Black McDonald's Workers Sue, Plan To Walk Off Job Monday

TAMPA, FL — Black workers at Tampa Bay McDonald's restaurants filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Friday alleging McDonald’s subjected them to a “racially hostile work environment” and then punished them for speaking out.

The workers said managers slashed their hours, pushed trumped-up disciplinary charges and assigned back-breaking tasks as retaliation.

When workers complained to corporate higher-ups about a racist general manager, the regional management teams said that, because the general manager “runs a very profitable store, nothing would be done,” according to the complaint.

“McDonald’s can tweet Black Lives Matter as many times as it wants, but until it treats its Black workers like we matter, we can’t take those words seriously,” said employee Faith Booker. “If Black workers mattered to McDonald’s, we wouldn’t have to file a lawsuit to be treated with respect.”

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division, by crew members Booker, Monica Scott and Augusta Moody asserts a trail of racism at the 5525 Walt Loop store in Lakeland, including:

• When a Black customer requested grape jelly and ketchup to accompany a drive-thru order of a sausage biscuit and hash browns, the general manager said to Scott, “It’s always Black people who want free stuff.” The general manager followed up by stating that Black people are “aggressive and trying to fight,” and that “all they want to do is smoke weed.” When Scott complained about the comments, the general manager said, “You know what I say is true.”
• When McDonald’s hosted a promotion to provide free meals to essential workers like nurses and firefighters, Black customers were singled out and forced to show proof of employment to receive free meals, while non-Black essential workers were provided with the promotion without needing to show ID.
• When a Black customer complained about how an order was handled, the general manager called the police, but when white customers are upset, the general manager follows company policy to mollify customers by, for example, offering a free cookie or supersizing the order.
• Black employees are arbitrarily disciplined. After asking for help on the grill during peak hours, Moody was told he couldn’t do his job and was sent home without pay for the remainder of his shift.

“While not unique, the experiences of Ms. Scott, Mr. Moody, and Ms. Booker are particularly egregious examples of the serious harm that occurs when a corporation fails to take responsibility for the discriminatory conduct of its managers and thus permits an environment of pervasive and intentional racial discrimination to take hold at one of its corporate owned and operated restaurants,” the complaint reads.

“Yet again, McDonald's has proven it's willing to exploit the Black community, using statements of solidarity as a PR ploy while continuing to pay inequitable wages, rampantly abuse Black employees and allow discrimination against Black customers,” said Color Of Change's President Rashad Robinson. “If McDonald’s really wants to 'stand for victims of systemic oppression,' as its own ad said, it's time for McDonald's to move beyond the statement and show a serious commitment to racial justice. The company’s leadership must recognize how their current policies uphold white supremacy, and make a firm commitment to creating structural change — including empowering Black leadership and paying their workers a living wage.”

Black workers raised their concerns about the general managers’ racist comments and conduct to their human resources representative and regional manager, both corporate McDonald’s employees responsible for supervising multiple McDonald’s corporate-owned restaurants.

Those corporate representatives refused to take any action to redress the “toxic” work environment created by the blatant discrimination towards Black customers and the intolerable working conditions under which Black workers labor at the Lakeland McDonald’s restaurant, saying nothing would be done because the store is profitable.

“In short, McDonald’s placed profitability over respect for the lives and well-being of its Black workers and customers,” the complaint alleges.

Not only did the corporate representatives refuse to act, McDonald’s punished workers for daring to complain, the suit alleges. Scott was forced to do backbreaking work-- sweeping the parking lot, cleaning under the grill and wiping down the walls, which was not part of her--or any crew member’s—regular job.

Hours were slashed and trumped-up disciplinary charges were lodged. Scott received 12 zeroes on her review and had her hours cut to around 24 a week from almost 40.

“I’m a mother, raising my children on just $9.25 an hour,” said Scott. “When my hours were cut, it didn’t just affect the size of my wallet, it put my livelihood and my children’s well-being in jeopardy. I can’t afford to lose pay or work, and now I’ve had to cut back on how much I eat to make sure there’s enough for my kids, and take on a second job.”

While Black workers’ hours are cut, the lawsuit alleges that other workers who are not Black are working close to full time, even now with the pandemic getting worse, and the store is hiring new employees. A “Now Hiring” sign hangs in the window.

When Black workers delivered a petition demanding respect on the job, they were asked to leave the restaurant and more retaliation soon followed. Scott was made to clean the garbage cans, a task she had never before been assigned. Moody was given a poor performance review, knocking him off course to becoming a crew trainer. And Booker’s hours were cut.

Friday’s suit is, “not an isolated incident, but is instead symptomatic of a pattern or practice of McDonald’s corporate leadership’s failure to address pervasive racism and anti-Black sentiment throughout the organization,” according to the complaint.

It follows a suit filed in January by two Black corporate executives alleging Black c-suite employees are passed over for less-qualified white employees, unjustly demoted, subjected to racial slurs without recourse and retaliated against by McDonald’s when they advocate on behalf of Black franchisees or protest the disproportionate reduction in Black senior executives.

McDonald’s franchised restaurants have also faced accusations of egregious, racist misconduct, including the firing of Black employees because a manager concluded “there were too many black people” at certain restaurants. Black franchisees have also spoken out about a two-tiered franchise system at the burger giant. One in three Black franchisees has left the company since 2015. Meanwhile, the cash-flow gap between white and Black franchisee has nearly tripled.

The details in the complaint paint a stark contrast to the image McDonald’s tried to create on social media in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, asserting that it stands with the Black community.

“The facts alleged herein demonstrate that McDonald’s does not actually stand with its own Black workers and customers, but instead subjects them to severe and pervasive discrimination, and punishes them when they dare to complain about the blatantly unequal treatment,” the complaint reads.

“The complaint explains that when plaintiffs observed racist language and conduct targeting Black customers and employees, they took McDonald’s at its word that it cared about Black lives, and reported the harassment to corporate representatives,” said Eve Cervantez, one of the attorneys for plaintiffs. “But those corporate representatives took no meaningful action, and failed to deliver on McDonald’s advertisements promoting racial justice.”

The civil rights suit comes as McDonald’s workers across the country plan to walk off the job Monday as part of the Strike for Black Lives, drawing attention to how the fast-food giant has failed Black workers amid the coronavirus pandemic and beyond.

On Juneteenth, McDonald’s workers marched on the company’s Chicago headquarters, calling the company out for its disingenuous statements against oppression, while its corporate policies show otherwise – including retaliating against and firing a Black employee who sued the company for its failure to protect workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

McDonald's issued the following statement in response to the lawsuit:

Courtesy McDonald's USA