McDonald’s Employees Set To Strike Tuesday Over Sexual Harassment With Goal Of Unionizing

Thousands of US workers have gone on strike this month, showing their increasing power can enforce corporate change among employers amid a tightening labor force. The latest news of a strike will upset fast-food customers who frequent McDonald’s. 

On Tuesday, McDonald’s employees from at least ten major cities will walk off the job over the company’s handling of sexual harassment at the workplace and call for better pay. Employees are eventually making strides to unionize. 

“I’m going on strike because, despite years of protests, McDonald’s still refuses to take responsibility for the countless women and teenagers who face harassment on the job at its stores across the globe,” Jamelia Fairley, a McDonald’s employee in Sanford, Florida, told The Hill.

Fairley added that “nothing will change for me, or millions of other workers like me, until we use our collective voice to make change happen.”

“We are out here really demanding a union, so we can get changes that we can’t get by ourselves,” Rita Blalock, a McDonald’s worker in North Carolina, told local news WRAL. 

“Right now, workers are getting harassed, and some people are scared to speak out because they feel like they might lose their jobs. Coming together in a union would help because we would have a real voice in our store. Not just about abuse, but about wages and safety and everything else,” said Blalock. 

She said she has been with the company for over a decade and averages around $10 per hour. She is hoping for change on multiple fronts with the pathway towards unionization. 

October has been a month full of strikes. Thousands, if not tens of thousands of workers, have been striking across various industries. One of the most notable and most recent has been the John Deere strike. 

The right to strike doesn’t appear to be waning anytime soon as labor shortages have given workers the upper hand to protest unfair labor practices committed by their employers and low pay. 

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler recently told The Hill that workers are “fed up” with harsh working conditions and lousy pay.

“This is the capitalist system that has driven us to the brink,” Shuler said. “Inequality is just getting worse and worse. … We think unions are the solution,” she added. 

McDonald’s, which has already been suffering from a lack of workers, may experience complete shutdowns tomorrow in some cities and towns as laborers flex their muscles.