'If we don't get it, shut it down': McDonald's workers rally for $15 an hour

Union organizers led a midday demonstration Tuesday outside an east side Detroit McDonald's and demanded $15-an-hour wages and an easier path to unionizing fast-food workers.

The group of about 300 people, undeterred by the freakishly cold fall temperature and snow, marched for several blocks along Outer Drive and gathered outside the McDonald's restaurant at 19840 Van Dyke Ave., delivering union chants such as "We work, we sweat, put $15 in our check" and "If we don't get it, shut it down."

The demonstration, which organizers called a McDonald's workers' strike, was put together by the Service Employees International Union, which wants to boost the workers' pay and organize them. The McDonald's restaurant stayed open during the demonstration.

There were similar demonstrations Tuesday in the United Kingdom and France, and last spring in a dozen or so U.S. cities.

The labor action was reminiscent of an SEIU-led June demonstration for private security guards at many downtown Detroit buildings. That effort succeeded in compelling the guards' employer, SecurAmerica, to raise wages to $15 per hour, even though the guards did not form a union.

Labor experts say there are many hurdles to unionizing McDonald's workers, such as the high employee turnover rate and how nearly 95% of the company's restaurants are franchise locations that must be organized one at a time.

"You are technically only able to organize and form a bargaining unit with the franchise — not with the corporation that oversees all of them as a whole,” said Marick Masters, a professor at Wayne State University's Mike Ilitch School of Business.

Many who took part in the Detroit rally were not McDonald's workers, although some were, including Patricia Moseley, 46, a manager at the Van Dyke restaurant who skipped her shift to join the demonstration.

Moseley said she has worked at the McDonald's for seven years. Her wage, she said, is more or less stuck at $11 an hour.

“I feel like we deserve better, and we need a union because we need support," she said.

Mary Kay Henry, international president of the SEIU, joined the demonstrators and said the union wants to see "sector bargaining" for fast-food workers, which would allow one union or a coalition of unions to bargain for all workers in the fast-food industry. 

Current labor law operates along the lines of “enterprise bargaining,” or one union bargaining with one employer for one group of workers.

More:UAW workers would benefit from dramatically different kind of bargaining

More:Security guards at Bedrock, other Detroit buildings get $15 after last month's strike

George Haggen, 28, of Detroit doesn't work at McDonald's, but took part in the demonstration for his five cousins who do. He said they currently earn Michigan's $9.45 per-hour minimum wage. 

His cousins were fearful of losing their jobs if they skipped work Tuesday, he said.

"Either you come to work, or you’re without a job," Haggen said.

The demonstration coincided with the filing Tuesday of a sexual harassment lawsuit in Ingham County Circuit Court against McDonald's for the alleged behavior of a manager at a Lansing-area restaurant. The lawsuit has backing from the American Civil Liberties Union and seeks class-action status for an alleged "systemic problem" at McDonald's restaurants.

The lawsuit's plaintiff, Jenna Ries, 32, was among the official speakers at the demonstration. She said the harassment was perpetrated by a manager.

"I constantly lived in fear of losing my job for rejecting his sexual advances," Ries told the crowd. “It was so hard for me to go to work, but I had to physically force myself to go. I needed the money and I felt like I had no choice."  

McDonald's did not return a message seeking comment.

ContactJC Reindl at313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jcreindl. Read more on business and sign up for our business newsletter.