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund.
The McDonald’s workers are demanding that the corporation form an anti-sexual harassment committee, hold mandatory trainings for managers and employees to ensure sexual harassment is taken seriously, establish a system for receiving and responding to complaints that is “safe and effective,” and strengthen and force its zero tolerance policy against harassment. The national anti-sexual harassment committee would include workers and women’s advocacy groups, as well as corporate and franchise representatives, according to The Intercept.
We’re standing together because McDonald’s has brushed off sexual harassment for too long. We’re wearing tape and hand prints to symbolize how we’ve been abused and silenced. Not anymore. #Fightfor15 #MeToo pic.twitter.com/tJVP5x9pdh
— Fight For 15 Chicago (@chifightfor15) September 18, 2018
Adriana Alvarez, a McDonald’s worker in Chicago, brought about nine people with her from her restaurant to the strike today. Alvarez told ThinkProgress, “Big corporations like McDonald’s have the means to send their managers to training and be like ‘Hey guys, this is wrong, you know?’ They definitely have the power and the means to put a stop to all of this. It’s just a matter of them wanting to do it.”
Alvarez said she hopes that by striking, McDonald’s will be forced to take workers’ concerns seriously.
“I feel like this will definitely be an eye opener for them because they will definitely see numbers on the streets. They will see that we are not kidding,” Alvarez said.
She added, “We’re the ones making their money. If it weren’t for us they would not be one of the wealthiest corporations out there.”
McDonald’s workers in Chicago strike for one-day to speak out against on-the-job sexual harassment. Here they speak outside McDonald’s corporate headquarters. McDonald’s Corp. says it has strong policies in place to prevent sexual harassment pic.twitter.com/RWldWCVEZV
— Michael Puente (@MikePuenteNews) September 18, 2018
Sexual harassment in the fast food industry is a known problem that has been established by a number of surveys and studies. Food services accounted for the largest share of sexual harassment charges in the private sector made to the EEOC from 2005 to 2015. Eighty percent of workers told Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United and Forward Together that they were harassed by customers and co-workers in 2014 survey. One-third of workers in that survey said it was common to experience unwanted touching. Two-thirds were harassed by managers.
Alvarez said there isn’t a proper system in place to make sexual harassment complaints.
“Some people go to the manager, but if it’s the manager doing the assaulting then you go to a store manager. Well, what if the store manager doing the assaulting? We don’t have a specific person to go to in case of this. We do have supervisors, but sometimes those supervisors make you feel unwelcome and you don’t want to talk to that person,” she said.
Alvarez added that what often happens is that workers are too scared to say anything to anyone because they worry about having to get another job, but all reactions are different.
“Other people feel like that’s just the way it is and that it’s their fault, which is definitely not true. Some people have had to move because of it,” Alvarez said. “I think that is really sad because when you’re at your store, you get used to your co-workers. You get used to your environment, and then to be forced to move to another store just because someone doesn’t know how to act? It’s just not right.”
BREAKING: Fast food and low-wage working women are ON STRIKE and marching on America's second largest employer, McDonald's to stop sexual harassment! #FightFor15 pic.twitter.com/blLtTDXU6A
— Stand Up KC (@standup_kc) September 18, 2018
It’s even tougher for workers to fight against sexual harassment when they’re economically disadvantaged and fighting to put food on the table. The age bracket making up the largest share of fast food workers in the U.S. is between 25 and 54 years old. University of California at Berkeley researchers have found that about half of fast-food worker families depend on public programs, which is much higher than the share of the total American workforce that relies on the services, at 25 percent. According to those researchers, one in five families in which someone holds a front-line fast food job has an income below the poverty line.
Breaking: McDonald's workers in Milwaukee are on strike against sexual harassment in their stores. Tell McDonald's to listen to their our demands. https://t.co/na7VGLTXGG #Fightfor15 pic.twitter.com/ZxfzQE7qpu
— FightFor15WI (@FightFor15WI) September 18, 2018
McDonald’s has also long fought back against the unionization of its workers, a key step that would help protect its workers from sexual harassment. In 2014, the New York Times reported that Richard F. Griffin Jr., National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel, said there was merit in 43 claims against McDonald’s, in which workers said McDonald’s illegally fired, threatened, or penalized workers for labor organizing.
A former McDonald’s executive, Richard Adams, told the Washington Post in 2014, “McDonald’s franchisees are pretty compliant. They don’t really organize, they don’t really protest. And if you do, they tell you you’re not a good member of the McFamily. I don’t want to make this seem too Orwellian, but the average franchisee has about six restaurants, and the franchise agreement is for 20 years. You’re probably going to have a renewal coming up. If you’re not a compliant member of the team, you’re probably not going to get that renewal.”
In the face of all of this opposition, McDonald’s workers like Alvarez are taking to the streets.
“It’s all about a better working environment for us to be able to make them money, so I don’t see why they’re complaining so much or hiring law firms that are so anti-worker,” Alvarez said. “We need a safe environment to work in, period. Nobody should be making minimum wage and living in poverty.”