Thousands of Fast Food Workers To Wage Largest-Ever Protest at McD's Shareholder Meeting

Thousands of Cooks and Cashiers To Wage Largest-Ever Protest at McDonald’s Shareholder Meeting

Call on Burger Giant To Invest in Workers, Not Hedge Fund Executives

Oak Brook, Ill.—McDonald’s workers Wednesday and Thursday will wage the largest protests to ever hit the company’s shareholder meeting. Joined by other fast-food cooks and cashiers and clergy from across the country, the workers will call on McDonald’s to invest in the company and its workers, not wealthy hedge fund executives. The protest comes just days after a paper in the Harvard Business Review
<https://hbr.org/2015/05/mcdonalds-has-to-do-more-than-manipulate-its-stock-price> detailed nearly $30 billion McDonald’s has spent on share buybacks in the last decade, money that could have been spent to raise workers’ wages.

Wednesday, May 20 at 12:00 pm CT

What: Day 1 of Protests

Who:

* McDonald’s workers

* Mary Kay Henry, president of Service Employees International Union

* Rev. William Barber II, convener of the Moral Mondays movement and pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, NC

* Rev. Marilyn Pagán Banks of North Side Power/A Just Harvest in Chicago, Ill.

* Rev. Rodney E. Williams of the Swope Parkway United Christian Church in Kansas City, MO

Where: McDonald’s Corporate Headquarters, 2111 McDonald’s Drive, Oak Brook, IL 60523

Thursday, May 21 at 7:00 am CT

What: Day 2 of Protests

Who: McDonald’s workers, other fast-food workers, clergy

Where: Corner of Jorie Blvd & Forest Gate Drive, Oak Brook Ill.

Background

McDonald’s shareholder meeting comes in the aftermath of the largest-ever strike to hit the fast-food industry
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/04/15/fast-food-strike-fight-for-15-service-employees-international-union/25787045/> — a
236-city walkout in every corner of the United States that included strikes and protests in 40 countries and 100 cities around the globe, from
Amsterdam to Zurich.

In addition to strikes and slumping sales <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-22/mcdonald-s-profit-misses-estimates-as-u-s-sales-slump-persists>, McDonald’s approaches its annual meeting facing a host of business challenges at home and abroad.

In the United States, the federal government is accusing the fast-food giant of rampant labor-law violations
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/12/19/labor-board-takes-big-step-toward-helping-all-mcdonalds-employees-unionize/>, and is arguing that the corporate parent, not just franchisees, are responsible for the illegal actions. McDonald’s workers in three states filed class action lawsuits alleging wage theft <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/business/mcdonalds-workers-in-three-states-file-suits-claiming-underpayment.html> and cooks and cashiers filed a federal civil rights suit alleging rampant racial discrimination
<http://time.com/3678710/mcdonalds-lawsuit-fast-food-strikes/>at stores in Virginia. Workers also filed more than two-dozen complaints
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/03/16/mcdonalds-fast-food-restaurants-injuries/24846677/> in 19 cities with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration alleging McDonald’s workers are being burned on the job, with many told to use condiments like mustard to ease the pain. Meanwhile, scrutiny is increasing <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/04/opinion/mcdonalds-minimum-raise.html> on
the public cost <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/13/business/economy/working-but-needing-public-assistance-anyway.html>
of the company’s low wages.

Last week, in the Harvard Business Review <https://hbr.org/2015/05/mcdonalds-has-to-do-more-than-manipulate-its-stock-price>, University of Massachusetts Lowell Economist William Lazonick wrote that McDonald’s has spent nearly $30 billion on share buybacks in the last
decade, enriching investors and executives at the expense of workers and franchisees and exacerbating inequality. And earlier this week, the Service Employees International Union petitioned the Federal Trade Commission <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-18/a-new-front-in-union-s-mcdonald-s-campaign> to launch an investigation into the nation’s $800 billion franchise industry, calling the dramatic imbalance of power between franchisors and franchisees, “abusive and predatory.”

Overseas, McDonald's is being accused by a coalition of trade unions and the UK-based NGO War on Want of avoiding more than €1 billion in taxes <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-25/mcdonald-s-accused-by-unions-of-super-sized-tax-avoidance-in-eu>over the last five years. The European Commission’s Directorate of Competition launched a preliminary investigation <http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/31/us-eu-mcdonalds-taxavoidance-idUSKBN0MR2CP20150331> to find out whether McDonald’s entered into an illegal deal with Luxembourg that allowed it to avoid taxes.

In Brazil, a coalition of trade unions has filed two lawsuits accusing the company of widespread and systematic labor <http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/25/mcdonalds-discrimination-lawsuit-brazil> and health and safety violations
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/18/mcdonalds-brazil-arcos-dora-hldg-idUSL2N0WK0YZ20150318>. One of the suits accuses McDonald’s of “social dumping,” an anti-competitive practice that drives standards down for workers across the country, and seeks to prevent the company from opening new stores unless it complies with Brazilian law. Also, McDonald’s agent in Latin America and
the Caribbean, Arcos Dorados, has come under scrutiny <http://www.buzzfeed.com/matthewzeitlin/call-for-investigation-into-biggest-mcdonalds-franchisee#.kfXXlgbP7> in recent weeks, with an investor group asking the New York Stock Exchange to review the company’s corporate governance. And in Japan, an investor group is calling on McDonald’s Japan <http://www.sankei.com/economy/news/150320/ecn1503200022-n1.html> to dismiss internal directors and replace them with external ones.

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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 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.*

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