A series of videos posted on TikTok have documented a McDonald’s restaurant having its entire workforce quit, citing bad working conditions.
The footage was posted by @zoey.isback on the video sharing platform, and broadcast her and her colleagues’ refusal to continue working at the fast food outlet.
The first video opens to a sign on the restaurant’s door that reads, “Everyone quit, we are closed”.
The camera pans around the empty building, from the dining section, the counter where orders are made and inside the kitchen.
“When everyone quit unexpectedly at the same time,” the caption read.
More detail was put in the comments section, where the poster alleges that the branch “was run by teenagers and it was a terrible work space”. She also clarified that the dispute was not about money.
A follow up video was posted, however the account did not go into much detail as she claims that she “barely recorded” on the day of the walk out.
People in the comments section were happy to see some solidarity between the McDonald’s workers.
April Ariaza said, “I just visited a McDonald’s yesterday where their AC was out and a worker told me it has been out for two weeks and they still haven’t gone out to fix it.”
“People quit because of poor management,” wrote Anita Guillen.
In response to the two videos, people in the comments were asking to know more about what prompted them to walk out en masse.
Cat Smith said, “We need a full story. I’m invested.”
However, as of yet, no update has been given on the situation but The Independent has reached out to the poster for comment.
There is the beginning of a reckoning between lower-level employees and management within the US hospitality industry.
“The pandemic highlighted issues that have been problems in the industry for decades, minimum wages, lack of benefits, dangerous working conditions, the cyclical nature of laying off and rehiring staff when it’s convenient for employers’ balance sheets. These problems are not new, but we need new solutions because clearly the status quo is not working,” Michael Lastoria, who owns &Pizza, a chain in Washington, DC and six other states, told the Guardian.
Tim Taney, owner of the restaurant Slidin Dirty in Troy, New York told the outlet, “We have to recognise that we do have some of the hardest working people in the workforce, and they deserve to be treated that way.”
