In 10 cities across the United States, McDonald’s workers went on strike today, Tuesday, September 18th. Their goal is to bring awareness to sexual harassment in the workplace as they urge corporate McDonald’s to do more to prevent it.
According to NBC News, 10 McDonald’s employees brought sexual harassment charges against the company in May 2018 with help from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. These charges not only outline claims of sexual harassment while on the job, but they also detail how McDonald’s managers dismissed said claims when female employees came forward.
One such claim was made by 15-year-old Breauna Morrow, who is employed at a St. Louis McDonald’s restaurant. While on the job, an older male coworker verbally harassed Morrow with lewd sexual comments. When Morrow told her manager, she was told she’d “never win that battle,” according to a statement from the National Women’s Law Center per NBC News.
Another claim came from a female McDonald’s employee in Chicago. She detailed to the National Women’s Law Center that she was asked by her male coworker if she wanted to see his penis. Upon reporting the incident to her manager, she was ultimately fired.
The McDonald’s strike is currently affecting chains in Chicago; Durham, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Los Angeles; Miami; Milwaukee; New Orleans; Orlando, Florida; San Francisco; and St. Louis, NBC reports.
BREAKING: Fast food and low-wage working women are ON STRIKE and marching on America's second largest employer, McDonald's to stop sexual harassment! #FightFor15 pic.twitter.com/blLtTDXU6A
— Stand Up KC (@standup_kc) September 18, 2018
The female employees on strike are demanding that McDonald’s create a committee to appropriately handle claims of sexual harassment. This committee would ideally be made up of employees, representatives from corporate and franchise stores, and national women’s groups leaders.
Equal Rights Advocates and The Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, founded in January by the National Women’s Law Center, are both supporting and handling legal fees for those on strike and bringing charges. Fight for 15, a group aiming to increase nationwide minimum wage to $15 per hour, is also supporting the McDonald’s strikers.
Workers on strike are attempting to deliver their demands to HQ- that McDonald's follow it's policies on sexual harassment, train their managers, and take part in a committee of workers, corporate and franchise reps, and women's groups https://t.co/7z74mKWrSk #FightFor15 #MeToo pic.twitter.com/xHQkjxjFBR
— Fight for a Union (@FightForAUnion) September 18, 2018
USA Today reports that 40% of female fast food employees have been sexually harassed at work, with the majority of them being African American and Latina women.
As Washington D.C.-based psychologist C. Vaile Wright told USA Today, that high percentage could stem from the fact that many fast food workers are young and uneducated in boundaries. Necessity of employment, fear of being fired, and/or nervousness around one’s immigration status could also play into the large percentage of those who fear reporting fast food workplace sexual harassment.
Here in Florida, we're on strike to demand that McDonalds form a committee to address sexual harassment, comprised of workers, representatives from corporate and franchise stores, and leaders of national womens groups https://t.co/FkC5ZphX4I #FightFor15 #MeToo pic.twitter.com/28DDpKM4gq
— Fight for 15 Florida (@FightFor15FL) September 18, 2018
Per NBC, McDonald’s told the Associated Press that they do have policies, training, and procedures in place “that are specifically designed to prevent sexual harassment at our company and company-owned restaurants.” But obviously, these standing company policies have not done enough to fully protect their employees.
We stand with the McDonald’s employees on strike and hope that their efforts will spur necessary change within the company.
