Maccies on strike

Brave workers coming out and wanting a fair wage, I do hope they win but am not positve.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/04/mcdonalds-workers-strike-cambridge-crayford

3 Likes

So, are the workers employed by McDonalds or directly by the franchisees in question?

Don’t know enough about the specific franchise model to know who is at fault over the t&c’s of the workers in question.

Baz?

I would say the franchise itself, unions aren’t involved though, big business doesn’t like unions.

So the Grauniad is being a bit disingenuous implying it’s McDonalds?

Hm. I’m usually up for striking (and I support them in the sense that I feel that they should absolutely have the right to do it) but I can’t really see what this will achieve.

Has working at McDonalds ever been a career?

If you’re working at McDonalds full-time past your early twenties then your issue (and I’m not saying this would necessarily even be your fault) is that you’re working at McDonalds and can’t get a better job, not that the market value of flipping burgers is less than the market value of the things you need to buy to live independently.

Besides, whilst I think it’ll take a little longer than predicted for automation to really hammer the job market, fast-food workers are most definitely in the firing line and pretty soon too. It really won’t take long before its cheaper to build robots to make the burgers than to pay staff £7.15 p/h for doing so.

Ronald’s a McCunt.

We should all come out in sympathy and stop buying their food. For ever.

but that would put @bearsy out of a job.

Hold on, he quit McDs and works for BK now doesn’t he…as you were

No as the franchises are given out and owned by McDonalds.

Just go to KFC and stop whinging, people have every right to strike whether they feel its achievable, especially a company like McDonalds, this will spark change for the future and the publicity isn’'t good for them, the $15 an hour in the US is gaining some traction.

Living wage regardless of what you do, you also say it isn’t a career well I have to say McDonalds wouldn’t want to hear that and its about choices, some don’t have a choice of a high flying career.

Just leave them to rot on a poor wage?

Living wage for all.

OK, let’s say the government raises the minimum wage to £10 per hour and McDonalds invests more and more in their automated burger-making robots - putting more and more of their staff out of a job, then what?

Sack the lot of them.

Plenty of low cost migrant labour still flooding in…

1 Like

So you’re saying keep low paid jobs should stay out of sentiment and kindness.

You’re all heart.

It’ll be alright until the Burger Bots start demanding Living Wage. We all know how that ends!

3 Likes

No, I’m not saying anything should or shouldn’t, I’m saying what will or won’t happen.

If someone really isn’t capable of sustaining themselves independently via the job market and a non-skilled Mcjob is the height of their ability then I think I’d rather just top up what they earn through taxation and welfare - possibly moving towards a universal basic income as automation wipes out more and more low-skilled jobs.

Or at the very least, I think that’s a better route to explore than just raising the minimum wage.

How do you define a living wage? I have a friend who employs a number of people in a shop. If he had to pay staff £10 an hour he would either have to let some go or reduce their hours. Raise the minimum wage and jobs will go and prices rise. I’m assuming that people eat in McDs because the food is cheap. Would they do so as much if the prices go up?

I define it by can people live off it without top ups?

OK. Define “live off it”.

Someone working 40 hours per week for a tenner an hour takes home ÂŁ1452.12 after tax (assuming no student loan).

Not easy to live off that in London. £600 for your room. £100 for your bills including your phone bill. £150 for a zone 1-3 travelcard. Let’s say £200 per month for essential food. That leaves you with £400 per month for everything else and that does mean *everything* else. Toiletries and bathroom stuff, clothes, emergenices etc. Not easy. You could survive but you wouldn’t really be able to do anything besides survive and certainly wouldn’t be able to move forwards in life/buy a house/start a family and so on.

I think generally you’ve just got to accept that a McJob is never going to be anything other than a part-time/noddy job from which you try and move on from.

If someone really isn’t capable of anything better that that, simply because they’ve had the misfortune to be born not very gifted, I think I’d be alright chipping in and topping them up through my taxes.

Just because it may be a temp job for some not all it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have to pay a living wage, why should the tax payer and society fund big business this way?

1 Like

Think most ppl tend to get A Partner. You can’t live solo on a mcjob I would think. Not in London anyhow.