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CounterPunch
January
9, 2003
McDonald's Worker
Resistance:
Shaking the Golden Arches
By WILLIAM MacDOUGALL
McDonald's Golden Arches, if not beginning to
crumble, are beginning to look distinctly shaky. Chairman and
chief executive, Jack Greenberg, walked away from the burger
giant after 21 years service at the end of last year--this despite
an earlier company request to remain at the helm until 2005.
McDonald's stock had fallen to one third of its value since Greenberg
was appointed CEO in 1998, with shares plunging to a seven year
low last Autumn.
In December, an explosion injured at
least 17 people in Bombay--six of whom were customers and two
Bombay McDonald's members of staff. Faulty air conditioning was
reported as being the cause of the explosion. McDonald's Japan
has cut its profit forecast by 91% due to the discovery of mad
cow disease in Japan and tough competition from Starbucks and
low priced family restaurants offering typical Japanese fare.
McDonald's announced in November that it is to shut 175 stores
in 10 countries (pulling out of three countries altogether)--reversing
its 20 year policy of expansion.
Attempts at sacking French employees
on trumped up charges of theft were overthrown in the courts,
while a documentary (On n'est pas des steaks haches--"We're
not minced steak") was premiered last October on the same
day (16/10/02) as an international anti-McDonald's protest which
reached from Milan to Mexico City. In Bonn and Munster, members
of the Freie Arbeiterinnen Union (FAU-IAA) leafleted customers
and workers under banners bearing the legends "Join the
Resistance" and "McJob? No Thanks!". A demonstration
in Mexico resulted in 94 arrests on dubious charges of damage
to federal property and carrying explosives (fireworks).
The female McDonald's workers of Liverpool
wore make-up as a small act of defiance (normally prohibited),
whilst other disgruntled McDonald's people resorted to more radical"guerilla"
type tactics to throw a spanner in the works: altering food storage
microwave settings, resetting grill timers, working strictly
to rule, and, of course, strike action.
In October of last year, McDonald's France
took the unusual step of placing a full page advertorial in Femme
Actuelle ("McDonald's: Is It Causing Obesity In Children?")
in response to rising French child obesity rates. One of the
nutritionists commissioned to tackle the question concluded that
children should visit McDonald's no more than once a week. Not
unsurprisingly, the stateside McDonald's countered, arguing that
"this is the opinion of one consultant in France. We do
not share this view at all."An under construction McDonald's
restaurant in Grenoble was burned to the ground in a suspected
arson attack in November. Just don't mention Jose Bove whatever
you do.
That McDonald's is currently feeling
the heat is beyond question: the fall-out from restaurant bombings
and anti-globalisation protesters remain only the tip of the
iceberg. An increasingly mobilised and politically aware staff
can only add to the troubled fast food conglomerate's current
predicament.
The typically teenage staff in your local
McDonald's may well wear the standard issue blue slacks and candy
striped shirts topped off with a baseball cap that we have come
to associate with the fast food experience. And yes, they are
mouthing the McDonald's "can I take your order here please?"
mantra (so ubiquitous a part of daily life that it really should
be listed in Simpson's Quotations). But scratch beneath the surface
and you find something very different. The McChicken Sandwich
you just ordered may well have been prepared by a member of the
Zapatista like McDonald's Worker Resistance.
Describing itself as "a loose network
of McDonald's employees, always flexible, dynamic and unpredictable,
we work together to strengthen the position of workers in relation
to our employer", McDonald's Workers Resistance (MWR) emerged
in 2000 as a "determined response to the idiocy of [our]
working lives. It's an angry rebellion against boredom, exploitation,
poverty and discipline...against the idiocy of McDonald's and
capitalism."
MWR is an independent combination of
a few small groups of workers that have united in an attempt
to create serious opposition to the company and its alleged dangerous
exploitative practices and disciplinarian boot camp culture.
Founded by a bunch of twentysomething Glaswegians sick of their
McJob lot, MWR has quickly established links with fellow workers
as far afield as Alaska and New Zealand. MWR is represented in
America by convenors in Florida and Virginia. They also produce
McSues, an occasional irreverent take on McDonald's own McNews
in-house publication. Although humourous in intent ("Everything
you wanted to know about stealing from McDonald's!", "Liberation
begins when we put self-respect before burgers!"), McSues
has a serious message:
"Working for McDonald's is dehumanising,
there is a 'procedure' for every tiny action to make our role
almost completely <robotic.The> pay is infamously poor,
management is frequently very autocratic. We are bombarded with
company propaganda and expected to comply with company stipulated
'appearance requirements'. Theft of wages (clock card entries
being altered by managers to save on labour expenses) is rife.
