McStrike

Winning better by forming a union and taking action together, in McDonald's, fast food and hospitality.

On July 20, 2020, members of the McStrike’s sister union SEIU and allies will take action across the United States in a Strike for Black Lives.

United States: SEIU members, workers in the Fight for $15 and a Union, and allies in other unions will be driving a national day of action, using their power as a union and as workers to walk off the job, withhold their labor, and launch protests all over the country in support of dismantling racism and white supremacy, to bring about fundamental changes in workplaces, the economy, and society.

In the UK: Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) fast food workers have come together to call out the systemic racism that runs through fast food corporations and wider society. We are demanding change from fast food CEOs who pay lip service to the Black Lives Matter movement whilst they fail to protect BAME workers from individual and systemic racial abuse, pay us poverty wages and refuse us a platform to have our voices heard.

We stand at a pivotal moment in global history as the Coronavirus pandemic causes devastation across the world, and millions are mobilising against racist police brutality.

Our US sisters and Brothers deserve our SOLIDARITY, through us connecting our struggles and building the power of our movement to tackle racial and economic injustice. We must declare that Black Lives Matter and illustrate all the ways our fights for racial, economic, healthcare, immigration, climate and other justice fights are connected.

The simultaneous crises of Covid-19 and police brutality towards Black people and other oppressed minorities around the world have led to an unprecedented moment with new opportunities for connection, for building the path forward together, and for declaring that we will not return to “normal.”

#StrikeForBlackLives Solidarity Zoom Rally

Register here: https://bit.ly/StrikeForBlackLivesUK

Time and Date: 7pm, Sunday 19 July 2020 

Location: On Zoom

Speakers: 

UK and US fast food workers
Selma James – Global Women’s Strike
Wilf Sullivan – The TUC
Asad Rehman – War On Want

Register here: https://bit.ly/StrikeForBlackLivesUK

Facebook event here

Called by The McStrike BAME Committee

Organised by BFAWU and War on Want

Supported by the Artist’s Union England, BARAC (Black Activists Rising Against Cuts), Hazards Campaign, JENGbA (Join Enterprise Not Guilty by Association), Kanlungan Filipino Association, LESETUC (London, Eastern and South Eastern Regional TUC), LRC (Labour Representative Committee), Morning Star, Peoples Assembly, Status Now Network, TUCG (Trade Union Coordinating Group, TULO (Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation)

Join The McStrike’s Zoom Solidarity Rally to show your solidarity and raise up our voices as together we forge a path forward to demand racial and economic justice in society and the workplace.

Register here: https://bit.ly/StrikeForBlackLivesUK

Show Your Solidarity

The following are ways you can show your solidarity:

  1. Share the Strike for Black Lives Solidarity Zoom Rally on social media.
  2. Join our Twitter Solidarity FlashMob:

https://mcstrike.uk/strikeforblacklives/

Billions to shareholders whilst workers suffer, and the public pays the price

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15 June 2020 – McDonalds will pay out a projected $929.4 million in Quarter 2 dividends to shareholders despite McDonald’s in the UK furloughing over 100,000 staff at public expense (likely to cost £10’s of millions ) through the Uk Government’s Job Retention Scheme

During Lock Down, UK McDonald’s workers have been struggling to survive on only 80% of poverty wages [paid by taxpayers] as McDonald’s gives out $Billions in dividends to shareholders

McDonald’s workers who contract #Covid19 and have to self-isolate and receive only Statutory Sick Pay which is just £95/week. McDonald’s is risking the health of our communities by putting workers in the impossible position of choosing between health and paying the bills.

McDonald’s has chosen to spend money on a PR campaign to say it supports #BlackLivesMatter whilst failing to tackle the systemic racism at the heart of it’s business model.

Around the world, McDonald’s workers have faced a lack of safety measures putting their health at risk.

If you are concerned about safety in your workplace, get in touch here – www.mcstrike.uk/SafetyConcerns

The Covid-19 pandemic shows how we must “Build Back Better” and ensure McDonald’s respects its workforce: pays us a #LivingWage of £15/hour, gives us guaranteed hours, and respects our right to join a union. #WeWillWin

For further information on McDonald’s dividends you can read the Memo “McDONALD’S CHOICE TO PRIORITIZE SHAREHOLDERS OVER WORKERS” here.

