Following Arrests, McDonald's Workers to Return to Company Headquarters to Call for $15/Hr & Union as Annual Shareholder Meeting Begins

(Chicago, IL) – Hours after 101 McDonald's employees were arrested in the largest-ever labor protest to hit the company, 1,000 workers and supporters will return to McDonald's sprawling headquarters to call for $15/hr and the right to form a union as the company's annual shareholders meeting begins Thursday morning.

What: McDonald’s workers call for $15 and the right to form a union without retaliation.

Who: McDonald’s workers, other fast-food workers, community leaders and clergy.

When: Thursday, May 22, 2014 at 7 a.m. CT
Where: Intersection of Jorie Blvd. and Kroc Drive, Oak Brook, IL

**For live updates, including photos, visit fastfoodglobal.org and follow #fastfoodglobal on Twitter.**

Fed up with low pay, wage theft and McDonald’s refusal to listen to them, 101 McDonald’s employees from nearly three-dozen cities surged onto the company’s Oak Brook, Ill corporate campus Wednesday, calling for $15 an hour and a union, and were arrested. In all, more than 2,000 workers, clergy and community supporters marched on McDonald’s headquarters, just a week after strikes and protests rocked 230 cities around the world in what MSNBC called the “biggest fast-food strike ever." Earlier in the day, McDonald’s shut down a corporate headquarter building in Oak Brook where workers had planned to protest.

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Founded in November of 2012, the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago is a union of fast food and retail workers. The workers’ Fight for 15 campaign seeks a $15 an hour wage, more work hours, and the right to form a union without retaliation. The Fight for 15 campaign is supported by an ever-expanding coalition of community, labor and faith-based groups including: Action Now; Albany Park Neighborhood Council; Arise Chicago; Brighton Park Neighborhood Council; Chicago Coalition for the Homeless; Chicago Jobs with Justice; Chicago Teachers Union; Grassroots Collaborative; Illinois Hunger Coalition; Jane Addams Senior Caucus; ONE Northside; Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP); SEIU Local 1; SEIU Local 73; SEIU Healthcare Illinois; Indiana, Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation; United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Western Region; and Workers United.