Deal Pending on Immigration Reform – KCRW – 4/1/13

Monday, 01 April, 2013 19:20 Written by Davin

Deal Pending on Immigration Reform
KCRW

Warren Olney
April 1, 2013

Just as Senators of both parties were announcing that “comprehensive immigration reform” was finally a done deal, it turned out that it might not be after all. Will a guest-worker program for unskilled immigrants kill it again, or will it be border security, a “path to citizenship” or one of the other complications that have scuttled it in the past? NGA Executive Director Saket Soni discusses the proposed expansion of the guestworker program and the labor protections that need to be included.

Skip to 8:00 for the immigration piece.

http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/tp/tp130401deal_pending_on_immi

Striking Guest Workers Will Take McDonald’s Fight Global – The Nation – 4/1/13

Monday, 01 April, 2013 13:16 Written by Davin

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Striking Guest Workers Will Take McDonald’s Fight Global

The Nation

Josh Eidelson
April 1, 2013

Following demonstrations outside McDonald’s headquarters and CEO Don Thompson’s home, striking guest workers will hold an international day of action on June 6. The fifteen strikers, all students who came to the United States on cultural exchange visas, plan to lay the groundwork in their home countries over the next two months.

The National Guestworker Alliance, the labor group spearheading the strike, said that McDonald’s had failed to address the wages the workers were still owed, their demands for reforms to avert abuse and their call for a meeting with Thompson. “He thinks if we go back to our country the problem is solved,” said striker Rodrigo Yañez. But “we’re going to keep the fight up in our countries, and we’re going to make it grow.”

“They didn’t count on the guest workers to supersize their campaign,” NGA Director Saket Soni said in an e-mail to The Nation. McDonald’s did not respond to a request for comment.

As The Nation first reported, the students walked off the job on March 6 over allegations including unpaid wages, repeated retaliation, substandard (employer-owned) housing and shifts of up to twenty-five consecutive hours. The J-1 visa program, under which the students came to the US from Asia and Latin America, is administered by the US State Department, which workers allege failed to aggressively address the abuse. Over the past four weeks, the workers have traveled from Central Pennsylvania to actions in Philadelphia, New York, Washington and Chicago. “We met with Americans that have been in the same situation we experienced,” said Yañez. “That’s been a cultural exchange for us.”

A McDonald’s spokesperson told The Nation on March 14 that the company was ending its relationship with Andy Cheung, the franchisee who had directly employed the striking workers, and that the company had “offered to have the most appropriate person in our management team meet with the student directly to address and resolve their concerns.”

In Washington, DC, workers visited congressional offices; striker Fernando Acosta told The Nation that they urged legislators to include the battery of immigrant worker protections known as the POWER Act in a comprehensive immigration reform deal. “We are sharing all of our stories,” said Acosta. “The same thing happened to other people.”

The McDonald’s strike has played out against the backdrop of immigration talks involving organized labor, business and key senators. In a Saturday statement, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka announced “an agreement in principle” in the ongoing negotiations between the labor federation and the US Chamber of Commerce “to develop a new type of employer visa system.” According to the AFL-CIO, the proposed new “W visa” would come with stronger protections for workers, including: the chance to petition for permanent status after one year; not being tied to a specific employer; a Department of Labor complaint process; and a prohibition on employers shifting program fees to employees.

McDonald’s strikers will begin returning to their home countries this week. Workers said that the shape and scope of the June 6 day of action have not yet been determined. It won’t be NGA’s first foray into cross-border organizing; as I report in this month’s Dissent, the organization has also partnered with the Mexico-based human rights group ProDESC to organize Mexican guest workers in their hometowns before and after their annual trips to work in the United States.

“McDonald’s could make all this go away,” said Soni. “They could take responsibility for what happened to these guest workers inside their stores. They could adopt labor standards as they’ve promised. Or they could look forward to a long hot summer…”

http://www.thenation.com/blog/173601/striking-guest-workers-plan-global-actions-against-mcdonalds

Midstate foreign student workers to hold international day of action against McDonald’s – The Patriot-News – 4/1/13

Monday, 01 April, 2013 12:42 Written by Davin

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Midstate foreign student workers to hold international day of action against McDonald’s
The Patriot-News

Erik Veronikis
April 1, 2013

Foreign student workers who staged a protest against midstate McDonald’s franchisee Andy Cheung last month plan to hold an international day of action at McDonald’s locations around the world on June 6.

