May, 24 2017, 11:30am EDT
McDonald's Workers Take Call for $15/hr, Union Rights Directly to Company's Shareholders
As Cooks, Cashiers March on Annual Investor Meeting, Workers in More Than One Dozen Cities Protest
OAK BROOK
Less than 24 hours after thousands of McDonald's cooks and cashiers surged through the rain-soaked streets of downtown Chicago, workers marched on the burger giant's headquarters Wednesday morning, taking their demand for $15 an hour and union rights directly to the company's shareholders.
Holding signs that read "McJobs Cost Us All," and chanting, "We Work, We Sweat, Put $15 in Our Check," cooks and cashiers called on the company to use its vast economic power to lift up working families across the economy rather than hold them down. As the cooks and cashiers pressed towards a police roadblock at the entrance to McDonald's suburban campus, company executives turned their backs on the workers and walked away. Hundreds of workers then marched forward to the barricade, where Oak Brook police threatened to arrest them. For more than an hour workers refused to move, chanting, "Hey McDonald's You Can't Hide, We Can See Your Greedy Side."
Simultaneously, workers in more than a dozen cities rallied at local McDonald's stores to support their coworkers marching in Oak Brook and echo their demand for $15 an hour and union rights--the first time protests coinciding with the annual shareholders meeting spread across the country.
"Many of us rely on public assistance to scrape by, even though we work for the world's second largest employer, and that's not right," said Richard Iker, a 47-year-old McDonald's worker from Kansas City, Mo who makes $11.17/hour. "We need $15 and hour and union rights and we're going to do whatever it takes to make sure our voices are heard."
Wednesday's protests follow a massive 'March on McDonald's' through downtown Chicago Tuesday led by the Fight for $15 and heavyweights from across the movement to resist President Trump's extremist agenda. Workers and resistance leaders including the Women's March, Our Revolution, the Movement for Black Lives, MoveOn, Color of Change, NextGen and othersmarched behind a giant banner reading, "McDonald's: The Donald Trump of Corporations," stressing the similarities between President Trump's and McDonald's record of wage theft, sexual harassment, tax dodging and firing people for speaking out.
The nationwide protests come as McDonald's grapples with widespread consumer rejection of its brand. In March, McDonald's executives announced the company has lost more than 500 million customers since 2012, the year cooks and cashiers at the fast-food giant first went on strike to demand $15 an hour and union rights.
"This year, shareholders may want to hear what McDonald's is doing to regain the 500 million customers it has lost since 2012," said Darius Cephas, a McDonald's worker who makes $12/hour. "The company should start by paying workers $15 and respecting our right to a union. Our customers believe workers should be paid decently and treated fairly and if McDonald's wants to win them back, it should pay us enough so we can support our families without relying on public assistance."
McDonald's faced intensified scrutiny in the U.S. and overseas ahead of the back-to-back protests. On Monday, former BlackRock executive Morris Pearl penned an open letter to McDonald's CEO, Steve Easterbrook, slamming McDonald's mistreatment of workers and calling on the company to pay $15 an hour and respect its workers' right to a union. As environmental justice leaders including NextGen, the Sierra Club and 350.org called on McDonald's to support sustainable, living wage jobs, a report released Tuesday by French NGO Zero Waste found that McDonald's produces more and more waste in France while it shows declining recycling rates, contrary to the environmental commitments the company has made.
In New York City, members of the City Council prepared for a vote Wednesday on a package of bills that would curb abusive scheduling practices by McDonald's and other fast-food chains and enable cooks and cashiers to establish their own self-funded organization. Fast-food workers in New York City are expected to rally Wednesday afternoon at City Hall to call on the Council to approve the bills.
Meanwhile, the protest outside the McDonald's shareholders meeting drew workers from across the service economy.
"I may be working in home care, but I get paid McWages," said Sherry Golden, a home care worker from St. Louis, Mo., who is paid just $11/hour."McDonald's way of doing business is copied all across the economy now. As long as McDonald's undercuts its workers, people across the economy will lose out. That's why I'm taking my fight for $15 and union rights to the company's doorstep."
Outside Oak Brook, McDonald's cooks and cashiers protested at McDonald's restaurants in Atlanta, Ga., Charleston, S.C., Denver, Colo., Durham, N.C., Greenville, N.C., Houston, Texas, Las Vegas. Nev., Los Angeles, Calif., Miami, Fla., Oakland, Calif., Sacramento, Calif., San Jose, Calif., and Tampa, Fla.
McDonald's workers weren't the only ones protesting in the Chicago area Wednesday. Hundreds of working people from O'Hare International Airport rallied with elected leaders and community supporters outside of United's shareholders meeting--with over a dozen engaging in non-violent civil disobedience. The workers called on the company to ensure its outsourced ramp workers, wheelchair attendants, cabin cleaners and other passenger service workers have good-paying jobs and union rights.
Fast food workers are coming together all over the country to fight for $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation. We work for corporations that are making tremendous profits, but do not pay employees enough to support our families and to cover basic needs like food, health care, rent and transportation.
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'Derail Batory': Senate Urged to Reject Ex-Trump Official for Amtrak Board
"His record clearly demonstrates a prioritization of carrier profits over the safety of rail workers and the traveling public," said Railroad Workers United.
