Skip to main content

2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates Visit McDonald's Picket Lines


Late last week, four different 2020 Democratic Presidential candidates visited McDonald's picket lines in Nevada and South Carolina, drawing further attention to these striking workers.

For those unaware, McDonald's workers across the country have taken to striking and forming picket lines, in an effort to push for unionization and higher wages, namely a $15/hour minimum wage rate.  These efforts have been met with some success but have gone unnoticed in some circles.  With that being said, a wave of 2020 Democratic candidates for President could soon change that.  California Senator Kamala Harris was in Las Vegas last Friday to join striking McDonald's workers.  South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Texas Representative Beto O'Rourke, and New Jersey Senator Corey Booker were in Charleston, South Carolina over the weekend visiting with striking workers and participating in marches.

This "attack" and increased attention on large scale employers such as McDonald's is nothing new.  (Readers might recall that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has previously taken aim at WalMart in recent weeks.)  With that being said, it is noteworthy that these Presidential candidates are jumping in head first, given that the first caucus is not until next February and the Presidential election itself is still nearly 19 months away.  However, given the size of the Democratic field this election cycle, it is clear that candidates are attempting to court blue collar, working class voters and shore up a key base of support before the first vote is case.  I would expect these candidates (and others) to be seen in picket lines, marches, and other related events over the coming months.  Whether this will result in a tangible benefit for these McDonald's workers remains to be seen.  For the time being, however, it casts further attention and press coverage on the ongoing fight by these workers.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum, it was noted that emplo
Post a Comment
Read more

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

A few years ago, I remember when the “Fight for $15” movement was taking off around the country.  Lo and behold, it appears that a $15/hour minimum wage is not the stopping point, which should be no surprise.  As the below article notes, New York is aggressively moving to ramp up hourly wage rates even higher.  While all the  below articles are worth a read, I called particular attention to that one. As always, below are a couple article that caught my eye this week. Disney World Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer Late last week, it was announced that workers at Disney World had rejected the most recent contract offer from the company, calling on their employer to do better.  As Brooks Barnes at The New York Times writes, the unions that represent about 32,000 workers at Disney World reported their members resoundingly rejected the 5 year contract offer which would have seen workers receive a 10% raise and retroactive increased back pay.  While Disney’s offer would have increased pa
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies in the state, to per
Post a Comment
Read more