Fight for $15 Vows Biggest-Ever Protest at McDonald’s Shareholder Meeting

‘Fat Profits, but Lean Wages’

Fight for $15 Vows Biggest-Ever Protest at McDonald’s Shareholder Meeting

As Fast-Food Giant’s Profits Grow, 10,000 Workers to Flood Company HQ, Demand Higher Pay So They Don’t Have to Rely on Food Stamps

Strike for $15, Union Rights by Chicago-Area Fast-Food Workers to Kick Off Two Days of Protest

Oak Brook, Ill. – McDonald’s cooks and cashiers announced Thursday that thousands of underpaid workers fighting for $15/hour and union rights
nationwide will converge in the Chicago area next week to wage the largest-ever protests to hit the fast-food giant’s annual shareholder meeting.

Fast-food workers across Chicago and its suburbs will kick off two days of protests by walking off their jobs Wednesday morning, followed in the
afternoon by a massive march of a record 10,000 fast-food, home care, child care, and other underpaid workers on the company’s Oak Brook, Ill.
headquarters. The protesters will argue it is wrong for a company whose stock just hit an all-time high to pay wages so low that its workers are
compelled to rely on public assistance to scrape by. McDonald’s profits in the first quarter rose 35%, propelled largely by the company’s move to
serve breakfast all day, prompting the New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/28/opinion/at-mcdonalds-fat-profits-but-lean-wages.html?_r=0> to argue in an editorial, “Fat Profits, but Lean Wages,” that it’s time for the company to share its good fortune with its workers.

“McDonald’s sales are going through the roof, but my children have to live with their grandparents because I can’t afford to keep a roof over our
heads as long as my paycheck is stuck at minimum wage,” said George McCray, a McDonald’s worker from Chicago, Ill., who is paid $8.25/hour.
“We’ve been working hard to make new changes like the All-Day Breakfast a success and have helped make the company billions, but our wages haven’t budged. How much longer will McDonald’s workers have to wait before the company’s success benefits us too?”

On Thursday morning, thousands of workers will take their demand for $15/hour and union rights directly to the company’s shareholder meeting.
Underpaid workers from across the service sector – joined by McDonald’s workers from five countries spanning three continents – will demand that McDonald’s use its global economic footprint to lift up working families across the economy rather than hold them down. They’ll argue that
McDonald’s is driving a race to the bottom that is hurting workers across the service economy.

“This isn’t just about fast-food workers or McDonald’s workers – McWages are holding us all back,” said Vicki Treadwell, a Milwaukee home care worker who is paid just $10.75/hour after 25 years on the job. “As long as McDonald’s fails to pay fair wages and rips off taxpayers, moms like me will have to turn to food pantries to feed our families. With its record profits, McDonald’s can choose to lift up all workers and the economy.”

While McDonald’s sales have soared in recent months, exceeding analysts’ expectations, and the fast-food giant’s stock hit a record high in May, the company’s low wages cost taxpayers an average of $1.2 billion every year in public assistance. This low-wage model drains revenue that could be used to support the country’s home care, child care and public education systems.

"Even though I educate and care for a classroom of three- and four-year-old children, I am paid just $8.40/hour, which means I have to choose which bills to put off so that I have enough cash for food,” said Shannon Mettie, a child care worker in Detroit, MI.* "McDonald's sets pay and standards at employers large and small. But as long as the fast-food giant keeps skimping on pay and dodging taxes, communities like mine won't have the money we need for quality child care and strong schools.”

As McDonald’s faces louder calls from workers across the U.S. demanding higher pay and the right to a union, the company is also coming under fire from regulators and elected officials worldwide over a range of harmful business practices, including tax avoidance, labor violations, and anti-competitive practices.

In April, the French government sent a letter to McDonald’s <http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/20/mcdonalds-hit-by-french-tax-bill.html>
demanding the company pay back €300 million ($340 million) in unpaid taxes and fines as a result of a scheme that funneled royalties through Luxembourg. Late last year the European Commission opened an investigation <http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/dec/03/eu-confirms-major-investigation-into-mcdonalds-tax-deals> into McDonald’s over allegations the company avoided more than €1 billion in taxes via the same Luxembourg machinations.

Earlier this year, Spanish tax authorities opened a criminal investigation <http://economia.elpais.com/economia/2016/02/20/actualidad/1455994666_356182.html> into McDonald’s tax avoidance, and leading consumer rights advocates and NGOs petitioned Italy’s top tax authorities late last year to investigate McDonald’s over allegations that the fast-food giant has dodged at least €74 million ($84 million) in taxes owed to Italy since 2009.

In January, Italian consumer groups filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission, alleging exorbitant rents and onerous contracts thrust upon franchisees give the company an unfair advantage. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom – the home of turf of CEO Steve Easterbrook – McDonald’s is facing more scrutiny than ever before. In April, Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn announced his party’s support <http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/jeremy-corbyn-eu-migrants-uk-referendum-brexit_uk_570f80ede4b0b84e2e71eabe> for a global campaign to hold McDonald’s accountable, saying, “We will extend that campaign all across this continent.” Also last month, Labour Party
leaders barred McDonald’s <http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2016/04/20/the-mcdonalds-row-reveals-the-weakness-of-jeremy-corbyn-s-op>
from sponsoring its party’s convention because of the company’s unfair treatment of workers. Worker protests in the UK forced McDonald’s to abandon its controversial zero-hours scheduling policy in which workers are required to be available to work all the time, but receive no set hours.

In March, Brazilian prosecutors <http://www.buzzfeed.com/coralewis/mcdonalds-is-under-criminal-investigation-in-brazil#.kuBlyXVk5R>
launched an investigation of alleged “fiscal and economic crimes” committed by McDonald’s, including suspected tax avoidance and violations of Brazil’s franchise and competition laws. As McDonald’s looks to sell or refranchise thousands of company-owned stores worldwide, the Change to Win Investment group sent a letter <http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/09/investing/mcdonalds-stock-all-time-high/> to McDonald’s Board of Directors earlier this month expressing concern over flagging sales and poor corporate governance by the company’s master franchisor in Latin America, Arcos Dorados.

“In France, like elsewhere, McJobs leave us without enough to feed our families or live with dignity,” said Lynda Zarif, a McDonald’s worker
from Paris, France, who will join the protest in Oak Brook next week. “At the same time, McDonald’s and its shareholders are enriching themselves and benefiting from billions in profits. McDonald’s workers are the ones in the kitchen making the Big Macs that the company sells every day, and we deserve to benefit from the company’s success.”

# # #

Founded in November of 2012, the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago is a union of fast food workers fighting for a $15/hour living wage, the right to form a union without retaliation, and respect in the workplace. Workers live and work in different neighborhoods across the Chicagoland area including Chicago’s suburbs. Many of the restaurants they’re employed at include, but aren’t limited to McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Popeye’s, Subway, and Dunkin Donuts. The Fight for 15 campaign has won major victories in cities across the country such as Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City. The Fight for 15 campaign is supported by an ever-expanding coalition of community, labor and faith-based groups.