The Food-Hotels and Tourism Union calls on all McDonald’s workers to participate in the big all-worker strike organized on February 28 to demand wage increases and humane working conditions. Because we have now reached the point of living to work and not the other way round. To be school-work, work-school (as most in our industry are students) with the cost of living and studying being unbearable.

While McDonald’s profit growth in Greece reached 37.5% for Q1 2023 alone, on the other hand, the company’s employees are faced with extreme intensification, working in three and four posts in parallel, from production to cleaning, from cleaning to cashier and vice versa.

We need to know that the reason there are posts listed in our contract is because they cannot force us to do everything in parallel!

While the above situation, together with broken days off, lack of staff and personal protective equipment in some shops, such as gloves and work uniforms that protect against burns, increase the risk of work accidents.

Now is the time to fight – No one alone – No one neglected!

We are organizing in our union because we will not tolerate being torn to pieces after every shift. We do not tolerate not knowing how many hours we will work the next day, being forced to take our leave when it suits them, that is, not being able to organize our free time as we want, to see our families, our friends, to work on our studies!

We are fighting along with the rest of our colleagues because we know that nothing will be given to us, but that through our struggle we can have conquests!

Besides, under the pressure of the struggles of our union and the other sectoral unions, the employers were forced to sign a collective agreement in the catering sector and the ministry made it compulsory. So that we can collectively regulate our working conditions and they cannot stick each of us individually against the wall with individual contracts. A practice used by McDonald’s so that they force their workers to work in extra posts and force them to work overtime where they need to and when they want to.

We are therefore fighting for the implementation of our collective agreement in every workplace, but also for the signing of a new one that reflects our needs, as the existing one provides for 6-day working, broken days off, etc. at the employers’ request.

We are optimistic because we are not alone. We take hope from the thousands of students, pupils and teachers who have been on major mobilisations for 2 months. From the farmers’ mobilizations, and the big strikes in a number of workplaces and sectors where they have had gains. We continue and join our voices with all of them, proving that the river does not turn back!

We demand:

An end to individual contracts, collective agreements with wage increases.

Respect the posts and specialties, based on the categories provided for in the food service contract and the corresponding allowances.

Appropriate equipment and uniforms for each post, with the focus on protection against burns.

Double consecutive days off for everyone. Stop the unacceptable practice in the programs of alternating schedules, from night-opening with only days off in between.

No worker should be forced to sit more hours than they have agreed to.

 Food-Hotels and Tourism Union of Athens