June 6 will mark the three-month anniversary of the work-stoppage strike guest workers held at Cheung’s McDonald’s on Trindle Road in Hampden Township.

The guest workers claim McDonald’s is not adequately addressing their complaints, and has refused to meet with them to discuss the adoption of regulations that would help end guest worker abuse at its restaurants.

Last week, foreign student workers traveled to McDonald’s corporate headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., and the home of the company’s CEO, Don Thompson.

They delivered a petition signed by 100,000 people, demanding a high-level meeting to discuss ending the abuse of guest workers at McDonald’s restaurants, said the National Guestworker Alliance, which helped stage the midstate protest on March 6.

McDonald’s executives have refused to meet with foreign student workers, according to the NGA.

“When McDonald’s refused, the students decided to bring their campaign to their home countries around the world, including Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Malaysia, with an international day of protest on June 6,” the alliance said.

McDonald’s spokespeople could not immediately be reached for comment.

The foreign students workers, who were participating in the U.S. Department of State’s J-1 Visa program, claimed that Cheung exploited them in his local franchises and in the basement dwellings he rented to them while they worked for him in Central Pennsylvania.

Their story has gone viral and has been reported by The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, NBC and other national news outlets.

McDonald’s has cut ties with Cheung, but the company has shared no details on how and when he would stop operating his six midstate McDonald’s.

Cheung has not returned repeated interview requests.

“McDonalds thought it could wait until we went back to our home countries and the problem would go away,” said National Guestworker Alliance member and student guest worker Rodrigo Yanez, in a statement. “We’re going to keep the fight up in our countries, and we’re going to make it grow. We’re inviting allies in the U.S. and around the world to join us.”

NGA Executive Director Saket Soni said in a news release “McDonald’s could make all this go away,” if the company takes responsibility for what happened to the guest workers.

“They could adopt labor standards as they promised,” Soni said. “Or they could look forward to a long, hot summer.”

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/04/midstate_foreign_student_worke.html

Student Guestworkers to McDonald’s: Our Fight Goes Global June 6th

Monday, 01 April, 2013 12:25 Written by Davin

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Student Guestworkers to McDonald’s: Our Fight Goes Global June 6th

McDonald’s J-1 guestworkers to “supersize” protests against guestworker exploitation in multiple countries

CHICAGO, IL, April 1, 2013—McDonald’s J-1 student guestworkers fighting to end exploitation by the fast food giant said Monday that they would hold an international day of action against McDonald’s on June 6. The date coincides with the three-month anniversary of the students’ strike against McDonald’s restaurants where they faced severe labor abuse in Pennsylvania.

“McDonald’s thought it could wait until we went back to our home countries and the problem would go away,” said NGA member and student guestworker Rodrigo Yañez. “We’re going to keep the fight up in our countries, and we’re going to make it grow. We’re inviting allies in the U.S. and around the world to join us.”

Student guestworkers gathered last week at McDonald’s corporate headquarters and the home of CEO Don Thompson. They personally delivered over 100,000 petition signatures and demanded a high-level meeting to discuss ending the abuse of guestworkers at McDonald’s restaurants.

When McDonald’s refused, the students decided to bring the campaign to their home countries around the world, including Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Malaysia, with an international day of protest set for June 6.

“McDonald’s could make all this go away,” said NGA Executive Director Saket Soni. “They could take responsibility for what happened to these guest workers inside their stores. They could adopt labor standards as they’ve promised. Or they could look forward to a long, hot summer.”

The student guestworkers paid $3,000-4,000 apiece to participate in the U.S. State Department’s J-1 visa 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

*

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 gained national attention by The Nation, NBC News, NPR and the Wall Street Journal, and they won the exclusion of McDonald’s franchisee Andy Cheung from the McDonald’s system.

Traveling the country to build support, the student guestworkers held rallies and protests in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington DC, New York, and Chicago. They were joined by hundreds of allies, including from One Pittsburgh, Fight for Philly, United NY, SEIU International, Retail Action Project, Jobs with Justice, United Worker Congress, National Domestic Worker Alliance, IBEW, Workers Organizing Committee Chicago, and other community groups.

