McDonald’s Employees Are On Strike to Protest Against Unsafe Work Environments

McDonald’s employees in 12 locations across the United States walked out of their workplace on Tuesday to demonstrate what they believe is a recurring problem of sexual harassment and assault in the corporation’s restaurants. As per “Fight for $15” and a Union, the labor group that coordinated the protests, several hundred employees were anticipated to strike in Chicago, Houston, Miami, Detroit, and other locations. This is the 7th strike by McDonald’s employees since 2018 over what they see as insufficient steps to prevent sexual misconduct at the company’s outlets. Over the previous 5 years, at least 50 employees have brought complaints against McDonald’s citing mental and bodily abuse.

McDonald’s said in April 2021, that beginning in January 2022, its 40,000 locations globally will be required to provide sexual misconduct training, incident reporting systems, and annual staff surveys. However, some employees argue that this is insufficient. They demand McDonald’s be made liable for intimidation at its restaurants, not its licensees, who own virtually all of its outlets in the United States. Adriana Alvarez, a McDonald’s employee for the past 10 years, was among a tiny minority of demonstrators near the company’s headquarters in Chicago on Tuesday. “I’m on protest today because we want McDonald’s to know we’re not going away.”

Sexual harassment must be stopped,” she stated. “It’s unjust to these people to be paid near-poverty rates and then have to stress about someone being sexually assaulted on the field.” Late Tuesday, McDonald’s stated that the protests did not affect company operations. A complaint launched last month by a teenage McDonald’s worker and her family against McDonald’s with one of its franchises sparked the new labor action. The girl was 14 years old when she was employed to work at a McDonald’s in the Pittsburgh region in October 2020.

Although McDonald’s established an abuse helpline and began instructing franchisees in 2019, the worker stated she received no education on sexual misconduct or how to address it. The teenager’s store, as per the complaint, recruited a supervisor in January 2021 who had done time in prison for physically molesting a 10-year-old child and was on Pennsylvania’s sex offender registry. The manager bullied and tormented the adolescent and other juvenile employees, yet notwithstanding their reports to the manager who recruited them, there was no inquiry by shop administration or McDonald’s. The supervisor followed the kid into a restroom and then raped her in February.

Walter Garner, the manager, was charged in April after some other McDonald’s employee informed authorities at her school regarding his actions, prompting the school to notify the police. Last Monday, Garner was punished for up to 10 years in jail. The adolescent is suing McDonald’s as well as the franchisees that managed her business, Bethel Park, Pennsylvania-based Rice Enterprises LLC. In contrast to the abuse training requirement issued the very same month Garner was jailed, McDonald’s stated that it requires franchisees to undertake comprehensive inspections when claims emerge.

“Every single individual who works at a McDonald’s franchise needs to feel secure and welcomed when they show up to work, and rape and sexual misconduct have no home in any McDonald’s franchise,” the business stated in a press release issued on Tuesday. Rice Enterprises CEO Michele Rice declared in a statement issued by her counsel that the accusations in the teen’s complaint were “very distressing,” and that the manager was terminated as soon as she learned of the charges against him. “We have completely cooperated with the authorities and have extended our complete assistance to the affected employee,” Rice noted.