McDonald’s Management’s Response to Workers’ Burns on the Job: “Just Put Some Mustard On It” [View all]

[marmar]

(In These Times) If accusations of poverty wages, racial discrimination, sexual harassment and rampant wage theft weren’t enough, McDonald’s workers also say they bare the brunt of hazardous conditions on the job. On Monday, workers across 19 cities filed 28 health and safety complaints with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and other state agencies.

As a part of the national campaign Fight for 15, an effort backed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to organize for a $15 per hour minimum wage, the low-wage workers say that understaffing combined with pressure from management to work at breakneck speeds has created a dangerous work environment where workers routinely suffer severe burns and other injuries.

Although a McDonald’s spokesperson claimed the complaints “are part of a larger strategy orchestrated by activists targeting [the McDonald’s] brand and designed to generate media coverage,” a survey conducted by Hart Research Associates on behalf of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health affirmed the grievances. The survey found that 79% of fast food workers had been burned on the job in the past year, and of those, almost all of them reported multiple burns over that same time.

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In a video produced by the campaign, two workers tell stories of going to management after receiving burns while working. Management's response, according to both workers, was to apply mustard to the wounds. ..............(more)

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17754/mcdonalds_working_conditions1