Their solidarity towards the strike of the workers at McDonald's fast food chain in Britain expressed labor-trade unions in Greece and Turkey.
The Trade union of workers in Catering, Hotels, Tourism of Athens issued a statement expressing its solidarity to their colleagues working to McDonald’s in the UK, who went on strike earlier this week, struggling for better salaries and abolition of the “zero hour contracts”.
"Every country has two faces. One face represents wealth and luxury, where a minority is exploiting the work of others. On the other hand, there is the face of the majority of the workers struggling to live with poverty wages. Even we, who daily serve food to thousands of people, we do not manage to serve food to our families.
The workers in catering, tourism and hotels of Athens, support your fair demands for better wages, working hours and union recognition.
The flight of every worker for life, working conditions and working rights, is a fight that concerns us all."
In Istanbul, members of the Communist Party of Turkey raided McDonald’s restaurants in the city addressing the workers and customers, ‘Did you hear? McDonald’s workers are on strike!’
The leaflets announced that McDonald's has over 1 million employees throughout the world and 85 thousand of them who work in Britain are on strike. It vocalized the demands of the workers for higher hourly pay, union rights and an end to slavish treatment of bosses.
‘Over 200 thousand fast food workers in Turkey work in precarious, unsecure conditions, long hours standing and with low wages. Average hourly pay starts from 7 liras [about 2 dolars] and daily overtime reaches 9 hours, without week-end holiday.’
The leaflet told that McDonald's workers under these conditions are expected to seem jocund and keep hardworking. They are monitored by cameras and a momentary rest is an excuse to get fired. Meanwhile the bosses record a turnover of 6 billlion dolars. ‘A “smiling service” in front of the kitchen and a cruel exploitation behind...’
CP of Turkey stated that fast food culture speeds up the reaping of bosses and for workers the only way out is to get organized. "In Britain, Germany, Turkey and elsewhere in the world’said the leaflet, ‘either in McDonald’s or in others, the same exploitation, the same class of bosses. The only way out is to get organized and to act collectively."
Regarding the historic strike of workers at McDonald's, we read in the article published at the New Worker (No 1934, 8 September 2017), official newspaper of the New Communist Party of Britain:
WORKERS at two branches
of the McDonald’s fast food
chain began strike action early
on Monday – the first strike at
McDonald’s in Britain since
the chain first opened in Brit- ain in 1974.
The workers are members
of the Bakers, Food and Allied
Workers Union (BFAWU). They
are demanding £10-per-hour
minimum pay, union recogni- tion, an end to zero-hours con- tracts and an end to the bullying
culture rife behind the scenes at
McDonald’s.
Staff at the two branches,
in Crayford, Kent and in Cam- bridge, were balloted for strike
action and last month voted by
95.7 per cent in favour of the
strike.
Picket lines outside both
branches found support from
the general public and other
trade unionists and progressives.
Later on Monday they travelled
to Westminster for a rally.
The workers are angry at the
way managers use the zero-hours
contracts to bully workers by
cutting their hours so they can
never be sure what their wages
will be. This has led workers
to lose their homes through not
being able to pay rent.
One young woman on the
picket line described the bul- lying culture to reporters: “My
mum passed away in January
and the manager just thought I
went on holiday. The way I was
treated was really bad. I went
into hospital because of the
stress of it.”
ess of it.”
Twenty-seven-year-old Lew- is Baker, who helped to organise
the Crayford strike, said: “There
is proper bullying going on here.
The conditions have become
really bad. There’s discrimination.
Hours are cut if you’re not
a manager’s favourite.
“The fight for £10 an hour
is great and it would help us all,
but it won’t make working here
any better.
“We’ve had bosses tell us
this strike is a joke. But it’s not
a joke,” he said gesturing to
the crowd of supporters. “For
everyone to come here and show
them we have support is just
incredible.”
In a statement before the
strike, Ian Hodson, president of
the BFAWU, said: “For far too
long, workers in fast food restau- rants such as McDonald’s have
had to deal with unexplainably
poor working conditions, dras- tic cuts to employee hours, and
even bullying in the workplace –
viewed by many as a punishment
for joining a union.
“Trade unions, such as mine –
Baker’s, Food and Allied Workers
Union (BFAWU) – have worked
to support these brave workers
in standing up and fighting back
against McDonalds – a company
which has let these workers down
one too many times.
“Yet, despite all the attempts
to change McDonald’s approach
and help them become a fairer
employer, nothing has been
done on their side. Nothing has
changed. Empty promises have
been made. Yet nothing has been
delivered.”
On Monday he said: “This
is the second-largest restaurant
company in the world that makes
$22 billion (£17 billion) reve- nues a year, and yet its workers
are living in poverty. They have
been the pioneers of zero-hours
contracts.” This is the first strike at Mc- Donald’s in Britain but it is part
of an international movement,
the Fast Food Global workers’
movement. In the United States,
McDonald’s has come under
pressure as part of the ‘Fight for
$15’ campaign.
