Support the ‘McStrikers’

I DON’T know what the beggars on Oxford Road outside McDonald’s make, but with the National Minimum/Living Wage rates set at £7.83 for someone 25 and over and £3.70 for a teenage apprentice you may well raise an eyebrow at the McStrike set to take place at selected ‘MaccyD’s’ on May 1, International Worker’s Day.

I’m told the ‘McStrikers’ want £10 per hour - many in low-paid jobs may think ‘nice if you can get it.’

McDonald’s crews may indeed work anti-social hours, have to wear an irksome uniform, a cheesy McSmile and feel pressure, but so do others.

However, the strike is supported by the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) and War On Want.

Perhaps McDonald’s are being singled out because demonstrations and pickets outside their locations will be very visible in the morning rush hour. As an American transnational corporation, with a (perhaps undeserved) reputation for promoting obesity, it is an easy target.

But its profits last year were healthy, in no small part perhaps due to it paying £132m in ‘franchise rights’ to a company in low-tax Luxembourg, thereby cutting what they are liable to pay the taxman here.

So my sympathies will be with the workers, most of whom have reported having to borrow from families or get payday loan to make ends meet.

J Zauber, Gorton