Fast Food Rights day of action

In Newcastle we had an excellent Fast Food Rights day of action on 15 February. We staged a protest outside McDonalds which included activists from Youth Fight for Jobs, the bakers union BFAWU, the Socialist Party and others.

Chanting could be heard across Northumberland Road: “When they say supersize, we fight back and unionise”.

We had speeches denouncing the use of zero-hour contracts and calling for unionisation of the fastfood industry to stop bullying management and for decent pay and conditions. We went into McDonalds, Burger King and Costa Coffee giving out leaflets.

Our action was energetic and received wide support. Many people who approached us had either been on a zero-hour contract or knew someone who was and many signed up to the campaign.

We only found opposition from management in McDonalds who called the police. When one policeman turned up he said everything was fine and we could continue.

This is just the first day of a big campaign in the north east and we are planning to have a similar sort of demo outside different fastfood restaurants regularly.

Paul Phillips