The “most profitable fast food franchise in the world” is struggling to keep its staff safe, workers say.
Broken plumbing preventing hand-washing, a malfunctioning A/C making it difficult to breathe with a mask on amid a heat wave, and arbitrary favoritism allowing some workers to skip safety checks were just a few of the egregious claims made by Northern California McDonald’s workers. Their health complaint, filed on August 29 with the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, fits into a pattern nationally — in which front-line workers at McDonald’s around the country have cried foul at what they perceive as shockingly lax safety protocols amid an atmosphere in which COVID-19 outbreaks among fast food workers are all too common.