Unite Union is stepping up its campaign for an end to bullying in McDonald’s restaurants today. Crew and managers at four McDonald’s restaurants will take off aprons and down spatulas today in protest against a contract that allows their employer to use their shift roster as a form of bullying and control.

The strikes come the same week that McDonald’s Corporation has launched an appeal against the Employment Court’s decision that McDonald’s should pay $15,000 to sacked Kaiapoi McDonald’s worker, Chantelle Coup.

“Chantelle Coup’s managers cut her hours and bullied her into resignation because she had joined the Unite Union in 2007. Chantelle is devastated she will have to return to New Zealand to give evidence against McDonald’s again, after leaving to live in Australia,” said Unite National Director Mike Treen.

The request of more than one thousand union members in McDonald’s for guaranteed hours and an end to the ingrained culture of bullying has fallen on deaf ears at McDonald’s head office.

“The company has promised not to respond to the union’s requests until early November, which means workers will spend another month with no guaranteed hours and sometimes at the mercy of sloppy, inconsiderate and even malicious managers,” continued Mr. Treen.

“Last month a McDonald’s manager demanded that a seventeen-year-old girl finish her shift after she had had her foot run over while working in the drive-through.”

“This incident and the many occasions where workers are pressured to work two or three eight hour shifts in a row with no breaks or rostered off by unscrupulous managers, highlights the scale of the problem that McDonald’s unfair contract creates.”

“We are asking for the public to support our campaign for secure hours and decent pay by not eating at McDonald’s when workers are on strike. Strike action will continue as long as the world’s biggest fast food chain refuses to give hard-working employees a fair go,” concluded Mr. Treen.


Read the Otago Daily Times article about McDonalds appealing here:
McDonald's challenges compensation award

View more information about ongoing action by Unite McDonalds workers here: Union Rat plagues McDonalds

View John Campbell's interview with Chantelle on the 3 news website here:
McDonald's worker discusses her super-sized payout

Read The Press article here:
Super-sized payout for MacDonald's worker

Read the NZ Herald article here:
Union critical of McDonald's after constructive dismissal case

Mike Treen
National Director, Unite Union
Organiser, Postal Workers Union Aotearoa
Unite Organising Centre
6a Western Springs Rd,
Morningside, Auckland, 1021
Ph: DD - 64 9 846 9485
Mobile - 64 29 525 4744
Ph: Office - 64 9 845 2132; Fax - 64 9 846 9509