Mc Donald’s is the most widespread fast food restaurant in the world. The fries, burger
and coke are sometimes the best and most practical meal of our happy times. Our mother
sometimes takes a break from cooking and gets us Mc Donald’s for the lunch or dinner. Mc
Donald’s food sounds fan , but how about the company by itself? Is it a company that is fair to
its workers? What do you think that is going on in the backside of the McDonald’s restaurants?
Does the food come to your home is made in a good work environment by happy people? Do
you think that workers who prepare our burger get the money they deserve? Are the workers
informed and trained about the whole process of the food? Are the workers unionized and can
save their rights? There is a dark side of Mc Donald’s company’s that nobody but only its
workers know about.
As a matter of fact Mc Donald’s workers aren’t unionized. According to Ron Marcoux ,
executive vice-president of Mc Donald’s restaurant of Canada Ltd., as far as he knows none of
the company’s Canadian restaurants are unionized, because Mc Donald’s hires immigrants and
teenagers who are poor, have no talent ,no any knowledge to do another job and don’t speak
English well. They are afraid to get fired all the time because of the lack of experience and
knowledge they have , so they do whatever employers say. According to The Toronto Sun News
of April 2002, there is a big turnover at McDonald’s. So, some people just can’t stand the system
there and leave the job or get fired. A sociologist Ester Reiter says that “obedience” is the most
valued aspect of a personality in fast food restaurants (schlosser,75). So, these immigrants and
teenagers , because of their hard life conditions, are obedient to their employer and don’t have
the chance to say “no!.” So, these workers are subject to arbitrariness and unfairness on the job
all the time. In this case , Mc Donald workers should definitely unionize in order to save their
rights ,and have a better work environment.
Mc Donald’s take some serious steps not to have their workers unionized. Mc Donald’s
doesn’t care about the pain or bad consequences that the work system causes to its workers. The
only thing Mc Donald cares that money, and more businesses. That is why the food that comes to
your home is mass produced food in assembly line. That means that the food in Mc Donald’s fast
food restaurant is processed by a large groups of people and you can be never sure that who
prepared your food .So, that brings up more than one questions in your mind; are those people
clean? Why is my food prepared by so many people that each one do a small part of the work ?
Can’t one person do everything from the beginning to the end and be responsible from
everything? This is not a car company or any other industrial factory that produces technological
stuffs, this is my food that I am buying for dinner to eat with my children. How will I be sure that
my burger is made of clean stuffs, I can’t go ask all the people who are working there because
Mc Donald’s is a huge company. So, it is better to do my own food or buy it from the people that
I know. As that can effect my health, it definitely effects the workers’ work conditions too. First
of all, the workers earn less money because of the small part of job they do, also they can’t be
sure about the safety and cleanness of the food they are preparing because they are only allowed
to do one simple thing every single day and don’t allowed to ask questions or get information
about other processes of the food. So, actually workers have no idea what is going on before
their turn comes and passes. This mass produced in assembly line system makes Mc Donald’s
company earn a lot of money, but the workers’ money decreases or doesn’t increase. The
workers feel insecure at work because of small and simple work that they do in this system
without allowed to be trained to do the whole job. So, if the employer wants to fire them, he can
fire them and replace them easily. In this case, workers become weak because they are not
unionized, and do whatever the employer says. Mc Donald’s deliberately controls and try to keep
unions out of its restaurants (Scholesser 76). If Mc Donald’s let its workers to be unionized then
the company can’t treat the workers arbitrarily. That is why Mc Donald’s hires mostly
immigrants or teenagers. Teenagers are too young and the immigrants can’t speak English, so
they can’t unionize because they don’t even know their rights yet. According to Scholesser if
somebody wants to get fired mentioning about the word “Mc union” which stands for unionizing
Mc Donald’s restaurants, is enough for it; “did somebody say Mc Union? Not if they want to
keep their Mcjob”(77). So, when the workers of Mc Donald’s start seeking their rights, they get
fired immediately. If Mc Donald’s continues using mass produced system in assembly line for its
benefits to make more money, and continues to avoid the union actions of its workers in its
restaurants by hiring inexperienced teenagers and immigrants, one day Mc Donald’s name will
be vanished in the universe sooner than we think .
In conclusion, any fast food restaurant has to be unionized in order to keep their rights and
have a better work condition. Also, if the workers can keep their rights and the turnover rates
decreases we will have a better food, at least by the same people who work there for along time
with more knowledge of work. We may not change the mass –produced system in assembly line
right away, but if we don’t buy big food chains’ food, we may slowly change their system. Don’t
let companies to use your money against you and do not support mass produced food system by
keep buying their products.
WORK CITED
Cp. "McUnion Ordered;Burger Workers Sign First Contract." The Toronto Sun [Toronto] 18 Apr. 2002, News sec.: 53. Lexisnexis. Web. 20 Apr. 2010.
Cp. "McDonald's Staff Puts in Order for 'mcunion'at Alberta Outlet." The Toronto Star [Toronto] 6 Oct. 1985, News sec.: A11. Lexisnexis. Web. 20 Apr. 2010.
Schlosser, Eric. "Behind the Counter." Fast Food Nation: the Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. 59-87. Print.
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