McStrike to Spread Across UK on May Day

Immediate Release 15 April 2018

• Workers vote by 95.2% for strike action at 5 McDonald’s stores across the UK.
• Workers will strike at Global CEO Steve Easterbrook’s hometown of Watford.

McDonald’s workers have announced strike action at 5 stores on International Workers Day (Tuesday 01 May 2018).  The workers from 3 new stores in Manchester and Watford will join the stores at Crayford and Cambridge who made history last September by going on strike for the very first time in the UK.

Workers will strike in Watford, the hometown of multi-millionaire McDonald’s Global CEO Steve Easterbrook.

The Bakers’ Union members are striking for £10 an hour, a choice of fixed hour contracts, the end of unequal pay for young workers, and for union recognition. McDonald’s responded to September’s strike in January by giving workers the largest pay rise for a decade.

The ballot result across the five stores was 95.2% in favor of strike action.

Ian Hodson, President Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) said: “We are pleased with the ballot result: the McStrike is growing and is on the road to victory. We will be supporting our members in McDonald’s as they take on the world’s second largest employer. The time for change at McDonald’s is long overdue.”

Joshua Khan, a McDonald’s worker in Watford said “Steve Easterbrook says he’s a Watford lad, yet those of us who work in the Watford store have had enough of poverty pay, zero-hour contracts and lack of respect on the job. He makes millions whilst we struggle to get by. He should get on his private jet and come talk to our union. We deserve a wage that means we can live with dignity.”  

Lauren McCourt, a McDonald’s Worker in Manchester “We’ve joined the McStrike because the time for change at McDonald’s has come. McDonald’s zero-hour contracts mean we live in fear of losing the future hours we need to survive. If I don’t get the hours I need, how am I supposed to pay my rent? It’s time for McDonald’s to respect its workers and give us the option of guaranteed hours.”  

Annaliese Peters who works in McDonald’s in Cambridge said “McDonald’s responded to our strike last year by giving workers the biggest pay rise in a decade, but it’s not enough to live on, so we’re going on strike again.”

Notes to editors:

For further information or to organise interviews with McDonald’s workers please contact Owen Espley – Mobile: +44(0)7861 362 797  / oespley [@] waronwant.org