In June, two McDonald’s locations went on strike within a day of each other, alleging that the franchise locations would rather let the employees work in temperatures over 100 degrees than provide them with air conditioning.
McDonald’s employees in East Los Angeles went on strike and filed an OSHA complaint following a co-worker’s death, according to ABC 7.
In Houston, McDonald’s workers walked out after the air conditioning unit at their restaurant broke. Texas is suffering from temperatures above 100 degrees, and according to the Houston Chronicle, employees at the Almeda-Genoa location were working in that heat before they walked out.
“I didn’t want to suffer the consequences from the heat, which would be worse,” employee Gloria Machuca said in Spanish. “I told my co-worker not to be afraid because our health comes first.”
That point was underscored by what happened to Bertha Montes, a worker at the East LA McDonald’s location who died days after her employer would not let her go home after she got sick, according to a filed OSHA complaint.
“On April 13, 2023 Bertha was visibly sick at work, with bulging red, glossy eyes,” according to the report. “Bertha told Vicky the manager that she was sick and needed to go home, but Vicky told Bertha she could not leave work and forced her to continue working for 3 hours before she was allowed to leave.”
In Houston, unlike East Los Angeles, all of the employees did not go on strike. In addition to Machuca, five other employees left while four stayed in the establishment, allowing the location to remain open.
According to Porfirio Villareal, a spokesperson for the city of Houston’s Health Department, the law is on Machucha’s side: “Houston law requires food establishments to have air conditioning during the summer and heat during the winter,” Villareal said. “Without it, workers could suffer from heat exhaustion or heat stroke, which can be deadly,”
Machuca said that she would return by Friday, July 21 provided the air conditioning unit had been repaired.
These labor disputes come amid a wave of strikes and labor-related conversations that are embroiling the national consciousness in debates around the value of labor.
California in particular is the epicenter of these debates as we are updated on the dispute between writers and actors and the Hollywood studios via social media. Amazon delivery drivers joined the Teamsters strike of UPS over similar work conditions. Teachers are on strike across the country, seeking benefits for themselves and their students; experts warned that it would be a summer of strikes and so far, that caution appears to be justified.