McDonald’s workers in 20 cities nationwide went on strike Wednesday, protesting against the company’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and demanding guaranteed paid sick leave, hazard pay and more.
“Since the pandemic started, folks have been quitting because they’re scared of getting sick,” Darnell Harris, a grill worker at a McDonald’s in Detroit, said on the video call.
While McDonald’s has provided two weeks of paid sick leave and cash bonuses to workers in its company-run stores during the pandemic, it does not guarantee such leave and benefits to workers at its independently owned franchises — which make up over 90% of its thousands of locations nationwide.
Angelica Hernandez, another McDonald’s worker on Wednesday’s strike call, said one of her coworkers in her Los Angeles location got the virus and was hospitalized.
Fran Marion, a McDonald’s worker in Kansas City, Missouri, pointed out on the call that the coronavirus has disproportionately been killing Black, Latinx and Native American people.
