Historic McDonald’s Strike Brings Anti-Harassment Fight to Picket Line

On September 18, McDonald’s workers staged a nationwide strike protesting sexual harassment, with employees walking off the job during the lunch rush in 10 cities. Workers in Chicago, Durham, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Orlando, San Francisco and St. Louis left their jobs in the first nationwide walkout over sexual harassment in United States history.

The strike built on a legacy of previous labor organizing against sexual harassment, including the historic strike in 1912 of 500 garment workers who left their jobs at the Kalamazoo Corset Company to protest such conditions, as well as a wave of anti-harassment organizing by clerical workers, flight attendants and service workers beginning in the 1970s.

During the McDonald’s walkout, workers shared stories about the sexual harassment they endured.

“No one should be violated and harassed on the job,” an 18-year-old McDonald’s worker from St. Louis named Barbara Johnson said during the events. “It’s sad we have to go on strike to make that point, but we won’t be quiet until McDonald’s listens to our demands and puts a stop to sexual harassment.”

Tanya Harrell was one of the workers who participated in the strike. She was employed at a McDonald’s in Gretna, Louisiana, when she says she was harassed and groped by a manager. When she reported the harassment, her superiors made fun of her for taking the incidents so seriously. “The thing we want to do is hold McDonald’s accountable,” Harrell told Truthout. “When you do things like this, you make people feel uncomfortable. If we have to go on another strike, I’ll do it. We’re going to keep this going.”

Harrell and the other striking workers are demanding that McDonald’s form a committee (full of workers and representatives of national women’s groups) to address sexual harassment and to develop new policies going forward. They also want the company to sever its relationship with Seyfarth Shaw, a Chicago-based law…

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