Student Guestworkers to McDonald’s: Protect ALL Your Workers

McDonald’s J-1 guestworkers to march on company HQ, CEO’s home March 26

NEW YORK, NY, March 14, 2013—J-1 student guestworkers who exposed severe exploitation and retaliation at McDonald’s restaurants vowed Thursday to march on McDonald’s corporate headquarters and the home of CEO Don Thompson on March 26 if McDonald’s doesn’t take responsibility for ending labor abuse for all its workers.

While students and their allies marched on a Times Square McDonald’s to make their announcement, McDonald’s said that it had ended relations with the Central PA franchisee Andy Cheung, who employed the J-1 students. In response, the students released the following statement:

“McDonald’s action is an important admission of labor abuse at its stores. But a change of management at three stores will not protect the guestworkers and U.S. workers at McDonald’s 14,000 other stores in the U.S. We asked McDonald’s to meet with us and our allies to come to an agreement on how to protect all McDonald’s workers. If they will not, we will come to McDonald’s headquarters on March 26 to seek a meeting. If they will not meet with us there, we will come to CEO Don Thompson’s house and ask to meet him there.”

Learn more ...

McDonald’s Guestworkers Hit NYC to Stop Labor Abuse

Student guestworkers faced wage theft, 25-hour shifts, severe exploitation

WHAT:  Protest by McDonald’s guestworkers, allies to end McDonald’s labor abuse
WHO:  International student guestworkers; 50-100 labor, community allies
WHERE:  McDonald’s Times Sq., 1560 Broadway (btw. 46^th & 47^th), NY, NY 10036
WHEN: Thursday, March 14, 2013, 12 p.m. ET
CONTACT:  Stephen Boykewich, 718-791-9162, stephen@guestworkeralliance.org

NEW YORK, NY—At 12 p.m. ET on Thursday, March 14, J-1 student guestworkers who exposed severe exploitation at McDonald’s restaurants will demonstrate at a Times Square McDonald’s to demand a meeting with McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson on ending labor abuse.

McDonald’s student guestworkers from Latin America and Asia joined the National Guestworker Alliance and went on strike on Mar. 6 from the Central PA stores where they had worked, demanding that the fast food giant take responsibility for labor abuse at its restaurants. Their fight reached the pages of The Nation, NBC News, and the Wall Street Journal.

The student guestworkers paid $3,000-4,000 apiece to participate in the U.S. State Department’s J-1 student guestworker program, expecting decent work and a cultural exchange. Instead, McDonald’s used them as a sub-minimum wage exploitable workforce. Students faced:

• As few as four hours of work a week at $7.25 an hour, with exorbitant housing deductions that brought their net pay far below minimum wage
• Shifts as long as 25 hours with no overtime pay
• Being packed into employer-owned basement housing, up to eight students to a room, for $300 each per month
• Retaliation by McDonald’s franchisee Andy Cheung and labor supplier GeoVisions against students for exercising their labor rights, including further cuts to hours and surprise home visits

At the Times Square McDonald’s, students announce will announce plans to take their fight to McDonald’s corporate headquarters and the home of McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson. The students and their allies are demanding:

1. That McDonald’s pay students back all the money they are owed, including the money they spent to come work for the company, unpaid overtime, and housing overcharges;
2. That the McDonald’s franchisee offer full-time work to its U.S. workers, who are struggling with too few hours;
3. That McDonald’s reveal all the guestworkers at its stores, sign an agreement guaranteeing their basic labor standards, including non-retaliation against workers who organize to stop abuse;
4. That the U.S. State Department protect future J-1 students by barring McDonald’s franchisee Andy Cheung and labor supplier GeoVisions from the J-1 program.

“McDonald’s is the latest U.S. corporation to turn guestworker programs into a source of cheap, exploitable labor,” said Saket Soni, executive director of the National Guestworker Alliance. “Congress is considering a huge expansion of guestworker programs as part of immigration reform—one more reason workers need POWER Act protections that will let them expose abuse without fear.”

LINKS

• Students on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8lKrbD2U84
• Student Petition: http://www.coworker.org/petitions/mcdonald-s-must-pay
• Press Releases: http://www.guestworkeralliance.org/category/press-statements/
• Press Coverage: http://www.guestworkeralliance.org/category/press-coverage/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23McDonaldsMustPay

McDonald’s Must Meet Its Guestworkers

McDonald’s “investigation” of labor abuse must start by meeting students

HARRISBURG, PA, March 8, 2013—If McDonald’s is conducting its own investigation of labor abuse against J-1 student guestworkers at its Pennsylvania stores, it must begin by meeting the students fact-to-face, the students and their allies said Friday.

“We are glad McDonald’s says they are investigating the abuse we experienced at their stores, but if they are really serious about putting an end to it, they should sit down with us to discuss solutions,” said student guestworker and National Guestworker Alliance (NGA) member Jorge Rios.

Rios and other students will deliver a written request for a meeting to McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson at 3pm Friday via the manager of a Pittsburgh-area McDonald’s.

Learn more ...