McDonald’s workers block headquarters and chant, ‘We can see your greedy side’

Matt Haller, senior vice president of government relations and public affairs at the International Franchise Association, a trade group, said it was impractical for McDonald’s to demand franchisees meet a minimum pay standard because they operate like small business owners.

Such a move would elevate the cost of opening the stores, he said, and “take away opportunities for people who have decided to run them.”

Unhappy employees, he added, can leave for higher pay in this increasingly tight labor market.

“If you are a franchisee and you’re not paying a competitive wage,” he said, “those employees are free to move and find a better opportunity for themselves.”

So, the workers say they’re taking the matter into the streets, marching through downtown Chicago on Monday and then caravaning to the Illinois statehouse in Springfield.

Terrence Wise, a 38-year-old McDonald’s employee at individually owned store in Kansas City, Missouri, said he works 40-hour weeks for the chain and still must rely on food stamps to feed his three teenage daughters. Over the last four years, his pay has crept up from $7.50 an hour as a cook to $9.40 as a manager.

A $15 hourly wage, Wise said, would transform his life.

“I would not all of a sudden have a beachfront home in Florida,” he said, speaking on the phone from Chicago. “Let’s be real. I could pay my bills. I wouldn’t have to skip meals. I could buy my kids new shoes more than once every two years.”

Article Appeared @http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-mcdonalds-workers-minimum-wage-20180521-story.html

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