McDonald’s is my ultimate guilty pleasure. The company epitomizes what’s wrong with our country, yet I can’t stay away. Every time I say I’ve ate my last Big Mac, the mind-control chemicals in the fries act on my brain to lure me back.Last Wednesday was the 43rd birthday of the first Mickey D’s. The company now has more than 23,500 restaurants in 109 countries. On average, they serve more than 38 million people – or the equivalent of the entire population of Spain – each day.And Americans wonder why the world hates us. In our never-ending quest for world domination, the US used to go through the troublesome process of starting wars and assassinating foreign leaders to install friendly regimes. Somewhere along the line, we smarted up and realized the key to Americanizing the planet was burgers, not bullets. McDonald’s is as much about culture as food. It’s cheap and fast to buy and eat, with good taste and little nutritional value. It maintains a standard that ensures a Big Mac in Columbus tastes pretty much the same as one in Walla Walla, Washington. It’s the American ideal: Conformity and convenience at the expense of substance. In the longest legal battle in British history, McDonald’s sued two London activists for distributing a pamphlet entitled “What’s Wrong With McDonald’s? Everything they don’t want you to know.” It criticizes almost all aspects of the company’s practices with sections on McDonald’s economic imperialism, adverse environmental impact, and its exploitation of children. While McDonald’s won the case last year because of strict British libel law, they spent over $16 million dollars while getting more bad press than the now-bankrupt activists ever dreamed.One section entitled “What’s it like working for McDonald’s?” looks at the reasons behind the 300 percent turnover rate among US employees. It cited a survey of workers in burger restaurants which found 80 percent said they needed union help over pay and conditions. McDonald’s has prevented unionization of its restaurants nearly everywhere in the world except Sweden, and after a long struggle in Dublin.After 80 percent signed union cards last year, employees in a Quebec McDonald’s asked the Teamsters to file with the Labor Ministry for recognition of what would have been the chain’s first North American union. The company used all the legal maneuvers they could come up with to delay the certification for months. They finally just shut the store down last Valentine’s Day.The unionization movement has had little progress in the US until recently. Last week, six workers in the northeastern Ohio town of Macedonia for five days had the first ever strike of a US McDonald’s.Their demands were quite reasonable: That work schedules be posted a week in advance; meetings between crew and management; advanced notification of procedural changes; pay equity; an end to name-calling and broken pay bonus promises; fully equipped first-aid kits and more utensils to improve safety in the grill area.By the time it was over, the Teamsters had joined in and rumblings of unionizing the chain nationwide were heard. After 20 workers signed union cards, McDonald’s settled quick before anyone else got any ideas.It wasn’t the first time resistance against an Ohio McDonald’s made the news. In the Columbus suburb of Bexley, townspeople battled for several years to keep a McDonald’s from moving into the location of a porn video store on Main Street. The residents of the conservative community opposed the fast food giant because of the traffic and trash it generates. McDonald’s won the battle last year.McDonald’s, especially its High Street location, panders to college students by delivering a meal with the least expenditure of time and money. But quick eats aren’t worth supporting one of the truly evil conglomerates. Resist the temptation of selling out for a 69 cent cheeseburger. I’m going to try.
Nathan Crabbe is a junior from Akron with a troubling obsession with the Teletubbies. His radio show airs Tuesday at 7 PM on the student-run station.
