McDonald's workers marching in Oak Brook for higher wages
Hundreds of McDonald's workers continued their second day of protests over wages with a peaceful, but boisterous march outside the fast-food chain's campus in Oak Brook Thursday morning.
Demonstrators from across the country camped overnight in about 200 tents ahead of a brief rally near McDonald's corporate headquarters off 22nd Street. Then, they loaded buses before marching alongside the company's Oak Brook campus, where top executives gathered for their annual shareholders meeting Thursday.
Restaurant workers are seeking to unionize and a minimum wage of $15 an hour.
"We are here on their doorsteps because now it's time for the shareholders to thank us," said Angel Mitchell, a 26-year-old who works in a Chicago McDonald's and plans to begin studying next month for her master's degree.
Tyree Johnson earned $4.25 an hour when he took a job at a McDonald's in Chicago in 1992. Today, he holds the same position and makes $10 an hour.
"I'm living in poverty after 24 years," the 48-year-old said.
No arrests were made during the two days of demonstrations, Oak Brook police said. Paramedics took one person with a pre-existing medical condition to the hospital Thursday.
Organizers backed by the Service Employees International Union originally expected as many as 10,000 people to march Wednesday on a stretch of 22nd Street as part of the "Fight for $15" campaign. But police estimated roughly 2,000 people walked the route in heavy rains.
On Thursday, police from as far as Evanston and Wauconda arrived at McDonald's wooded campus just before 8 a.m. ahead of the march in the north lanes of Jorie Boulevard. Officers on bikes also rode alongside the roughly 1,000 protesters.
For about two hours, McDonald's employees were joined by supporters who also work in the fast food industry and push for higher pay. "McJobs cost us all," read one poster.
As the world's biggest burger chain, McDonald's sets "the standard the other companies will follow," said Jackie Foster, who lives in Pittsburgh.
Wages for all employees at company-owned restaurants were raised to $1 above the local minimum wage last July. But McDonald's owns only a fraction - 10 percent - of its U.S. stores. The rest are operated by franchisees.
"Every year, we and our franchisees separately employ hundreds of thousands of people, providing many with their very first job," McDonald's spokeswoman Lisa McComb said Thursday. "We offer McDonald's employees the opportunity to develop the valuable skills and work ethic necessary to build successful careers even beyond our restaurants."
The McDonald's restaurant in Oak Brook was closed because of a construction project and parking lot repair that began Wednesday, McComb said. The restaurant is expected to reopen Friday.