McDonald’s workers are on strike again throughout Florida, calling for the right to unionize along with a fair wage.
McDonald’s workers staged walkouts in Orlando, Tampa and Miami on Monday as they demanded the right to unionize, safer working conditions and a minimum wage of $15 dollars an hour.
Jamelia Fairley with the Fight for 15 was among them. Fairley, who works at a McDonald’s in Sanford sued the company after she says she was harassed on the job.
She still works for McDonald’s and says she can barely afford basic living expenses on her current salary.
“It’s hard for me with transportation at the moment with my five-year-old daughter. We’re trying to make it back and forth to work. And trying to make it back and forth for her going to school. As well as my rent."
Fairley says after years of fighting for equal pay with seemingly little movement on the company's part, she's getting tired.
"I do get frustrated a lot because there hasn’t been any movement from McDonald’s on giving us $15 dollars yet. But I feel like if I continue to fight and continue to stand up for what I believe in. Then it will happen and I will make my $15 dollars an hour and so will everyone else at McDonald’s will make their $15 dollars an hour.”
The minimum wage in Florida will be $15 dollars an hour by 2026 thanks to a ballot initiative that passed in 2020.
In a statement, McDonald's said, "McDonald’s is fortunate to have the hardest working and most dedicated restaurant crew in the industry. In 2021, McDonald’s raised hourly wages for more than 36,500 employees at McDonald’s-owned restaurants by an average of 10 percent. These raises build on competitive benefits package offered to eligible employees in McDonald’s-owned restaurants, including paid time off, access to education, employee assistance, a 401K plan and other rewards programs."
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