Такие работники McDonald's, как я, борются за наше здоровье и безопасность. Между тем, компания платит акционерам почти 1 млрд долларов

It used to be moderately after 3 a.m. after I acquired home from my shift at McDonald’s and heard the build of info no mom of a newborn ever desires to listen to: my 10-month-former tiny one used to be ill, with a 104 degree fever, convulsions and diarrhea.

Earlier in the week, I had been feeling ill at work myself. I had a headache and body aches, and wearing a cloak made it the truth is feel too laborious to breathe. But after I advised my manager I wished to head home, he said there used to be no one to duvet for me and advised me to prison pull the cloak down.

Since then, both my tiny one and I the truth is be pleased tested obvious for COVID-19. On the McDonald’s store in Oakland where I work, as a minimum 11 staff and 6 family participants total be pleased tested obvious.McDonald’s has claimednot too long up to now to face in opposition to difference and injustice, nonetheless in actuality the firm has abandoned staff of shade admire me who’re already contracting and demise from COVID-19 at disproportionate rates. I remember the outbreak in Oakland is an instantaneous consequence of McDonald’s striking earnings earlier than the safety of Unlit and brown staff who risk our lives to sell the firm’s burgers and fries all over this pandemic.

So that it’s good to add insult to damage, on Monday, even as staff at my store fight for perfect PPE and paid time without work to quarantine, McDonald’s rewarded its shareholders with a nearly $1 billion dividend payout for the first quarter of 2020. This follows one other nearly billion buck payout in March for the final quarter of 2019.

Nearly $2 billion is great for rich investors, who all around the pandemic possible be pleased been ready to safe cash working from home and quarantine if wanted. Certainly, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski has said that dividends are a “paramount priority” for the firm.

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I desire our CEO belief his staff be pleased been of equal importance, because right here’s the truth: McDonald’s can’t the truth is stand in opposition to oppression when it locations that noteworthy money into shareholders’ pockets ahead of doing every little thing it would to abet staff of shade compile.

For prison a share of the $1 billion McDonald’s is giving to its shareholders this week, the firm could maybe guarantee paid ill leave for staff who originate up exhibiting COVID-admire symptoms. It would impress McDonald’s roughly $61.2 million to provide two weeks of paid leave for its staff, although as many as 1 in 10 U.S. McDonald’s staff acquired ill with COVID-19. As an different, while staff admire me risk our lives each day, McDonald’s refuses to provide us all procure admission to to paid ill leave.

At my store in Oakland, where the frontline staff are Latino and Unlit, we didn’t be pleased the probability to recall paid ill days. Our managers forced us to reach help into work ill, which resulted in us working in end proximity to co-staff who be pleased been ill. One of my co-staff, who used to be pregnant, used to be advised to slay a doctor’s appointment in lisp to reach help into work.

We also haven’t had the PPE we need to defend compile. Because the pandemic raged, we be pleased been advised to make employ of toemploy doggie pee pads and occasional filters as masks. They at final gave us disposable masks, nonetheless advised us to wear them for days on cease. They gave us low-impress gloves that ended up shredded to pieces by the tip of our shifts.

Wonderful month, my co-staff and I made up my thoughts that sufficient used to be sufficient. On Might maybe well also merely 26, we went on strike to expect a two-week paid quarantine length for those exposed to COVID-19, perfect PPE, a deep cleansing of the store and firm-paid medical bills.

So many of us walked off the job that the store shut down. The shop couldn’t operate without us, which need to lisp our managers and the corporate leadership that McDonald’s costliest sources are its cooks and cashiers, not its shareholders.

And the day old to this, after three weeks on strike, I joined three of my co-staff infiling a lawsuitin opposition to our employer for the chilly-hearted insurance policies that accelerated rather than slowed the unfold of the virus in our store and community. My 10-month-former son is one amongst the plaintiffs.

Yet despite the outbreak we’ve viewed at my store in Oakland and different other retail outlets all around the nation, McDonald’s has already released a“playbook”instructing franchisees on reopen. At the same time as Unlit and brown staff proceed to own the burden of the pandemic and as the need of cases in many states has begun to amplify again, the firm stays so dedicated to turning a revenue for its shareholders that it’s willing to position staff, our households and our customers at risk.

That culture of carelessness comes from the tip of the firm, and we remember it in our retail outlets from our franchise householders and executives. After I acquired the lifeless COVID take a look at outcomes for myself and my tiny one, I known as my manager to relate her. I was crying after I advised her how scared I was for my tiny one because he used to be so ill, and my manager merely said, “It’s dazzling.”

I started crying more robust, because it’s not dazzling. The shareholders who acquired nearly $1 billion richer are doing dazzling, nonetheless my co-staff and I are ill and hurting. McDonald’s calls its staff of shade famous and claims to face in opposition to injustice, nonetheless I do know how they in reality remember us: as disposable as doggie pee pads.

TIME reached out to McDonald’s for comment.“These conversations claimed to be pleased taken assert by one employee build not think our insurance policies in any manner, and are not representative of the criteria of which we withhold managers and staff to,” Michael Smith, owner and operator of the McDonald’s franchise where Osoy works, said in an announcement. “In protecting with the guidance of the CDC and in full compliance with all assert and local orders including ill pay and PPE necessities, we’re offering paid ill leave to staff impacted by the virus.” Smith also acknowledged that the restaurant has provided the famous PPE, including masks and gloves, for the reason that originate of the pandemic, and “all claims connected to canines diapers being ancient as PPE are fully incorrect.” After learning that some staff had tested obvious for COVID-19, he said in the assertion, the position “used to be closed and an intensive sanitization course of used to be performed. We identified and reached out to all restaurant workers who had been in end contact with the staff who diminished in size the virus and advised they self-quarantine in step with CDC pointers. In response to COVID-19, our organization is offering paid ill leave and nearly $20,000 in food market gift playing cards to our staff to be obvious they would possibly be able to proceed to be pleased procure admission to to famous desires all over this advanced time.”

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