With 14,146 restaurants in the U.S. alone and 36,899 restaurants worldwide, McDonald’s is the world's second largest employer. This means the fast food giant has a huge cultural, economic, and environmental footprint that unfortunately is used to harm workers and our environment.
We cannot resist Trump’s attacks on workers, families, and our environment without resisting the corporations that rig the economy, harm our environment, and put Americans across the country in danger. In the Trump era, it is more important than ever that our movements join forces. In this moment of extremist right-wing control in Washington, those fighting for progressive change -- for a living wage, climate action, immigrant rights, and more -- must support each other.
That’s why the Sierra Club is proud to support the thousands of workers and supporters of workers rights as they converge outside of the McDonald’s shareholder meeting in Chicago to lead the March on McDonald's on May 23rd and 24th. Then, thousands of workers will converge on McDonald’s headquarters as part of the Fight for $15 campaign, demanding the company help to support American workers rather than supporting policies that only make their lives harder.
McDonald’s subscribes to a dangerous corporate model, paying so little that their own workers can't afford to eat the very food they sell and running global supply chains that emit the extreme levels of carbon pollution that’s destroying our climate. Often, the industries that pollute the most pay the least. McDonald’s is no exception. The Sierra Club supports workers in their call for the fast-food giant to use its power and influence to lift up working people rather than drive a race to the bottom.
It’s time for a change. The fight for a living wage and the fight for a living planet cannot be separated. Corporations are raking in massive profits, but the toxic shortcuts for those profits come at the expense of their workers, causing their low-wage employees to live without the ability to cover their basic needs like food and health care for their families, child care, a roof over their head, and transportation to their jobs, all while bearing the brunt of their employer’s corporate pollution.
When McDonald’s adds to killer heat waves, deadly wildfires, and fatal floods by using massive amounts of fossil fuels, its own workers are among those families who suffer the most. So McDonald’s not only contributes heavily to climate change, their dangerously low wages trap families with its worst effects. Low wages mean McDonald’s workers can't afford to flee from climate induced natural disasters. Low wages mean McDonald’s workers must raise their families in low-income neighborhoods, often that means in the backyard of coal plants, fracking sites, and oil refineries. By not providing it’s workers a living wage, McDonald’s is burdening its workers with the worst impacts of its pollution.
This pollution isn’t cheap -- hospital and doctor's visits, asthma inhalers and other health needs add up, and on low wages, are extremely difficult to cover. When the children living under clouds of pollution get sick, mothers without a living wage and without paid leave are forced to choose between missing work and much needed income to take care of their children, or making enough money to pay for the costs of healthcare. What’s more, McDonald’s is known to cut workers hours below full time and doesn’t provide paid leave, meaning families are left without vital health insurance and without time off, increasing healthcare costs even further.
McDonald’s is a billion-dollar corporation, they can and must do better. This year’s Fight for $15 mobilization in Chicago will make that call louder than ever before. McDonald’s must invest in people, provide paid family leave, and pay their employees a living wage. McDonald’s must invest in our communities and source their products locally. McDonald’s must act on climate. Workers and families deserve better. Until McDonald’s changes its ways for the better, we won’t be loving it.