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An alliance of unionized rail workers on Tuesday demanded that the U.S. Senate reject President Joe Biden's nomination of former Trump administration official Ronald Batory to serve on the board of Amtrak, the nation's passenger rail company.
In a statement, Railroad Workers United (RWU) said Batory's tenure as head of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) under former President Donald Trump "was marked by policies favoring 'operational efficiencies' (i.e., corporate profits) over the safety and well-being of rail workers and the public."
"Notably, under his leadership, FRA attempted to override state laws mandating two-person train crews, promoting instead the adoption of single-person crews nationally," said RWU. "This push was part of a broader deregulation agenda, ostensibly aimed at reducing operational costs for the monopoly of carriers at the potential expense of safety and labor protections."
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The statement urges rail workers across the country to contact their senators and demand they block Batory's nomination.
"His record clearly demonstrates a prioritization of carrier profits over the safety of rail workers and the traveling public," said RWU, calling the Senate to "derail Batory."
“Railroad Workers United urges all members of #raillabor to actively contact their Senators and argue against Mr. Batory's confirmation. His record clearly demonstrates a prioritization of carrier profits over the safety of rail workers and the traveling public.” #DerailBatory pic.twitter.com/8kVNNsBihD
— Railroad Workers United ✊ (@railroadworkers) May 7, 2024
Rail workers reacted with outrage last week after Biden announced Batory's nomination, given his ties to the railroad industry and policy moves under an administration whose deregulatory spree helped lay the groundwork for the toxic crash in East Palestine, Ohio last year.
Amtrak's board of directors is required to be both geographically and politically diverse. Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, noted in a statement Monday that while Batory "would never be our choice, we recognize that federal law requires the board to have three members from the minority party, in this case the Republican Party."
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In its statement Tuesday, RWU acknowledged that "some may argue that the Biden administration is procedurally obligated to forward this nomination."
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Against the backdrop of President Joe Biden's Tuesday speech condemning antisemitism, hundreds of Jewish students at U.S. universities signed an open letter supporting the nationwide pro-Palestine campus protests, decrying the false smearing of the encampments as antisemitic, and urging institutions to take action to stop Israel's "genocidal assault on Gaza."
"In the last week, we have watched the movement of student encampments for Gaza spread across the country. We have also watched as these protesters have been met with repression, arrests, violence, and false claims of antisemitism," states the letter—which as of Tuesday afternoon had been signed by more than 750 students.
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While the letter's signers are "deeply disturbed by the small number of individuals who have attempted to co-opt these encampments to spread violent, hateful, and antisemitic messages," they "wholeheartedly reject the claim that these encampments are antisemitic and that they are an inherent threat to Jewish student safety."
The letter continues:
The narrative that the Gaza solidarity encampments are inherently antisemitic is part of a decadeslong effort to blur the lines between criticism of Israel and antisemitism. It is a narrative that ignores the large populations of Jewish students participating and helping to lead the encampments as a true expression of our Jewish values. The beautiful interfaith solidarity by Jewish students observing Passover seders and Shabbat at encampments across the country show that the rich Jewish tradition of justice is on full display inside the encampments. The denial of Jewish participation in this movement is not only incorrect, but it is an insidious attempt to justify unfounded claims of antisemitism. As neo-Nazis are marching in the streets and fascist politicians are campaigning on the antisemitic Great Replacement theory, we wholeheartedly reject the lie that these student activists are targeting Jewish students in their protest.
The letter came as Biden blasted the "ferocious" surge in antisemitism around the world since October 7 during a Capitol Hill speech marking Holocaust Remembrance Day.
"On college campuses, Jewish students blocked, harassed, attacked, while walking to class," Biden said. "Antisemitic posters, slogans calling for the annihilation of Israel, the world's only Jewish state. Too many people denying, downplaying, rationalizing, ignoring the horrors of the Holocaust and October 7... It is absolutely despicable, and it must stop."
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"More than 34,000 Palestinians and 1,200 Israelis have been killed since October 7," the document notes. "Israel has killed more than 14,000 children and destroyed schools, hospitals, and all institutions of higher learning in Gaza. The Israeli government has done nothing to return the remaining 133 hostages to their families as they continue to hold thousands of Palestinian prisoners without charge."
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"The devastation is unfathomable, and it is truly heinous to see individuals attempting to demonize student peace activists in our name as Israel continues to massacre Gazans, massacres that our educational institutions are complicit in through their investments and repression," the signers said.
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Governments pledged to phase out "inefficient" fossil fuel subsidies in 2021, but last year subsidies for the industry had risen by $2 million, hitting $7 trillion.
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Boyd spent his time as special rapporteur traveling to countries including Portugal, the Maldives, Chile, and Fiji, where he spoke to people directly affected by plastic waste, rising sea levels, air pollution, extreme heat, and other climate impacts.
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"I expect in the next three or four years, we will see court cases being brought challenging fossil fuel subsidies in some petro-states," said Boyd. "These countries have said time and time again at the G7, at the G20, that they're phasing out fossil fuel subsidies. It's time to hold them to their commitment. And I believe that human rights law is the vehicle that can do that."
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