 have staged their first UK strike, as up to 300 people rallied outside the Houses of Parliament on Monday.){kind=link}
Employees from McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) have staged their first UK strike, as up to 300 people rallied outside the Houses of Parliament on Monday.
Joined with union workers and members of parliament, the McDonald’s employees took part of the international day of action to take a stance against the use of zero-hour contracts and lack of union recognition.
“These are workers who are extremely vulnerable in terms of their employment conditions. And yet at the same time they’ve had the courage to come on strike. They’ve said: ‘We’ve had enough and we need to negotiate,’ said shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, who took part in the rally in London.
“If I was McDonald’s management I’d be listening very carefully today. I’d contact the union and I’d get round that table.”
The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) President Ian Hodson said: “McDonald’s has had countless opportunities to resolve grievances by offering workers a fair wage and acceptable working conditions.
“For far too long, workers in fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s have had to deal with poor working conditions, drastic cuts to employee hours, and even bullying in the workplace – viewed by many as a punishment for joining a union,”
The US company employs 85,000 people in the UK announced in April plans to offer the choice between of flexible or fixed contracts with minimum guaranteed hours. The company has been trialling the fixed hour contracts this year.
A McDonald’s spokesman said the company was “providing our people with the option of a guaranteed hour contract, and all restaurants will have these contracts in place by the end of 2017”.
The corporation has continually defended zero-hour contracts.
The company “and its franchisees had delivered three pay rises since April 2016, increasing the average hourly pay rate by 15 percent” he continued.
“We are proud of our people at McDonald’s, they are at the heart of all we do and we work hard to ensure that our teams are treated fairly. Our internal processes underpin that commitment.”