McDonald’s Campus Closes Because of Fast Food Protests

By Carla Murphy May 21, 2014

Today, following last week’s first ever global fast food worker protests, hundreds of workers from around the country descended on McDonald’s corporate headquarters outside Chicago. In anticipation of the crowd the McDonald’s campus was a ghost town however, closed for the day. Moral Mondays leader, Rev. William Barber, president of the NAACP-NC is there, as is another southerner, Eddie Foreman. Foreman is a McDonald’s employee from Opelika, Ala., arrested last week, and charged with criminal trespass, he says, for protesting with other workers outside his local restaurant. Despite the legal trouble and risk of a second arrest, he made the trip north from Opelika today.

Barricades and fencing surround the entrance to McDonald’s HQ and around 150 people have been arrested, Foreman says. Asked what he’ll remember most about today’s protest, Foreman says, "I’m going to remember how many people have the same problem I have and went and fought for themselves."

Fast food workers have staged wage protests since 2012 demanding a $15-an-hour wage increase as well as the right to form a union without retaliation.