Go ahead. Poke that bear.
Posted on 05/23/2017 6:06:54 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
CHICAGO – On the heels of mass demonstrations against President Trump’s policies that have drawn hundreds of thousands of Americans into the streets, leaders of the Trump resistance movement will converge in Chicago May 23 with thousands of workers in the Fight for $15 for a “March on McDonald’s” that is expected to be the biggest-ever protest to hit the fast-food giant.
On the eve of McDonald’s annual shareholder meeting, leaders of the Women’s March, Our Revolution, the Movement for Black Lives, MoveOn.org, Color of Change, NextGen and others will join forces with the Fight for $15 to demand that McDonald’s – the world’s second largest employer – use its power and influence to lift up Americans across the country rather than drag them down.
“Labor rights are women’s rights,” said Carmen Perez, co-chair of the Women’s March. “The link between the gender justice and labor justice movements is strong — but often unacknowledged. Women’s March is proud to join Fight for $15 and others to rise up against unfair labor practices, economic exploitation and workplace sexual harassment. These fights are our fights, and the only way we win is together.”
The mass protest comes 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.
“If McDonald’s wants to win back its customers, it needs to prove it respects workers like me – that starts by paying $15 an hour and respecting our right to a union,” said Adriana Alvarez, a McDonald’s worker from Chicago, Ill., and Fight for $15 leader. “McDonald’s has tried changing a lot about its business, but it hasn’t changed the way it treats workers like me. We still get paid so little that we have to rely on food stamps and public assistance to raise our families. We still face sexual harassment on the job, and get money stolen from our paychecks. Until McDonald’s respects its workers, Americans will continue to reject the company, and our movement will continue to grow.”
The march Tuesday will kick off outside Trump Tower in downtown Chicago and culminate in a massive rally outside the flagship Rock N Roll McDonald’s, highlighting how McDonald’s mistreatment of workers and communities parallels Trump’s own abuses of power. Like Trump, McDonald’s faces widespread charges of stealing from workers’ paychecks, sexually harassing women, ripping off taxpayers, and firing people for speaking out. Workers and leaders from across the progressive movement will stress that resistance to Trump’s agenda must include resistance to companies like McDonald’s that are “the Donald Trump of corporations.”
“We cannot allow corporations like McDonalds to continue violating basic workers’ rights to boost profits,” said Larry Cohen, Our Revolution Board Chair. “Women and men who work 40 hours a week continue to face poverty. McDonald’s continues to stand on the wrong side of worker’s rights by opposing minimum wage increases, paid sick leave, and fair scheduling. We’re marching to tell McDonald’s and other multinational corporations: this greed must end.”
The day after the March on McDonald’s, thousands of fast-food workers will travel to Oak Brook, Ill., to take their demand for $15 an hour and union rights directly to the company’s shareholder meeting. Cooks and cashiers will also protest at McDonald’s stores in more than a dozen cities across the country as the company’s shareholder meeting unfolds—the first time Fight for $15 shareholder meeting protests have expanded beyond Illinois.
The March on McDonald’s follows years of intensifying protests at the company’s shareholder meeting led by workers in the Fight for $15. In 2014, the company shuttered its headquarters while police officers met rallying workers in riot gear and arrested more than 100 McDonald’s cooks and cashiers during a peaceful sit-in. In 2015, McDonald’s workers hand delivered a petition to company representatives bearing more than one million signatures from Americans across the country calling on the company to support $15 an hour and union rights. And in 2016, hundreds of workers waged an overnight occupation outside the company’s headquarters ahead of the annual meeting, setting up a tent city following a massive march.
The Fight for $15 has forged deep ties with the Trump resistance movement since the November 2016 election. Marking the 49th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, the Fight for $15 and the Movement for Black Lives waged a nationwide “Fight Racism, Raise Pay” protest on April 4 spanning two-dozen cities across the country. And just weeks after the election, thousands of workers in the Fight for $15 walked off the job in 340 cities from coast to coast and engaged in waves of civil disobedience, pledging that they “won’t back down” in their fight for $15 and union rights.
Since Nov. 29, 2012, the Fight for $15 has spurred wage hikes totaling more than $62 billion for 22 million underpaid workers, including more than 10 million who are on their way to $15 an hour, by convincing everyone from voters to politicians to corporations to raise pay. Workers have taken what many viewed as an outlandish proposition – $15 an hour– and made it the new labor standard in New York, California, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Home care workers in Massachusetts and Oregon won $15 an hour statewide minimum wages and companies including Facebook, Aetna, Amalgamated Bank, JP Morgan Chase and Nationwide Insurance have raised pay to $15 an hour or higher.
“As the biggest fast-food company and the world’s second-largest employer, McDonald’s sets the bar for pay and working conditions throughout the fast-food industry and beyond,” said Kendall Fells, national organizing director of the Fight for $15. “McDonald’s way of doing business is holding all of us back. By paying $15 an hour and union rights, the company can help lift workers across the economy, and protect its own bottom line for the future.”
Organizations leading the March on McDonald’s include: Fight for $15, the Women’s March, MoveOn.org, Movement for Black Lives, Our Revolution, Next Gen, Color of Change, Fair Immigration Reform Movement, Repairers of the Breach, Indivisible Chicago, Women’s March-Chicago, Center for Community Change, 350.org and Patriotic Millionaires.
I know someone who is a fanatic for oriental food from vending machines. Common in Asia. Hot food. Great selection. Impressive pictures.
McDonald’s deserves this for supporting liberal causes.
Go ahead. Poke that bear.
We had a beer and soda vending machine in my barracks in Korea.
Yep...Robotics is going to be the next thing...
These hamburger people don’t know what they’ve started...
These McDonald’s employees didn’t learn a thing from what has happened to restaurants etc in Seattle...
If it wasn’t McDonald’s it’d be Starbucks. Come to think of it, not a bad thing!
Libs are not only insane...they’re also extremely STUPID!
Dear Fast Food Workers who want $15/hr. Rather than pay a drive-thru $10 for a burger the workers resent preparing, I will go to Red Robin or any number of other restaurants where, for the same price, I can have table service, with food cooked by a person who takes pride in what comes out of his or her kitchen. And if I really want fast food, I’ll just call my order in and have it delivered to my car. It is my hope that a lot of your jobs will open up soon as you move on to a higher level of employment, so that the youth and elderly of our nation, who those entry-level jobs are targeted to, can have their jobs back. Sincerely, A burger fan.
Say what you want but MCD has gone from about $95 to $145 in the last 2 1/2 years. (Of course that’s because they’ve been exploiting their workers). What these $15/hour protestors can’t or won’t understand is that they can and will be replaced by kiosks and other automation. Any “victory” they have will come at the expense of entry-level jobs and the people who want to fill them.
Agreed!!!!
The problem these businesses have is that they drug test. So my question is; does McDonald's drug test? Our McDonald's workers could walk 100 yards down the street and get a better paying, full-time job with benefits, if they can pass a drug test.
McDonald employs 1.9 million. Government employs 21 million. (Walmart is 2.1 million).
Democratic National Convention Staffers Suing the Party Over ‘Starvation Wages’
https://heatst.com/politics/dnc-staffers-file-class-action-lawsuit-over-starvation-wages/
If they get hungry, they can always stop in and grab a Chick-fil-a. That company is so employee friendly they give their employees all day Sunday off from work.
And complain that the food is too expensive and the service sucks.
I can quit Egg McMuffins any time I want to.
I don't think I remember the last time I went to McDonalds for anything.
They have great coffee.
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