30th August 2006

MEDIA RELEASE

Unite Union Support McDonalds “Take a Closer Look” Campaign

Unite will be outside Queen St McDonalds tomorrow (Friday 1st Sept) and Saturday from 11:30am asking the public to support the SuperSizeMyPay.com campaign by signing a petition to be presented to Grainne Troute the CEO of McDonalds.

“As the union representing hundreds of McDonalds workers in Auckland, it is encouraging to see that the company is launching a campaign to ‘open their doors’ and allow the public to ‘take a closer look’ at McDonalds,” said Lynda Boyd, organiser for Unite.

“We hope that in ‘opening it’s doors’, McDonalds open them wide enough for the public to see the low wages it pays it’s workers. As a community we should not allow companies such as McDonalds to continue to exploit our young people.”

Unite does not believe that the company will go far enough in their exposé and the union is stepping in to help out.

“We believe it is unlikely that McDonalds will alert the public to the fact that they pay adult workers the minimum wage of $10.25 and workers under 18 the minimum youth rate of $8.40 an hour”.

As part of the fast-food workers campaign, SuperSizeMyPay.com, Unite has been building membership across the fast food sector. The three main claims the union is promoting are an increase to wages, an end to discriminatory youth rates and more secure hours of work.

Recently Unite settled a collective agreement with Restaurant Brands owners of KFC, Starbuck and Pizza Hut, which included an agreement to phase out youth rates and improved security of hours.

Unite is now working to achieve the same for McDonalds workers and is currently bargaining for a collective agreement.

ENDS

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