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
