McDonald’s Employees in Bay Area Disrupt Business at Three Locations

Protests at McDonald’s started on Sunday April 5 in Los Angeles after it was learned that an employee there tested positive for COVID-19. Since then there have been demonstrations every day in California by workers who say that while the company is calling their jobs essential during the pandemic, it does not recognize that their lives are essential too.

In the early morning of April 9, employees from several of the chain’s Bay Area locations gathered in the parking lot of a San Jose McDonald’s. They rallied outside of their cars, making a large circle in oder to maintain social distancing required by California law. They also formed a caravan of their cars to disrupt the drive-thru lane in an act of civil disobedience. SJPD kept a watchful eye from a vehicle parked next to the building.

By 9:30am they were at a McDonald’s on Watkins St. in Hayward where they circled the building for half an hour, honked loudly and waved placards from car windows, creating a ruckus. They enthusiastically chanted in Spanish, and media was there to amplify their message of continued struggle to corporate headquarters, “McDonald’s Escucha, estamos en la lucha!” From Hayward the caravan went to a third McDonald’s in Castro Valley.

Labor organizers from Fight for $15 have been helping employees express their demands for the protection they need during the COVID-19 pandemic, and for many years have aided in their attempt to increase the lowest wage to $15 an hour. The publication Business Insider recently reported that McDonald's paid its CEO almost 2,000 times as much as the average worker in 2019, with executive compensation topping $18 million.