Protests at McDonald’s started on Sunday April 5 in Los Angeles after people learned that an employee there tested positive for COVID-19. Employees say that while the company is calling their jobs essential during the pandemic, it does not recognize that their lives are also essential.

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 order to maintain physical 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. They went next to a McDonald's on Watkins St. in Hayward to repeat their demands and finally protested at a McDonald's location in Castro Valley.

Labor organizers from Fight for $15 have been helping employees rally to get the protection they need and hazard pay during the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent years, they have organized demonstrations to fight for an increased minimum wage at McDonald's in San Jose and Oakland. 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.

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

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