‘Fight for 15’ protesters hand over 1mn-signature petition at McDonald’s HQ

Reuters / Lucy NicholsonRT

Some 1,000 anti-low pay protesters have delivered a petition with over 1 million signatures to McDonald’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois. Ten workers from the crowd were permitted into the fast food giant’s compound to hand it over.

The “Fight for 15” group, which is demanding the multi-billion dollar empire pay its workers a minimum of $15 per hour, marched toward the McDonalds’s offices Thursday morning.  

The demonstrators chanted: “We are the workers, the mighty, mighty workers, fighting for justice,” the Chicago Tribune reported, in what was a peaceful march.

The protesters were carrying flags and were in a jovial mood, despite inclement weather. But there was a serious, determined mood among marchers.

“I think they don’t understand what it is like to make what we make. They should come and work at one of our stores and come and get a check after two weeks and see how much it is and can they live off it,”Corey Anderson, a McDonald’s worker who earns $8.25 an hour after working for the fast food giant for 2 1/2 years, told AP.

“I have to give half my check just to pay for somewhere to live and for utilities. I need more to support myself,” he said.

Police had cordoned off a road near the McDonald’s HQ, They then told protesters that they were about to enter private property.

The march on the McDonald’s HQ coincided with the company’s annual shareholder meeting, which took place at 09:00 local time.

Another demonstration on Wednesday saw around 2,000 protesters turn up, who had traveled from as far as Kansas City and New York City. Police were forced to close the campus.

https://twitter.com/LowPayIsNotOK/status/601383945008209920

McDonald’s new CEO Steve Easterbrook announced last month that starting pay at the company-owned restaurants would be set at $1 above local minimum wage, starting July 1, reaching $10 per hour by the end of 2016.

Activists have criticized the increase as insufficient, as this would only apply to around 90,000 of some 660,000 workers at McDonald’s fast food restaurants around the country. Many people working in McDonald’s restaurants are employed by franchise holders, rather than McDonald’s directly.

 

http://rt.com/usa/260853-petition-mcdonalds-protests-petition/

6 thoughts on “‘Fight for 15’ protesters hand over 1mn-signature petition at McDonald’s HQ

  1. Then they will be perplexed when prices of everyhting go up, business decreases and they become laid off or out of work.

  2. lets say they work 8 hours a day now for min wage for argument sake lets pick a round number 8$ an hour .. so for a 40 hr week they would get $320

    guess what they will work now? 20 hours and make less in that week $300

    and still no health care , or more money per week or per year

    and soon, there will be designed a machine to do their jobs and only 2 humans in there to make sure the machine is working well and those guys will probably only get 10$ an hour .. or a shit load of fast food joints closing down and than no one gets a 15 dollar an hour burger flipping job

    they are just costing themselves a job ,, and Mc D’s is not a career yet the obscene profits they make do make you wonder if they could pay them a bit more then they do ,, theres no winning this fight , just wait and see

  3. REMEMBER…only the poor schlumps getting a raise makes hamburgers price go up.

    THIS GUY’S SALARY SOMEHOW DOESN’T CAUSE IT:

    McDonald’s Corp. MCD -0.83 % said its former chief executive will receive $3 million under a one-year consulting agreement, while his replacement saw a 69% increase to his base salary.

    Former CEO Don Thompson, who retired effective Sunday, will receive two $1.5 million payments, one in September and another in March, the company said in a filing Tuesday.

    McDonald’s also will pay Mr. Thompson $192,308 that is said was in lieu of sabbatical, and will cover up to $25,000 in outplacement services for the former CEO, according to the filing.

    The fast-food chain, struggling amid declining sales and menu changes, said on Jan. 28 that Mr. Thompson would step down. The company’s new CEO is Steve Easterbrook, who was previously chief brand officer.

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/mcdonalds-old-ceo-to-get-3-million-for-consulting-1425419984

  4. Why don’t they just protest the Fed Reserve, the Bankers and Wall Street, since those bastards are the ones that have caused our economy and our currency to be so damn inflated by sending our jobs overseas and hiring illegal immigrants? So stop attacking the symptoms and start attacking the ROOT of the problem, dammit! 😡

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