The SupersizeMyPay.com campaign has pressured McDonald's into giving all workers a pay rise that the fast-food giant previously threatened to only give to non-union members. The reversal came two weeks after the Unite union filed legal papers to the Employment Relations Authority, which claimed that McDonald's was acting in bad faith during negotiations. Hene Moeke, an 18-year-old shift supervisor at Pt Chevalier McDonalds, said on March 15 that "their original purpose in only giving non-union members a pay rise was to break our union. They are only going to pay us now because they are scared of us — a bunch of low paid workers who have decided to stand up for ourselves." The rise is separate from wage negotiations, and Moeke said McDonald's is "hoping to bully us into accepting what they have offered us — but they have offered nothing but the new legal minimum wage". A meeting between McDonald's and Unite on March 14 was called off after McDonald's advocate Tony Teasdale assaulted Australian journalist Jill Hickson, who was filming in the foyer of Teasdale Associates, and removed her camera. The film has still not been returned. Unite representative Matt McCarten has written to Teasdale asking for an apology to the journalist and the return of the film. "Without these conditions being met it will be difficult for our union to accept agreeing to negotiate with Mr. Teasdale", McCarten said. For more information visit <http://www.supersizemypay.com>.
From Green Left Weekly, March 22, 2006.
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