McDonald’s employees at East LA store protest working conditions

Cooks and cashiers at a McDonald’s in East Los Angeles held a lunchtime protest Thursday, June 1, claiming management has pressured them to work while sick or recovering from serious injuries.

The rally came just weeks after employee Bertha Montes died.

In a May 31 complaint filed with the California Labor Commissioner and CalOSHA, coworkers said Montes told her manager she was sick on April 13 and needed to go home.

With “bulging red, glossy eyes,” she was forced to work for another three hours, they said. Montes died about five weeks later. Her sister informed a worker at the restaurant that Montes died as a result of thyroid problems, which affected her blood and lungs.

That incident and several others are documented in the complaint from 11 of the non-union workers employed at McDonald’s at 3868 E. 3rd St. in East L.A.

Armed with signs reading, “I’m Not Loving It,” “Respect for Workers” and “On Strike: McDonald’s Listen to Your Workers,” employees exited the restaurant Thursday amid cheers from supporters and representatives with Fight for $15, which aims to boost wages and improve working conditions for low-paid workers.

“It is not right that management did not let Bertha leave work when she said she was sick and needed to leave,” the complaint says. “Bertha’s death has affected us all, and inspired us to file this complaint.”

Representatives with McDonald’s could not be reached for comment Thursday and a manager at the restaurant said she was not aware of a noon protest.

Workers say the complaint represents an ongoing pattern of managers demanding that workers finish their shifts even while exhibiting obvious symptoms of COVID-19, flu or other serious illnesses or injury.

“Lack of sick pay and lack of accurate information about workers comp contribute to workers feeling like we have to work sick and injured because we are put in the impossible situation of having to choose between working sick and getting paid,” the complaint said.

Nayely Hernandez, a former employee at the restaurant, was hospitalized Feb. 17-20 and diagnosed with asthma and pneumonia. When she got out of the hospital, Hernandez said she was pressured to return to work full-time and without limitations.

“When I went back I told my manager I wasn’t able to do hard duties, so they had me taking food orders,” the 17-year-old East L.A. resident said in an interview Thursday. “But after a few hours, they had me picking up boxes, packing food and doing a lot of back-and-forth walking. It triggered my asthma.”

Hernandez said the situation was disheartening. “It was frustrating and exhausting, both mentally and physically,” she said.

Employees also cite unsafe scheduling practices that sometimes have them working 16 hours during a 22-hour period.

“These schedules do not allow workers time to eat or sleep, resulting in exhaustion that can threaten their safety on the job,” employees said.

Workers at Thursday’s rally also spoke out against the fast-food industry’s referendum against AB 257. Signed into law by Gov. Newsom in September, the FAST Recovery Act would create a 10-person, state-run council to negotiate wages, hours and working conditions for the more than half a million fast-food workers in California.

It would establish an initial minimum wage of up to $22 an hour, with capped annual increases thereafter at restaurants with more than 100 locations nationwide.

Save Local Restaurants — a coalition of fast-food franchisees and franchisors who oppose the measure — gathered enough signatures to put the bill hold and place a referendum on the 2024 ballot when voters will decide its outcome.

A report from the UC Berkeley Labor Center shows that people working fast-food jobs are more likely to live in or near poverty. But another report from the UC Riverside School of Business suggests AB 257 could boost fast-food prices by as much as 30% and shift consumption to other parts of the food-delivery network, including full-service restaurants and grocery stores.

Source: Orange County Register