McDonald’s Workers Strike Due to Workplace Sexual Harassment and Violence | Eater
"Under national scrutiny, the company faced coordinated strikes in 13 cities organized by Fight for $15, drawing celebrity and political support as workers demanded $15/hour and the right to unionize. Recent legal filings — including about 20 EEOC claims, multiple civil suits, and an OSHA complaint from a South Side Chicago restaurant — allege persistent sexual harassment and retaliation (examples include a supervisor cutting a woman’s hours after she reported a coworker exposing himself, an area manager pressuring a financially vulnerable worker for sex and then retaliating when she refused, and a teenager whose family lost jobs after she rebuffed a supervisor). A National Employment Law Project report documents at least 721 media-reported incidents of workplace violence from 2016–2019 (many involving guns), and workers describe frequent emergency calls, managers advising staff to defend themselves with hot oil or coffee, and daily fear on the job. Corporate leadership says it has partnered with RAINN, encouraged franchisees to adopt new policies, rolled out training and a complaint hotline, and secured shareholder approval for executive compensation, but workers and advocates call these measures insufficient and point to the largely franchised model (roughly 90–95% franchised) as a barrier to holding corporate leadership accountable." - Jenny G. Zhang
