Headline: Shhh…. McDonald’s has a secret
Message from a US McDonald’s worker:
Shhh…. McDonald’s has a secret. You know those nationwide strikes in the USA they pretend not to care about? Well it turns out, they do care. A LOT.
It’s funny. When I first told my friends and family that I was going to go on strike for higher wages and respect, they said “are you crazy? You work at McDonald’s. They’ll never listen to you.”
It just goes to show that anything is possible when you stick together, and fight for what you know is right.
Thanks for your support,
Jonathan Rounds
Fast Food Forward
Worker strikes and social media shaming “can adversely affect us,” and “increasing public focus” on “income inequality” could spur higher wages, fast food giant McDonald’s acknowledged in an annual report filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Under “Risk Factors and Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Financial Statements,” the McDonald’s corporation writes that “the quality of our execution” of the company “Plan to Win” “depends mainly” on a series of factors, among them “The impact of campaigns by labor organizations and activists, including through the use of social media and other mobile communications and applications, to promote adverse perceptions of the quick-service category … or our brand, management, suppliers or franchisees, or to promote or threaten boycotts, strikes or other actions …” The company also lists “The impact of events such as boycotts or protests, labor strikes and supply chain interruptions (including due to lack of supply or price increases) that can adversely affect us or the suppliers franchisees and others … whose performance has a material impact on our results …”
In a subsequent list, under “key factors that can affect our operations, plans and results in this environment,” McDonald’s describes a “long-term trend toward higher wages and social expenses in both mature and developing markets, which may intensify with increasing public focus on matters of income inequality …”
McDonald’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment. As Salon has reported, workers backed by the Service Employees International Union have mounted an unprecedented challenge to the industry, including a wave of one-day strikes that grew from a single-city November 2012 effort in New York to a December 2013 walkout, which organizers said involved thousands of workers in a hundred U.S. cities. Asked beforehand about that action, a McDonald’s spokesperson emailed that the company and its franchisees “are committed to providing our employees with opportunities to succeed.”
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