06 September, 2017
McDonald's is facing its first workers strike in the United Kingdom since it opened in 1974.
Some 40 workers gathered outside the doors of a chain store in Crayford, a town near London, and in the university city of Cambridge before taking part in a demonstration outside Parliament.
Workers are demanding an hourly wage of £10 ($13, 11 euros), union recognition and an end to zero-hours contracts, under which employees are required to be available for work but have no guaranteed minimum hours. He said: "They are standing up for workers' rights by leading the first-ever strike at McDonald's in the UK".
The dispute originated from McDonald's use of zero-hour contracts and staff complaints of low wages.
The young workers who are striking are inspiring because they have not seen conditions deteriorate as many trade unionists have.
The McDonald's workers protest earned support from Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, as well as worker union leaders. Strikers are receiving advice and support from the New Zealand Unite union and a delegation of Belgian workers.
"Hopefully, senior figures at McDonald's will be listening", he added.
"As per the terms of the ballot, the dispute is exclusively related to our internal grievances procedures and not concerning pay or contracts". "I've never felt so supported in my whole life". "My mum passed away in January and the manager just thought I went on holiday".
"This ballot is all about fighting for a £10 per hour minimum wage, and the need for McDonald's to recognise their workers' rights to form a trade union, as employees of the company". Despite working four shifts a week of up to eight hours, he is homeless and sleeps on an airbed in a friend's flat.
McDonald's employees around 85,000 people in the UK. The internal grievance cases included claims of bullying and sexual harassment, Hodson said. A company that had revenues of £17bn, whose chief executive earned £11.82m a year ago, is not just paying poverty wages, it is forcing young people into this unstable but submissive existence.
"As reported in April this year, together with our franchisees, we are giving our kin the alternative of an ensured hour contract, and all eateries will have these agreements set up before the finish of 2017". The national minimum wage for an adult over 25 is £7.50, aged 21 to 24 £7.05, aged 18 to 20 £5.60 and under 18 £4.05. We've got some people going on strike in their 40s.
"For many of those on the picket line, it's working conditions and internal processes which have become - unexpectedly - intolerable", says HuffPost UK.