Hospitality and fastfood workers join video call to win #100Percent pay

Almost 100 hospitality and fast food workers from across the country joined a mass video call to share their plans to win #100Percent.

McDonald’s, KFC, and Wetherspoons workers spoke out about their plans to win #100Percent pay during the corona virus lockdown. They were joined by a Greggs worker who already receives #100Percent pay because they’re part of a union.

Watch the video below:

During the call, workers stepped up to take action together to win 100percent.

“We can only win if we all come together and take action. If you’re ready to join us, and win #100Percent sign up to take action here. www.mcstrike.uk/myplantowin”

Fast food and hospitality workers speak out from lock down to demand #100Percent pay from their employers.

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Fast food and hospitality workers speak out from lock down to demand #100Percent pay from their employers. 

  • Many furloughed workers receive first payslip on 80% of pay today. 
  • Fast food workers join forces with Wetherspoon’s workers who won U-Turn
  • Workers speak out in video made from Lockdown 

Fast food and hospitality workers, from Burger King, KFC, McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Wetherspoon’s are today launching a campaign to demand their employers top up the government’s 80% wage support so they can receive “#100Percent”. Most workers will receive their first paycheck with only 80% of their normal wages today. 

Fast food workers in the Mcstrike will join force with Wetherspoons workers in the SpoonStrike who successfully forced their employer to u-turn last week and pay them before the company is reimbursed by the government’s wage support scheme. 

Workers are demanding that their employers prevent them from sliding into deeper poverty and top up the millions in pounds of subsidy they will receive from the government and pay them 100% of their average wages. 

Workers speak out in a video made from “lockdown” where they talk about the impact receiving only 80% of their usual wages will have on their lives. They highlight how 80% will force them to choose between paying the rent, bills or putting food on the table. Endemic low pay in the sector means workers do not have savings to carry them over and they risk sliding into debt. 

Melissa Evans, a McDonald’s worker  from Wandsworth Town, London said: “80% is just not enough, we already live on poverty wages and struggle to get by day to day. Our energy consumption and food costs are going to go up. Our bills are still going to have to be paid. There is too much going out for us to take a 20% cut in wages. Our employer has a moral responsibility to make sure that we are able to survive. We got them where they are it’s time for them to give back and pay us #100Percent” 

Victoria Jordan, a Wetherspoon’s worker from Brighton said:

“We were already on poverty pay and insecure contracts before the Coronavirus. This has just highlighted what was already going on. But we’re not going to stand for it. We’ve been loyal to the company for years, they can afford to pay us 100percent  whilst we can’t afford to live on 80%.” 

Joey Cotton a KFC worker from Sheffield said: 

“#100percent would mean i don’t have to make difficult decisions about rent or bills or food, i could just afford all of them. Fast food wages are not brilliant at the best of times.” 

Alex McIntyre, a Wetherspoon’s worker from Brighton said: 

“I need #100percent because I need hope. I need certainty. We all need the drive to get through the crisis that the whole world is in right now. None of us asked for this to happen. We shouldn’t have to be worrying about how we’ll pay our rent, our bills or our food. The least they can do is pay us our full wages.”

Many employers in the hospitality and fast food sector are requesting support under the government’s wage support scheme, which allows 80% of workers’ average pay to be claimed from the government. Instead of topping up the remaining 20%, workers are often offered 80% under threat of redundancy. The great majority of workers in fast food and hospitality sectors are on zero-hour or minimum-hour contracts which give them little contractual rights. Poverty wages (below the real living wage) are endemic across the hospitality and fast food sectors.  

The workers are supported by the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union [BFAWU] and anti-poverty charity War on Want.   

Notes to editors: 

For further information / to organise interviews with workers please contact: Owen Espley oespley[@]waronwant.org / mobile: 07861- 362 – 797 

1) Video of workers speaking out from Lock down is available here: https://twitter.com/WarOnWant/status/1245664354676203520 

Contact for high-res versions. 

2) The #McStrike campaign brings fast food workers together to challenge low pay and insecurity. It is supported by The Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) and War on Want. 

3) #SpoonStrike: JD Wetherspoons workers were inspired by the McStrike and joined the BFAWU. Wetherspoon’s workers made history when they went on strike for the first time alongside fast food workers in October 2018. 

4) The BFAWU is the largest independent trade union in the food sector in the British Isles. 

5) Follow on Twitter at @FastFoodRights and @SpoonStrike 

ENDS