Drivers aren’t “Ride or die” for Lyft/Uber
May 25, 2019
2020 Democrats have stepped in and are leading the strike with McDonalds workers. The strike started in Durham, North Carolina and has spread across the country. Workers in the strike are fighting for livable wages and fighting against the harassment that occurs in the restaurants. Now the truth is, harassment can happen anywhere. There have been many cases uncovered in all work environments but the harassment in the fast food industry seems to happen frequently. Thankfully people are now speaking up. For the third time in three years, McDonald’s workers have filed complaints accusing the company of fostering a culture of sexual harassment. A survey conducted by Hart Researchin 2016 found that 40% of women in the survey experienced unwanted sexual behavior working in fast food. 1,217 women were in the survey. Seeing these numbers from a screen doesn’t do justice. Think about it, that is 486 women who can’t work peacefully because they have been harassed, and there are thousands more. Harassment in any workplace should not be tolerated and company heads should treat it with the most force.
“For three years, we’ve been speaking out, filing charges and even going on strike to get McDonald’s to confront its sexual harassment problem,” said Tanya Harrell, a McDonald’s worker whose coworker allegedly attempted to rape her in a bathroom stall, in a statement. “But these new charges show that nothing has changed.”
This quote was taken from Eater.com
Bernie Sanders tweeted this about the wages McDonald’s are paying workers
In my view, if McDonald’s has enough money to buy back $22 billion of its own stock, it has enough money to pay all of its workers at least $15 an hour.
The McDonald’s CEO earned 21,756,052 millions dollars last year and is probably McLovin it, but that’s just my opinion. But the reality is that the franchise owners and higher ups of the company can definitely make less and the workers be given more. The demand for fast food is not slowing down and workers should be compensated for the crazy paced and intense environment. Those who work in fast food are just like everyone else trying to get the bills paid. The workers are the backbone of the company and without them McDonald’s would be nothing. So McDonalds should treat their workers to livable wages and like their company depends upon it because, in a way, it does.
But on the other side of things McDonald is a Job where not much education is required and no experience is as well. Most people can apply and start working quickly and this cannot be taken for granted. Where I live McDonalds are paying $11.00 and that is high above the federal minimum wage. In some cities you can more and others less. But most of us do not think about the other benefits McDonalds gives employees. Some benefits are 401k’s, employee discounts, dental insurance, and life insurance, These benefits cost more to give than wage and is part of the reason why it is difficult to raise wages. Not all McDonalds are company owned and franchise owned restaurants might suffer from them. most McDonalds are franchised owned so the company cannot force them to pay more. We also see the huge figures owners make and the company’s profit, remember that owners have a much tougher job that simply flipping the burger. Owners need to do a great job, if not the restaurant could fail and people would be out of a job completely.
“If it raised wages by $5 per hour for 90,000 employees, that might cost it some $750 million annually based on a 32 hour work week.” -TheMotleyfool.com
The fight for $15 is more difficult to acquire the most would think. There are many variables and some workers won’t benefit from some of the benefits given.
With the current outrage of mcDonald’s employees at an all time high other questions arise. Are the photos we see on McDonalds website like this fake?
https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/careers/meet-our-people.html
Does anyone have fun and are happy serving Big Macs? But most of all, is this a problem at other fast food restaurants. I went out to some local fast food spots near me to see.
Jack is 31 and worked at Tim Hortons when he was 17 years old. When thinking of the fast food restaurants I would visit to conduct interviews on the recent mcDonalds strike, Tim Hortons was definitely not one of them. Since the strike was lead by McDonalds workers I was thinking of similar places like Taco Bell, Wendy’s, Burger king, and Arby’s. I thought to myself, “ working at the place that supplies the delicious Timmy bites would be fabulous”. But I was wrong, It was everything but fabulous for Jack. When I asked Jack about his experience working in fast food and he had this to say
“I will never work fast food again.”
“If the management did not like you, they would schedule you in impossible ways”
“It was demeaning and if you could not keep up, you were seen as incompetent.”
Lis Martinez was an Arby’s manager for 11 years. She told me she loved working there and there was not any harassment when she worked there which was great to hear. She had one complaint and that was not having enough staff and training.
My first Job was at Taco bell and it personally I hated it. The management was inappropriate and could not lead. The only thing the management as capable of at the Taco Bell I worked at was make the tacos. There was a timer for each order and if the order was not complete in a certain time it would turn red. (Now this may seem unimportant but knowing the outcome of that red timer gave me nightmares.) Then the management would get made and rush all the staff which led to less customer satisfaction due to the foods presentation.
The rising turmoil of harassment and low wages has made workers at McDonalds speak out on a whole new level. But these issues may be widespread across the whole fast food industry. The truth is we probably won’t see $15 an hour anytime soon but it is not impossible. But don’t take my word for it. My name is Logan Perkins, and this is the Perks of News.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/us/politics/mcdonalds-strike-2020-candidates.html
https://www.statista.com/topics/1444/mcdonalds/
https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/10/25/why-a-mcdonalds-15-minimum-wage-wouldnt-be-the-sam.aspx
