Sure it’s been hot lately, but imagine working in the kitchen of McDonald’s filled with employees and customers, and of course those hot ovens and grills and so forth, speeding manically to keep up with orders – and all this without air conditioning? That’s the problem at a New York City McDonald’s whose crew staged a walk out Friday to protest working the fast food outfit with no air-conditioning. One employee, Esheliz Méndez, collapsed from the heat, and the New York City Fire Department confirmed that it transported the unconscious person from the McDonalds’ to the hospital.
“[The owners of the store] make fun of us because they think we’re animals,” said Luisa Villa, in Spanish, as reported by the Huffington Post. “We’re not animals. We’re people. We don’t want to die and you can certainly die from the heat, you know.”
And what a wretched way to die, speeding ahead while sooted in grease and fry oil, trying to keep up with cranky customers while your bosses berate you, the whole time making less than enough to even keep above poverty level. Seventy people work in such conditions, and though the owners brought in temporary works to cover for them during their staged walk out, let us hope they have the decency to fix the air conditioning, which has been out for nine years. Though they tried to repair it last year, it broke again within a week. Nobody should work under such conditions.