By George Anderson
Jim Cantalupo, McDonald's new chairman of the board and ceo, has a lot on his plate with the chain facing problems with its business from the US to Japan. The dimensions of the issues Mr. Cantalupo has to address may be even larger than he realizes based on a William MacDougall column on the Counterpunch web site.
Mr. MacDougall introduces an anti-McDonald's movement established and carried on by McDonald's own employees. The McDonald's Worker Resistance describes itself as "a loose network of McDonald's employees" with members from around the globe. [Editor's note: language content of their website may be offensive to some.] (http://mwr.org.uk/ )
According to the group's McSues newsletter, "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."
Moderator's Comment: Three Related Questions:
- Is the McDonald's Resistance Movement indicative of how other store-level employees in other businesses feel?
- Do retailers and fast food operators need to change their approach with store associates?
- Can you cite examples of operators that are on the right track?
You could replace McDonald's with another fast food chain or retailer name in the McSues' description and in all likelihood it would be just as applicable.
We always hear from headquarters executives that the store staff is the most important resource they have in their business. Store associates are on the frontlines after all. Why then do associates in so many stores feel as if are treated unfairly? [George Anderson - Moderator]