12pm 23/10/08

McDonald's: Soaring profits for the company, nothing fo
r the workers

The latest lunch and dinner strikes in south and west Auckland and in Hamilton this afternoon come hot on the heels of McDonald's Corporation announcing a third quarter profit of $1.07 billion.

Rolling strikes by workers in some of New Zealand's poorest suburbs will be used to put pressure on the company to match what it's competitor Restaurant Brands (KFC, Starbucks and Pizza Hut) pays union members. Fulltime managers and crew at Restaurant Brands are paid $20.80 to $174.40 a week more than McDonald's workers.

"It's disgusting the world largest fast food corporation is gloating over its soaring profits while the majority of its crew are stuck on minimum wage and managers are paid less than $15 an hour. It is however a true reflection of the world economy with the rich getting richer and making sure the poor stay poor," said Unite Union National Director Mike Treen.

"There have now been more than 35 strikes at 24 different restaurants and we plan to escalate this campaign until our 1200 union members at McDonald's get secure hours and decent pay rises," said Mr. Treen.

ENDS

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