Day 275 - 08 Jul 96 - Page 22


     
     1
     2             "Over the years I have spoken with people who have
     3        worked at McDonald's.  All of them said that pay was low
     4        and conditions were bad."
     5
     6             And if I can just add, I have known quite a few
     7        friends who have worked there, and they have all said
     8        virtually that it was the worst job they ever had.  I have
     9        also spoken to people who were actually working in the
    10        stores at times when I have been picketing the stores.  For
    11        example, I can remember in Wood Green when we did a picket
    12        of the store there, the McDonald's store, some of the
    13        workers came out and asked for copies of the leaflet and
    14        when they read them they actually said they agreed.  And
    15        the manager came out and said to them, "What are you all
    16        doing out here", and he was criticizing myself and other
    17        people for handing out leaflets, and saying, "Look, this is
    18        a load of rubbish you know, how can you say the pay is
    19        low", and then some of the actual crew members were saying
    20        they agreed with it in front of him.  And I remember him
    21        saying, "If you don't like it you can just leave the job."
    22
    23             Can I also say, from my own experience -- I mean, I
    24        have not worked at McDonald's, but I worked at one of the
    25        major supermarket chains while I was at 6th Form College
    26        and it was basically the same sort of attitude there.  I
    27        mean, I do not know how the pay compared, but we were told
    28        things like, "You have got to stay on to do this particular
    29        job", and if you said anything like, well, you know, "you
    30        did not give me any notice that I have got to stay on", you
    31        know, "I cannot" or "I do not want to", you know, "I have
    32        got something else I want to do", they would just say,
    33        "Well, there is plenty of people out on the dole queue, if
    34        you do not agree to stay late we will get somebody else."
    35
    36             So, in my experience, that is just typical of big
    37        companies.  They treat their workers like robots.  They,
    38        you know, expect them to obey their beck and call, and you
    39        know -- I don't know, I do not think that any of these
    40        companies treat people, the people who work for them, with
    41        the respect that they deserve.  So, when friends and other
    42        people told me about what went on at McDonald's it was not
    43        remotely surprising to me.  As far as I was concerned, that
    44        is an end product of a system that puts profit before
    45        people.
    46
    47             "I have also read numerous reports and articles about
    48        pay and working conditions at McDonald's, and about
    49        McDonald's refusal to negotiate with trade unions and their
    50        antitrade-union attitude.  These articles included
    51        "attributed to McDonald's management saying words to the
    52        effect that they would have nothing to do with trade
    53        unions."
    54
    55             As I say, I have read -- I cannot remember whether I
    56        read the whole of it but I do remember spending some time
    57        reading working for the Big Mac, the booklet produced by
    58        Transnationals Information Centre.  I had also read the Big
    59        MacBowas and Chain and -- sorry, the unauthorised biography
    60        of Big Mac, and I had also read John Love's book.  I do not

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