Atlanta Fast-Food Workers Allege Wage Theft
About three dozen metro-Atlantans Thursday protested in front of local fast food companies along Moreland Avenue, alleging wage theft against chains like McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King.As heard on the radio
The protest comes days after the release of a national survey that found almost 90 percent of fast-food workers believe their employers are cheating them out of earned pay, and as the nation debates a minimum wage increase proposed by President Barack Obama.
Protestors, some of them current and former fast-food workers, carried signs and chanted as they marched up to Sanders Avenue, which separates the parking lots of a McDonald’s and a Wendy’s. After a brief pause, the group eventually filed into the McDonald’s.
“I make the corporation billions and billions and billions of dollars that you all live off of,” Connie Ogletree, a 2-year employee at a McDonald’s in Dunwoody, shouted into a megaphone inside McDonald’s as diners looked on. “All I want to do is get enough money to maybe take a vacation once a year with my children.”
The protest inside McDonald’s was short-lived. In less than five minutes, the Atlanta Police Department ordered the ralliers out of the restaurant.
Outside, Ogletree accused McDonald’s of wage theft.
“I love my job. I love working with people, but my employers are unfair because they steal from us,” Ogletree said. “They ask people to work after they’ve clocked out. They pay people minimum wage, and that’s not a livable wage. You can’t get a raise.”
“We’re trying to expose this, make it safe for others to speak out about these issues, and to hold these companies accountable like McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King,” said Roger Sikes of Atlanta Jobs with Justice, which organized the rally.
Sikes said the rally was inspired by a survey released earlier this week by the group Low Pay is Not OK, which has been campaigning to raise the minimum wage for fast-food employees to $15 to allow them to unionize without retaliation.
In a voluntary poll of 1,088 fast-workers, the survey said almost 90 percent allege they’ve been forced to work off the books, denied breaks, had time shaved off their time card or been refused overtime pay.
It’s the latest development in on-going national debate over fast-food wages and working conditions.
Fast-food workers in three states are currently suing McDonald’s over wage theft. President Barack Obama has also called on Congress to raise the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour, and more recently raised the federal contractor wage to that amount.
Managers at both McDonald’s and Wendy’s declined to comment on the rally.
McDonald’s did not respond to WABE’s email, but multiple media reports have a statement from a McDonald’s spokesperson.
It says the company cautions “against drawing broad conclusions based on a small, random informal sampling.”
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