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‘There
are Too
Many
Black
People
[Working]
in the
Store’
McDonald’s
Workers
File
Major
Federal
Civil
Rights
Lawsuit
Against
Fast-Food
Giant
Suit
Carries
Significant
Implications
for
Ongoing
Joint
Employer
Debate
Management
Called
Employees
‘Ghetto’
and
‘Ratchet’
and
Fired
Them
Because
They
‘Didn’t
Fit the
Profile’
Desired
at
McDonald’s;
NAACP,
Fight
for $15
Support
Workers
SOUTH
BOSTON,
VA –
McDonald’s
workers
who were
fired
last
year
after
being
told,
“There
are too
many
black
people
[working]
in the
store,”
filed a
federal
civil
rights
lawsuit
against
the
company
Thursday
alleging
a
widespread
pattern
of
racial
and
sexual
discrimination
and
harassment
at three
stores
in
Virginia.
The
suit,
filed in
the U.S.
District
Court
for the
Western
District
of
Virginia
by 10
former
workers
at three
Clarkesville
and
South
Boston
McDonald’s
stores,
alleges
the
company
last May
simultaneously
fired
more
than a
dozen
black
workers
who,
“didn’t
fit the
profile”
desired
at its
restaurants.
The
highest-ranking
managers
had told
workers
that it
was “too
dark” in
the
restaurants
and that
they
“need to
get the
ghetto
out of
the
store.”
“All of
a
sudden,
they let
me go,
for no
other
reason
than I
‘didn’t
fit the
profile’
they
wanted
at the
store,”
said
plaintiff
Willie
Betts,
who was
a cook
at the
South
Boston
McDonald’s
until he
was
fired
last
May. “I
had no
idea
what
they
meant by
the
right
profile
until I
saw
everyone
else
that
they
fired as
well. I
worked
at
McDonald’s
for
almost
five
years, I
was on
time
every
day at
four
o’clock
in the
morning
to open
the
store,
and I
never
had a
disciplinary
write-up.
They
took
away the
only
source
of
income I
have to
support
my
family.”
The suit
comes as
McDonald’s
faces
increased
scrutiny
over its
role as
an
employer
at
franchised
stores
and
carries
significant
implications
in the
ongoing
debate
about
whether
the
fast-food
giant
can be
held
responsible
for the
well-being
of
employees
at its
restaurants.
Despite
McDonald’s
repeated
assertions
that it
is not
the boss
at these
stores,
federal
officials
late
last
year
filed a
dozen
complaints
charging
the
company
was
indeed a
joint
employer
responsible
for
labor
violations
at
stores
across
the
country.
The
workers’
suit
filed
Thursday
names
both
McDonald’s
Corp.
and
McDonald’s
USA and
franchise
owner
Michael
Simon
and his
company,
Soweva
Co., as
defendants.
The
complaint
contends
that
McDonald’s
Corp.
has
control
over
“nearly
every
aspect
of its
restaurants’
operations,”
and is
therefore
responsible
for the
harassment
and
discrimination
workers
faced.
Several
workers
contacted
McDonald’s
Corp. to
report
the
discrimination,
but the
company
did
nothing.
The
complaint
charges
that the
McDonald’s
Corp.
representative
who
conducted
regular
inspection
visits
at the
stores
had
learned
of the
terminations
soon
after
they
occurred
on May
12, but
took no
action.
And the
company
did
nothing
after a
local
paper
reported
on the
firings.
“We
asked
McDonald’s
corporate
to help
us get
our jobs
back,
but the
company
told us
to take
our
concerns
to the
franchisee
– the
same
franchisee
that
just
fired
us,”said
plaintiff
Pamela
Marable,
a
crewmember
at the
South
Boston
McDonald’s
who was
fired in
May.
“McDonald’s
closely
monitors
everything
we do,
from the
speed of
the
drive-through
line, to
the way
we smile
and fold
customers’
bags –
but when
we try
to tell
the
company
that
we’re
facing
discrimination,
they
ignore
us and
say that
it’s not
their
problem.”
Highest-ranking
supervisors
regularly
called
the
Clarkesville
McDonald’s
the
“ghetto
store,”
referred
to black
workers
as
“bitch,”
“ghetto,”
and
“ratchet,”
and
disciplined
them for
rule
infractions
that
were
forgiven
when
committed
by white
workers,
the
complaint
alleges.
One
supervisor
routinely
touched
female
workers
on their
legs and
buttocks,
discussed
sexual
activities
with
female
workers
and
offered
better
working
conditions
in
exchange
for
sexual
favors,
according
to the
complaint.
Several
workers
contacted
the
South
Boston
chapter
of the
NAACP
last
year to
report
the
harassment
and
discrimination.
Leaders
of the
chapter
met with
the
workers
and then
contacted
the
Fight
for $15
movement
for
help.
Both
organizations
are
providing
ongoing
support
to the
workers
in
connection
with
Thursday’s
suit.
“The
treatment
of these
McDonald’s
workers
seems
like
it’s out
of
another
era, but
sadly
the
racism
is a
reality
they are
confronting
today,”
said the
Rev.
Kevin
Chandler,
president
of the
South
Boston
Chapter
of the
NAACP
and Vice
President
of the
NAACP
Virginia
State
Conference.
“The
South
Boston
NAAACP
will
stand
with
these
fired
workers
until
McDonald’s
takes
responsibility
for the
inhumane
treatment
these
workers
faced in
its
stores.”
In
response
to the
suit,
the
Fight
for $15
movement
launched
a
toll-free
national
hotline
Thursday
for
McDonald’s
workers
across
the
country
to
report
incidences
of
harassment
and
abuse at
the
workplace.
The
number
is (855)
729-2869.
“This is
a
problem
that
goes far
beyond
these
stores
in
Virginia
– it’s a
problem
with
McDonald’s
business
model
itself
when
workers
at the
company
have
nowhere
to
turn,”
said
Kendall
Fells,
Organizing
Director
of Fast
Food
Forward.
“McDonald’s
has the
power to
fix this
problem,
but
instead
it
chooses
to skirt
its
responsibility
and hide
behind
its
franchise
model.”
The
complaint
filed
Thursday
brings
harassment
and
discrimination
claims
under
Title
VII of
the 1964
Civil
Rights
Act and
Section
1981.
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