Why You Really Shouldn't Buy a Big Mac... (Script & Sources)

Good morning, bad news: if you want a Big Mac in Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Miami, or a half dozen other cities you might want to look elsewhere. But actually, it’s good news, because across the United States, hundreds of McDonalds workers have joined tens of thousands of other American workers in a walkout strike. In fact, McDonalds workers have been striking increasingly more often in the last five years for a lot of very good reasons. As the second largest private employer in the world after Walmart, it is absolutely no secret that McDonalds workers are mistreated, underpaid, overworked, sexually harassed, and completely ignored when trying to improve their working conditions.

And before the comments of this video turn into a billionaire boot-licking festival where the theme is “too much boot”, this might be a good time to remind everybody that the average minimum wage worker is in their mid 30s and works full time, and not, as hyper capitalists are desperate for you to believe, a C- student in high school demanding the same wages as an anesthesiologist.

Not only do all minimum and low wage workers deserve to be paid equitably for their labor, which by the way is a minimum $27 an hour, but McDonalds workers aren’t even paid minimum wage - the company has a long and rampant history of wage theft, and has repeatedly lost lawsuits over the issue with workers not being paid for overtime, being told to work without clocking in, and not being compensated for time doing work-related tasks, like cleaning uniforms.

And that's just the few lawsuits that have been filed, the fundamental problem is that nearly all wage theft of low wage workers goes unreported, because workers are afraid of losing their jobs, and obviously don’t have the money to mount a legal case against the largest chain restaurant in the world.

But what’s worse, is that even though these problems exist in all low wage work, McDonalds is particularly egregious in their ability to escape responsibility by claiming that despite how pervasive and similar these problems are across the country, the company itself isn’t liable because most locations are franchises. So not only do they refuse to take responsibility for what happens under their brand, they also refuse to get involved in any labor disputes or pay issues by pretending that it simply doesn’t involve them.

And maybe most importantly, the reason for this attitude is that McDonalds executives absolutely do not care about their lower-level employees. Former McDonalds CEO Ed Rensi responded to wage strikes by saying that instead of paying an equitable wage, they’d rather spend money on a robotic arm to bag french fries. And keep in mind, they are already automating as fast as they can, they aren’t continuing to pay workers because they’re nice, but because machines can’t replace the workers they desperately need - so effectively threatening that workers will be automated out of jobs if they keep asking for equitable pay is not only an empty threat, but shows a blatant disregard for their value.

And before the boot-licking festival starts again, why don’t you tell us in the comments why McDonalds is struggling to replace workers right now during the labor crisis if they can just buy a robot arm to replace them?

In fact, the current strike happening around the country is about an even more upsetting problem, McDonalds workers have a history of being subject to sexual harassment and abuse - with almost no measures in place to protect their workers from on-the-job violence, which occurs in both franchise and corporate locations. When employees speak out against the issue, there are documented cases of them having their hours cut or being fired - instead of the problems being addressed.

Currently, McDonalds is on a PR campaign claiming efforts at reforming their practices around sexual harassment, but even in their response, they claim that little can be done because of franchise owners - an argument that has been debunked regarding wages, working conditions, and now harassment. But they’re sticking to their buns, and it’s more than likely that nothing will change. And if you’re really craving some McDonalds fries, we’ll drop a link to a fry recipe in the comments that anyone can make, and that probably tastes better than a boot.