- Campaigns -Solidarity Picket for Sacked McD's Strikers
Over the Easter Weekend of 1998, twenty workers at a McDonald's franchise in Macedonia, Ohio walked out and went on strike. It was the first time this had happened in North America. They made demands on management such as a week's paid vacation, across-the-board raises to $6.50 per hour, mandatory human-relations training for management and more. Because of the solidarity of McDonald's workers, delivery drivers, and would-be customers who turned away when they saw the picket line, management agreed to the list of demands and the workers went back to work. Predictably, upon their return, management refused to honor what they had promised. So the workers decided to go union. The Teamsters agreed to represent them and easily signed up many of the workers at the restaurant. In retaliation, McDonald's hired 35 new workers and flew in suits from around the nation. They essentially occupied the restaurant and refused to allow the workers discuss unionizing or anything else. Two of the original strikers, Bryan Drapp and Jamal Nickens, defended their right to advocate unionizing. They were silenced immediately, so both wrote "GO UNION" on their foreheads and went about their work. This resulted in a confrontation with the suits and they were fired. McDonald's is currently trying to smear the names of these two. But it doesn't appear to be working too well. Just recently we recieved a report that McWorkers in Louisville walked out after a confrontation with management. Bryan Drapp told the Industrial Workers of the World that he is calling for an international boycott of McDonald's because he "doesn't want it all to be for nothing." Various branches of the IWW will be holding pickets in front of McDonald's, mainly in the Southeastern United States on Sunday, July 12. If anyone else is interested in joining this picket, whether you are an IWW member or not, send us an email and let us know. There is a link to the flyer that will be passed out below. Also, if you are a McDonald's worker and you want to organize a union, Bryan Drapp has requested that you call him at his home. You can get the phone number by emailing him at bry153@aol.com. For more information about the iww, check out http://iww.org SOLIDARITY!!! None.
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