McDonald’s faces first ever UK strike

Workers at Crayford and Cambridge branches
are demanding a £10-an-hour minimum wage, union recognition, and
scrapping of zero-hour deals

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The union has taken advice from protesters in the US and New
Zealand who have campaigned for better conditions at McDonald’s in
the past, reports the BBC. 

McDonald’s employs around 85,000 staff in the UK and one million
worldwide.

“The fast-food chain has been one of the biggest users of
zero-hours contracts in Britain,” says The Guardian. It announced in April that
workers would be offered a choice of flexible or fixed contracts
with minimum guaranteed hours, but says 86 per cent have chosen to
stay on flexible contracts.

Among the workers’ demands are a £10-an-hour minimum wage, union
recognition and the scrapping of all zero-hours deals.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has offered his backing to the
protest, which the union said would be well-supported.

Ian Hodson, the union’s president, said: “We fully support the
historic decision by these brave workers to stand up and fight back
against McDonald’s – a company that has let them down one too many
times.

“For far too long, workers in fast food restaurants such as
McDonald’s have had to deal with poor working conditions, drastic
cuts to employee hours, and even bullying in the workplace – viewed
by many as a punishment for joining a union.”

‘Proper bullying’
“For many of those on the picket line, it’s working conditions and
internal processes which have become – unexpectedly – intolerable,”
says HuffPost UK. 

“Things seemed to change,” one of the striking workers’ told the
website. “My mum passed away in January and the manager just
thought I went on holiday. The way I was treated was really bad. I
went into hospital because of the stress of it.”

Another of those on strike at the Crayford branch told the
website: “There is proper bullying going on here. The conditions
have become really bad. There’s discrimination. Hours are cut if
you’re not a manager’s favourite.”

A spokesman for McDonald’s said: “We can confirm that, following
a ballot process, the BFAWU has indicated that a small number of
our people representing less than 0.01% of our workforce are
intending to strike in two of our 1,270 UK restaurants.”

“As per the terms of the ballot, the dispute is solely related
to our internal grievance procedures and not concerning pay or
contracts.”