Many of those workers are expected to be on the front lines of a wave of protests scheduled for 15 April in more than 200 cities across the US, when fast-food workers will be joined by Walmart employees, home-care aides, childcare workers and adjunct professors in what organizers say will be the largest protest by low-wage workers in American history.
“I felt like it was unfair – I didn’t understand why we weren’t treated the same,” said Brandy Lucas, a $7.30-an-hour worker at a franchisee-run McDonald’s in Greensboro, North Carolina.
“At every McDonald’s, workers do the same work and wear the same uniform. So I didn’t understand why I wasn’t getting a raise like everybody else.”
Lucas, a 26-year-old mother of two, said she was so upset that she planned for the first time to join the strikes organized by protest group Fight for $15. McDonald’s announced on 1 April that it would raise its average pay to $9.90, 89 cents more than the current average of $9.01, for 90,000 workers at its company-owned restaurants.
Under the plan announced by president and chief executive Steve Easterbrook, the company will pay all employees at its company-operated restaurants at least $1 more than the local minimum wage. Nationally, the minimum wage stands at $7.25 an hour.
President Barack Obama has been pressing, unsuccessfully, for an increase to $10.10.Fight for $15 – a union-backed organization which is campaigning for a $15 federal minimum wage – derided McDonald’s announcement as a “publicity stunt” and seized on it to try to enlist more protesters for the latest day of action it has planned.
Organizers are circulating an online petition, signed by hundreds of McDonald’s workers, saying: “Don’t be McFooled! Demand a raise.”
At franchisee-run restaurants, they have distributed flyers that say: “Because of our Fight for $15, McDonald’s announced they are raising wages. The catch is that it’s only for corporate stores! You Will Not Get That Raise!” Kendall Fells, organizing director for Fight for $15, said: “A lot of workers feel like they’ve been slapped in the face.
A lot of people who never heard of Fight for $15 are ready to join. The announcement is making the 4/15 protests bigger than ever, and we really appreciate it.” Fells said many workers at the company run stores have also voiced dismay, unhappy that the announced raises leave them far below their goal of $15 an hour.
“I spoke to a young lady at a corporate store – she’s going to a get a 50-cent raise,” Fells said. “That’s laughable.”
McDonald’s officials say the raises average 10% and are a significant boost. In announcing the pay increases, Easterbrook said the company had listened to its employees and decided to give not just raises, but also paid personal leave to workers employed for more than a year at company operated restaurants.
In addition, he said the company would offer financial assistance for workers at company-operated or franchisee-operated restaurants to take online college or high school equivalency courses.
Heidi Barker, a McDonald’s spokeswoman, said: “We understand and anticipated the reactions we’ve seen, some overwhelmingly supportive, and others critical. We acted in what we believe is in the long–term best interests of the entire McDonald’s system.”
She noted that Easterbrook had said he understood “that some may believe it doesn’t go far enough”. She added that the move on paid time off was “industry-leading” and would encourage others in the industry to adopt similar benefits.
Anthony Fambrough, a $7.50-an-hour shift leader at a franchisee-operated McDonald’s in Atlanta – he oversees six other workers – is one of those who believe the move doesn’t go far enough.
“The raise should have gone to everyone – we all work for the same company and we all face the same stress at work,” he said. Fambrough, 24 and with a one-month-old daughter, works part-time at a second McDonald’s and said he might look for a third job to help make ends meet. “McDonald’s makes enough money to pay more than $7.50,” he said.
“People have children, and they don’t have a way to pay for college tuition or pay rent when they’re only getting paid $7.50. And now the dentist wants me to pay $400 to have a filling.” Fells said many workers at the company-run stores have also voiced dismay, unhappy that the announced raises leave them far below their goal of $15 an hour.
“I spoke to a young lady at a corporate store – she’s going to a get a 50-cent raise,” Fells said. “That’s laughable.” McDonald’s officials say the raises average 10% and are a significant boost.
Professor Ken Jacobs, the director of the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California, Berkeley, said that if McDonald’s had been truly serious about raising workers’ wages and reducing turnover, it would have given its franchisees some inducement to give their employees raises.
With many franchisees facing flat sales and some saying they are squeezed by the fees that McDonald’s charges them, Jacobs said McDonald’s could have reduced its fees, giving franchisees more breathing room to award raises.
“That’s something that McDonald’s could easily do and it would enable franchisees to raise wages,” he said. Barker rejected this idea. “It’s important to note that many independent franchisees already pay their employees wages above the federal minimum wage,” she said.
“McDonald’s does not and cannot determine wages set by our 3,100 US franchisees.” Jacobs said McDonald’s might have deliberately avoided pressing or encouraging franchisees to grant raises because that might have made the company look like a joint employer – a label it is seeking to avoid amid a heated row with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
The NLRB has accused McDonald’s of being a joint employer, noting that it sets requirements for franchise operators to follow on training, uniforms and other matters. If McDonald’s is found to be a joint employer, that could make it jointly liable if franchisees illegally fire workers for backing a union, violate safety laws or cheat workers out of overtime.
McDonald’s says its franchisees are independent business operators who face minimal interference from the parent company. Barker called the 1 April announcement an important initiative, adding: “We hope to demonstrate to our franchisees and our industry that this can be a successful business model.” She insisted that the move was “absolutely not” a publicity stunt.
“This is a substantial business investment for our people with the primary goal of making their lives and careers better,” she said. But Fells, the Fight for $15 organizing director, had a different take. “People are very upset by the announcement,” he said. “The heat is up. We’re picking up strikers right and left.”
theguardian.com
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