and took legal actions in California against the company’s “inadequate” response to the pandemic. McDonald’s said that day that protective gear was “in ample supply,” adding that more than 100 million masks had been distributed nationwide.
Angelica Hernandez, another McDonald’s worker on Wednesday’s strike call, said one of her coworkers in her Los Angeles location got the virus and was hospitalized. Afterward, she and others were only given four days off to quarantine before having to return to work. She said the company hadn’t given them enough protective equipment: They ran out of sanitizer and gloves, and customers without masks have still been served.
“I don’t have my kids with me. I had to send them to live with my mother-in-law out of fear of getting the virus and spreading it to them,” Hernandez said. “On Mother’s Day, I was alone … because McDonald’s isn’t protecting us.” Workers at a McDonald’s in San Francisco filed a complaint with the city’s health department alleging that managers suggested they use coffee filters as masks, according to a release from Fight for 15. And in Detroit, workers at a McDonald’s said they were given just one mask and told to clean it with hand sanitizer.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand , who was on the call on Wednesday, noted that if workers aren’t able to stay home when they’re sick, they’ll potentially infect others at work, adding that paid leave is “crucial to combatting this virus.”Fran Marion, a McDonald’s worker in Kansas City, Missouri, pointed out on the call that