Photo by Rhys Thomas / Screenshot via Twitter
Welcome to Worst Hot Take of the Week – a column in which @MULLET_FAN_NEO crowns the wildest hot take of the week.
Reasonable take: Solidarity to the workers who want to earn enough from their full-time job so they don't have to live in poverty.
Brain rot: "I don't get paid enough, so no one else should either!" – the people of Britain.This week, McDonald's workers in London went on strike, calling for union recognition, the abolishment of youth wages and zero-hour contracts, safer and improved conditions and an end to poverty pay. Ian Hodson, president of the Bakers Food and Allied Workers' Union, which represents the striking workers, said: "McDonald's can expect more strikes, unless they actually start taking up the offer we keep making them, which is to sit down and talk with us. McDonald’s has unfortunately got a terrible history when it comes to workers' rights, and unfortunately we’ve seen too many examples of sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace."
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But Labour's solidarity with the McStrike was a step too far to some, including that one boy from your form class who currently lives in his mum's annex but drives an Audi A4 on-tick, and believes that one of the top ten most valuable companies in the world shouldn't pay those "greedy cunts" £15 an hour because "it's economically illiterate".Whenever someone prominent posted in solidarity with the McStrike, it immediately seemed to be followed by a barrage of comments from people incredulous that these "bottom of the ladder" workers were demanding the right to eat food after paying their landlord.A common reasoning from some members of the British public as to why McDonald’s workers must endure in-work poverty was how "easy" their jobs allegedly are. I wonder if they mean the incessant threat of violence hanging over them as they pot up a Smarty McFlurry, or the gruelling long and unsociable hours often spent serving people who clearly detest them that makes it so piss-easy? The only explanation is that the "easy" bit stems from everyone’s receded childhood memory of McDonald's as the best place in the entire world. The other mooted rationale being used as justification for impoverishment was that McDonald's employees are "unskilled" workers (who make the company billions each year).
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