'Not Lovin' It': Low-Wage Workers Met by Riot Police Outside McDonald's HQ

Thousands of demonstrators staging a peaceful protest at the McDonald’s headquarters were met by police in riot gear on Wednesday when the low-wage fast food workers and their supporters stormed the Illinois campus to say: “Make our Wage Supersize!”

The protest was held on the eve of the fast food giant’s annual shareholder meeting at the company’s corporate campus outside Chicago, during which activist shareholders are expected to vote against CEO Donald Thompson’s $9.5m pay package, the Guardian reports. Protesters are also planning to picket that meeting.

“We went on strike, we protested, we asked politely and now we got arrested to make sure McDonald’s hears us,” said Ashona Osborne, a McDonald’s employee from Pittsburgh who was one of the 101 people arrested at the demonstration. “I came to McDonald’s shareholders meeting because I want the company to take me seriously and know that I’m a mother who is sick of struggling to support her son.”

Two thousand people from cities across the United States marched onto the campus chanting, “Hey McDonald’s You Can’t Hide, We Can See Your Greedy Side,” and “No Big Macs, No Fries, Make our Wage Supersize,” before holding sit-in, blocking the entrance. As they marched deeper into the campus the protesters were met by a line of police officers in riot gear.

The Associated Press reports:

According to reports, McDonald’s sent workers home early and closed a portion of its sprawling campus after first learning of the planned protest.