Catherwood LibraryILR School

At rallies and protests today in 10 U.S. cities, McDonald’s workers spoke out about sexual abuse, coercion and harassment as common occurrences in the restaurants, with the company doing little to improve working conditions, despite complaints filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Tuesday’s protests, inspired by the #MeToo movement, occurred in Chicago, Durham, Kansas City, Missouri, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Orlando, San Francisco and St Louis. Workers described being groped, forced into corners, and being kissed by managers, while fearing to speak out for fear of losing their jobs. While organizers described the strike as the first nationwide to specifically target sexual harassment, they noted that this was part of a larger problem of workers being exploited, with the company resisting unionization attempts as well as the movement to increase wages to $15 an hour. According to a 2016 survey performed by Hart Research Associates, 40 percent of female fast food workers reported being sexually harassed.