McDonald’s Campus Closes Because of Fast Food Protests

[struggle4progress]

by Carla Murphy, Wednesday, May 21 2014, 3:21 PM EST

Today, following last week’s first ever global fast food worker protests, hundreds of workers from around the country descended on McDonald’s corporate headquarters outside Chicago. In anticipation of the crowd the McDonald’s campus was a ghost town however, closed for the day. Moral Mondays leader, Rev. William Barber, president of the NAACP-NC is there, as is another southerner, Eddie Foreman. Foreman is a McDonald’s employee from Opelika, Ala., arrested last week, and charged with criminal trespass, he says, for protesting with other workers outside his local restaurant. Despite the legal trouble and risk of a second arrest, he made the trip north from Opelika today ...

http://colorlines.com/archives/2014/05/mcdonalds_campus_closes_because_of_fast_food_protests.html

[struggle4progress]

1. McDonald's Tells Workers to Stay Home Amid Protest

May 21 (Bloomberg) -- About 2,000 protestors marched on McDonald's Corp.'s campus that houses Hamburger University in Oak Brook, Illinois, the latest demonstration in support of increasing wages at the fast-food chain. McDonald's told most of the 3,200 headquarters employees to stay home today to avoid the protest ...

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-05-21/mcdonalds-tells-workers-to-stay-home-amid-protest

[genwah]

14. Were the HQ employees paid for today? Not management of course but the support and janitorial staff?

[struggle4progress]

2. Protesters arrested in pay fight at McDonald's headquarters

By Priya Sridhar & Candice Choi
Associated Press
POSTED: 03:03 p.m. HST, May 21, 2014
LAST UPDATED: 03:15 p.m. HST, May 21, 2014

... Down the street from Hamburger University, dozens of police officers in riot gear warned protesters to disperse. People dressed in McDonald's uniforms essentially volunteered to be arrested by peacefully crossing a barricade or remaining on the property after being asked to leave ...

Among them was Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, who said in a statement released after her arrest that she wanted McDonald's workers to know her union members stood with them.

The SEIU has been providing financial and organizational support to the fast-food protests, which began in late 2012 in New York City and have been spreading to other cities and countries ...

Protesters also plan to demonstrate outside the company's annual meeting Thursday morning ...

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/20140521_protesters_arrested_in_pay_fight_at_mcdonalds_headquarters.html

[struggle4progress]

3. No fries with that — McDonald's HQ closes before worker protest

By Nathan Salant
3 hours ago in Food

... Protesters are demanding that workers be paid a minimum of $15 an hour, more than twice the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour that many receive.

Protesters also are demanding the right to organize ...

"We want to make sure that McDonald's shareholders and CEO Don Thompson hear us and see us and know that these are the workers they are pushing into poverty," Kendall Fells of organizing group Fast Food Forward told CNN.

"We want them to know what it's like to make a decision to buy a bus pass or feed your kids," Fells said ...

http://www.digitaljournal.com/life/food/no-fries-with-that-mcdonald-s-hq-closes-before-worker-protest/article/384331

[struggle4progress]

4. Protesters target McDonald's headquarters in pay fight

By Jessica Wohl
Tribune reporter
8:11 p.m. CDT, May 21, 2014

... The demonstration was peaceful, with 138 protesters presenting their IDs to police and allowing themselves to be arrested and led to a bus, one-by-one, on a hot afternoon. The Oak Brook Police Department said the arrests were made for “criminal trespass to property” and that those arrested could face a fine.

The push to raise fast-food and retail employees' wages has led to protests nationwide since the movement took shape in 2012, with demonstrations from New York to Los Angeles that are organized by groups financially backed by the Service Employees International Union. Wednesday's gathering marked the latest against McDonald's, coming a day before the company's annual meeting. The meeting will go on as scheduled Thursday morning, a McDonald's spokeswoman said.

While waiting to be arrested, Marie Sanders, a 25-year old McDonald's worker from Kansas City, Mo., said that she makes $7.75 an hour now after starting at $7.25 in 2011. She said that her working conditions are fair but “it's not a living wage. It's like a constant struggle every day” ...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-mcdonalds-protests-20140521,0,5545443.story

[Cha]

16. Thank you for all the information on this, struggle!

[struggle4progress]

5. McDonald's protesters arrested outside HQ

Bruce Horovitz
USA TODAY
8:06 p.m. EDT May 21, 2014

... Workers chanted "Hey McDonald's You Can't Hide, We Can See Your Greedy Side," and "No Big Macs, No Fries, Make our Wage Supersize," as the arrests were made ...

... "Workers are taking on the biggest, baddest, richest in the $200 billion fast-food industry," says Kendall Fells, leader of Fast Food Forward. "If we can bring McDonald's to the table, the road ahead will be a lot easier" ...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/05/21/mcdonalds-protests-arrests-fast-food-restaurants/9382753/

[struggle4progress]

6. Fast-food wage protesters demonstrate outside McDonald’s headquarters

May 21
Staff and news services

... The Rev. Donna Simon of Kansas City’s St. Mark Hope and Peace Lutheran Church said by phone late Wednesday afternoon that she was standing in line to be arrested.

“We’re sitting and standing in the street,” Simon said. “We’re singing ‘We Shall Overcome,’ ‘This Little Light of Mine’ and ‘We Shall Not Be Moved.’ The police are respectful. Our folks are respectful. It’s just an amazing scene.”

Organizers estimated that 150 people trained in civil disobedience had planned to be arrested ...