CONTACT: Davin Larson, 913-909-7641, davin@guestworkeralliance.org

LINKS

Campaign overview: http://wp.me/p1ydmm-Hg
Students on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8lKrbD2U8
Press Coverage: http://www.guestworkeralliance.org/category/press-coverage/

They’re Not Lovin’ It: Striking Workers May Be McDonald’s Worst Nightmare – Huffington Post – 4/1/13

Monday, 01 April, 2013 11:27 Written by Davin

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They’re Not Lovin’ It: Striking Workers May Be McDonald’s Worst Nightmare
Huffington Post

Elizabeth Parisian
April 1, 2013

Over the last decade, McDonald’s has had to deal with its share of negative publicity. From the 2004 documentarySuper Size Me, which argued that the company’s menu and portion sizes are essentially killing its customers, to outcry over its marketing practices to children, to the recent “pink slime” controversy, the fast food giant has been sporting a face full of Egg McMuffin.

This month, the public scrutiny of McDonald’s continued when a group of Latin American guestworkers at a central Pennsylvania McDonald’s went on strike over unpaid overtime, horrific living conditions and other serious labor violations. Now touring the country to shine a light on both their own plight and on the poor working conditions faced by all McDonald’s workers, the guestworkers won a victory when the multinational corporation forced the offending franchisee to close the doors of all of its locations.

While McDonald’s no doubt hopes that swift punishment of one franchisee in central Pennsylvania will sweep the issue under the rug, the labor issues facing the company right now have gotten too big to ignore. The 16 guestworkers on strike represent a small sliver of the thousands of workers across the country exploited by the company on a daily basis. And as they tour the country to visit other fast food workers who are organizing for fair wages and better working conditions, bad press for McDonald’s will continue to snowball.

This week, the striking guestworkers came to Chicago, in support of the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago (WOCC). WOCC is a newly formed union of downtown Chicago low wage retail and restaurant workers who are waging the Fight For 15 campaign, demanding a living wage of $15 an hour and the right to join a union without employer interference. The campaign includes many McDonald’s workers, whose own stories of not making ends meet on minimum wage are all-too-similar to the guestworkers’ nightmarish experience.

“We are here today because your struggle is our struggle,” guestworker Jorge Victor Rios told a crowd of over 50 who gathered at Chicago’s iconic Rock N Roll McDonald’s for a workers’ rights teach in, organized by WOCC. “At first, I thought we were being exploited because we were guestworkers, but the more I spoke to others about my experience, the more I realized that McDonald’s workers all across the country are facing the exact same work conditions that I did. The only difference is, I can return to my country soon and this nightmare will be over. For the tens of thousands of other McDonald’s workers right here in the U.S., the nightmare never ends.”

As workers stand together to exposing the exploitation lurking in the shadow of the golden arches, the nightmare for the corporate heads and board members of the huge multinational is just beginning.

All seems well on the balance sheet. Financially, the company is experiencing unprecedented success, with the New York Times reporting in 2012 that sales were up 13 percent from 2008, when the Great Recession began, with the company now dominating 17 percent of the limited-service food industry in the country — more than its next four largest competitors combined.

But these high financial times depend upon the economic suffering of its largely contingent, part-time and low-wage workforce. And it is clear that these workers have had enough. From the WOCC in Chicago to the Pennsylvania guestworkers to the Fast Food Forward campaign in New York City, McDonald’s workers across the country are demanding that the company take responsibility for the working conditions it puts in place, and begin paying workers a living wage.

After Monday’s teach-in at McDonald’s flagship store, a delegation of WOCC workers and the student guestworkers delivered a petition with over 60,000 signatures to the company’s headquarters in Oak Brook Terrace, IL, asking the company restore the striking guestworkers’ lost wages, as well as offer full-time hours to all of its U.S. workers and reveal the names of all franchisees participating in the guestworker program.

Tuesday, the delegation drove the message home — literally — delivering an assortment of food from the guestworkers’ countries to the multi-million-dollar estate of CEO Don Thompson.

Whether McDonald’s is listening remains to be seen, but as worker organizing continues to gain momentum at McDonald’s workplaces across the country, the company soon will have no choice but to pay attention to their workers and address their concerns.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-parisian/mcdonalds-striking-workers_b_2979237.html

Posts Tagged ‘student workers’

Deal Pending on Immigration Reform – KCRW – 4/1/13