Even when your shift finishes, incredibly, you are not free to
go and are obliged to stay on should management demand it, which
they almost inevitably will. You can't even go to the toilet
with out first obtaining permission. If a shift is unexpectedly
quiet and staff are not totally rushed then some staff will be
told to go home, if they insist on working their full shift they
will often be assigned the most unpleasant cleaning tasks to
encourage them to rethink. At other times every day off will
be disrupted by a phone call from a stressed, sometimes even
tearful, manager begging you to come in and work. The obsessive
cost cutting and incessant prioritisation of profit has enormous
human costs."
MWR do not need to be reminded that McDonald's
famously closed a branch in Quebec in order to prevent the staff
from unionising. By writing and producing McSues anonymously,
they are able to communicate with fellow workers without any
of the obvious risks of normal workplace activism.
Eric Schlosser, author of the New York
Times Bestseller "Fast Food Nation", notes that one
in eight Americans are employed by McDonald's at some point in
their life. More people now recognise the Golden Arches than
they do the Christian Cross. American children are more likely
to recognise Ronald McDonald than they are Santa Claus.
McDonald's, like Disney, knows better
than most that children are central to the continued success
of its business. Marketing guru and author of "Kids as Customers"
James McNeal advocates that companies portray themselves as wise,
benign, parent figure in the eyes of their doe-eyed charges.
Hence, World Children's Day TM, McDonald's
Kofi Annan supported "history-making fundraising initiative"
to help disadvantaged children worldwide from money raised through
Big Mac and Egg McMuffin sales paid to the company's Ronald cDonald
House Charity. "We're not asking you to give money"
said spoon-faced Canadian singer Celine Dion, "we're asking
you to eat at McDonald's".
World Children's Day, as if you didn't
know, is a trademark of McDonald's. Other money was raised on
the day from McDonald's employee donations. The irony of this
was doubtless lost on McDonald's top brass who set the November
20th date to coincide with the anniversary of the UN adoption
of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Schlosser, whose book has resulted in
him being compared to Upton Sinclair--author of "The Jungle",
a damning critique of the American meatpacking industry which
spurred Roosevelt to pass the Pure Food and Drugs Act (1906)
and the Meat Inspection Act (1906)--argues that not only are
children and teenagers McDonald's client base, they are also
their labour base--providing an available pool of cheap labour.
McDonald's might provide employment to those who might otherwise
not have a job, but as Schlosser argues, "the strict regimentation
at fast food restaurants creates standardised products. It increases
the throughput. And it gives fast food companies a vast amount
of power over their employees."
Employees are a major part of that throughput
equation; being as equally--if not more--disposable as the burgers
and fries they churn out. The key to McDonald's success is a
marriage of fordist assembly line techniques and uniformity.
Sociologist George Ritzer has summed up McDonald's triumph of
fordist efficiency over other human values as "the irrationality
of rationality." Former McDonald's US Vice President Ronald
Beavers admitted as much in 1995, when he observed that "they
[McDonald's crew members] have no guaranteed employment rights.
They do not have guaranteed employment or guaranteed conditions
of employment."
The relatively young age and little previous
work experience of McDonald's crew members means that shouting
is one of the main methods used by management to discipline staff.
"It's often very funny, but we've seen staff reduced to
tears. Sometimes it takes a few workers to stand together and
tell them to fuck off. Some of the managers like to think they're
hard, and use physical intimidation. They usually know when to
back down."
When erstwhile McDonald's founder Dick
McDonald died in 1998 at the age of 89, McDonald's Chairman Michael
Quinlan was moved to poignant eulogy:
"The global 'McFamily' of employees,
franchisees and suppliers owes a debt of gratitude to Dick McDonald
and his late brother, Mac. The McDonald brothers never dreamed
that the restaurant system they conceived at their first McDonald's
in San Bernardino, would eventually touch so many people throughout
the world."
That, as members of McDonald's Worker
Resistance might counter, is a moot point. Upton Sinclair famously
said that "I aimed for the public's heart, and by accident
I hit it in the stomach." Whether MWR enjoys the same level
of success remains to be seen. The tide may not yet be turning,
but the burger ain't flipping:
"We've found a voice for our frustrations,
we've made lasting friendships and we are beginning to regain
sovereignty over our lives. Maybe the resistance grows, maybe
we can strike globally, maybe the same happens in other workplaces,
maybe we occupy our workplaces and collectively take control
over the wealth we produce. Maybe not. Either way we will have
no regrets."
Fries with that sir?
MWR can be contacted at http://mwr.org.uk/
William MacDougall can be reached at: wmacdougall@msn.com
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