Burger lovers rolling through McDonald’s for a Big Mac have likely been unaware until Tuesday that employees of the fast food chain across the country have long been suffering sexual harassment at the hands of bosses and co-workers.
In May, 10 employees filed sexual harassment charges against the company for behavior from both co-workers and higher-ups, including inappropriate propositions, groping and sexual comments.
McDonald’s has been keeping these accusations under wraps. The 10 employees said male supervisors retaliated against them after they filed charges, and the corporation failed to step in with support.
Hundreds of workers and allies in 10 cities across the United States rose up in protest Tuesday, urging McDonald’s to put stronger policies protecting workers in place, including a better way to report complaints — oftentimes, the higher-up to whom an employee would report a complaint is the very person harassing them.
McDonald’s is the largest fast food chain in the country. By ignoring issues of harassment in its workplaces, the corporation is sending a message to smaller corporations, ones that are out of the public eye, that this behavior is acceptable. They are telling everyone that the lives of their workers are not valuable, that they are disposable, and they are telling these workers that their voices will not be heard.
In the fast food sector of the restaurant industry, companies are less likely to consider themselves responsible for sexual harassment at individual stores. They’re more likely to hand responsibility off to managers, which is exactly what gives managers the opportunity to play power games with employees and get away with it.
McDonald’s doesn’t want to worry about the policies of stores that operate independently. From a liability standpoint, it’s easier for them to brush sexual harassment under someone else’s rug, but these stores are still operating under their name. Even from a selfish standpoint, it’s a good idea for them to act before more employees come forward with their stories.
When Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy said in 2012 that he supported the “traditional family,” and it was revealed that Chick-fil-A has donated millions of dollars to organizations opposing gay marriage, many queer activists boycotted the chain. However, many people continued to eat at their local restaurant despite knowing that part of every dollar they spent on fried chicken was benefitting anti-gay groups.
The customer has a responsibility to put their money where their mouth is. Many of us are fundamentally opposed to sexual harassment, but when we think about never being able to eat a McNugget again, we find a way to sidle around the issue and convince ourselves that our individual actions don’t make a difference.
Customers must also remember that incidences of sexual harassment are occuring behind the scenes. Just because a customer isn’t seeing a McDonald’s cashier being groped behind the register while she takes their order, it doesn’t mean there isn’t a threatening culture pervading her workplace and making her feel unsafe. She’s paid to greet each customer with a smile on her face, and customers cannot let this fool them into believing that incidents of harassment are isolated — that a systemic problem doesn’t exist.
The problem is systemic — stemming from the public impression of minimum wage jobs, and specifically fast food jobs, as less than “real careers.” Many people believe that fast food workers are simply teenagers working for a little extra cash, on their way to a better-paying job. In reality, most have high school diplomas and are working for their livelihood. For a host of reasons, they have no other option and, even without this in mind, deserve to be treated as people.
Fast food workers are not getting paid enough to have any real financial protection — if they’re in a dangerous situation, they can’t take a six-month sabbatical and look for another job. They’re going to choose to keep working, even if their life and safety might be at risk, because they have no other way to pay rent or go to school or support their family. They don’t have room to prioritize their personal safety over income.
While 40 percent of female fast food workers have been sexually harassed, black and Latina women are disproportionately victimized. These groups are targeted because perpetrators feel as though they can be dismissed and silenced. A white woman is more likely to feel as though she will be listened to if she reports assault — black women are less likely than any other demographic to report rape, and minority women in general fail to report assault as frequently as white women.
This story goes back to people fighting to be treated like human beings in an environment where they don’t have access to a better alternative. Working at McDonald’s isn’t easy, and anyone who eats at the chain has a responsibility to care about how its workers are treated.