Melinda Topel, a 43-year-old McDonald’s store employee who makes $7.50 an hour, said: “I’m here fighting for $15 and a union so that my path does not become my children’s future” ...

http://www.kansascity.com/2014/05/21/5038281/fast-food-wage-protesters-throng.html

[struggle4progress]

7. UPDATE 3-McDonald's workers protest low wages

Wed May 21, 2014 6:53pm EDT
By Lisa Baertlein

... The protest against McDonald's Corp, the world's biggest restaurant operator by revenue, came a day before a shareholder vote on executive pay, including that of Chief Executive Don Thompson, who earned total compensation of $9.5 million in 2013.

Rallies by low-wage restaurant and retail workers have helped fuel a national debate on pay inequality at a time when many middle- to low-income Americans are struggling to make ends meet.

Jessica Davis, a 25-year-old McDonald's crew trainer with two children, said Thompson was earning his millions on the backs of working mothers and fathers ...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/21/mcdonalds-protests-idUSL1N0O718220140521

[struggle4progress]

8. Thousands of fast-food workers protest for higher wages, unions at McDonald’s demonstration

Chuck Fieldman
May 21 6:20 p.m.

... Kendall Felly came from New York as one of the organizers and directors of the protest. He is involved with Fast Food Forward, a movement of New York City fast food workers seeking to raise wages and gain rights at work.

“We came here because McDonald’s is the leader of the fast-food industry,” Felly said. “We want to wake them up. People are fed up.”

Felly said he believes a $15 hourly wage for fast-food workers, often paid minimum wage, is realistic.

“It’s the right thing,” he said. “It’s just enough to get food, clothing and shelter” ...

http://oakbrook.suntimes.com/2014/05/21/thousands-of-fast-food-workers-protest-for-higher-wages-unions-at-mcdonalds-demonstration/

[struggle4progress]

9. Protesters seeking higher pay for McDonald's workers swarm fast-food chain's corporate office

REUTERS
Wednesday, May 21, 2014, 7:26 PM

... According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 3.5 million fast-food and counter workers in the U.S. earn a median hourly wage of $8.83, or about $18,400 per year based on a 40-hour work week without vacation ...

A recent report from New York think tank Demos found that the CEO-to-worker compensation ratio for the fast food industry was more than 1,000-to-1 in 2013 ...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/protest-better-pay-mcdonald-workers-leads-arrests-chicago-article-1.1801256

[struggle4progress]

10. Hundreds protest at McDonald’s campus over workers rights, wages

4 hours ago
by Frank Holland

... The demonstrators ... say the company misleads the public by portraying the majority of their workforce as teens. Demonstrators here say most fast food workers are adults who are struggling to make ends meet ...

http://wgntv.com/2014/05/21/hundreds-protest-at-mcdonalds-campus-over-workers-rights-wages/

[adirondacker]

11. 'Not Lovin' It': Low-Wage Workers Met by Riot Police Outside McDonald's HQ

Over a hundred arrested protesting on eve of shareholder meeting
- Lauren McCauley, staff writer
Thousands of demonstrators staging a peaceful protest at the McDonald's headquarters were met by police in riot gear on Wednesday when the low-wage fast food workers and their supporters stormed the Illinois campus to say: "Make our Wage Supersize!"

The protest was held on the eve of the fast food giant's annual shareholder meeting at the company's corporate campus outside Chicago, during which activist shareholders are expected to vote against CEO Donald Thompson’s $9.5m pay package, the Guardian reports. Protesters are also planning to picket that meeting.

"We went on strike, we protested, we asked politely and now we got arrested to make sure McDonald’s hears us,” said Ashona Osborne, a McDonald’s employee from Pittsburgh who was one of the 101 people arrested at the demonstration. “I came to McDonald’s shareholders meeting because I want the company to take me seriously and know that I'm a mother who is sick of struggling to support her son."

Two thousand people from cities across the United States marched onto the campus chanting, "Hey McDonald’s You Can’t Hide, We Can See Your Greedy Side,” and “No Big Macs, No Fries, Make our Wage Supersize,” before holding sit-in, blocking the entrance. As they marched deeper into the campus the protesters were met by a line of police officers in riot gear."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/05/21-9

[struggle4progress]

12. +

[adirondacker]

13. I meant to include the captioned photo that went with the article

[Cha]

17. Thank you for that, adirondacker!

[Cha]

15. Wow.. I never thought I'd see this day! Protests against Fast Food!

[struggle4progress]

18. They've been organizing for a while now

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024777131

[Tsiyu]

19. Much love sent to all the protesters

for their courage and fortitude.

And thanks, s4p for posting these updates

[JDPriestly]

20. K&R.

[billhicks76]

21. McBoycott

When I was in college we used to spray paint "McBoycott" using a stencil we made with the M being the McDonalds arches on the sidewalks in front of their franchises. I was arrested for it but charges were dropped as it wasn't illegal to stencil sidewalks then. I hope one day most people stop eating meat and especially fast food but that kind of evolution takes decades.

[billhicks76]

23. But Pay The Workers For Gawds Sake

More bs from the .01%. What are they going to do when people get sick of cops in riot gear pushing down peaceful assemblies? People aren't going to take it forever.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

22. McDonald's "campus?"

What a hoot! Is it really a place of higher learning?

Kudos to the protesters who come from far and near and risk so much.

Thanks for posting all this news, struggle4progress.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

24. It's some pretty nice digs near Oak Brook IL.

I think they train store mangers and up there.

They apparently also rent out the banquet facility because I was there with Ford Motor Credit. For, IiRC, a Christmas party.