Workers at two McDonald’s restaurants staged the first strike to hit the company in Britain in a protest over pay and other issues on Monday.
According to reports, no fewer than fourteen workers at restaurants in Cambridge and Crayford, in London, went on strike to demand an increase in pay to 10 pounds ($13) an hour, an end to so-called zero-hour contracts which offer no fixed hours, and more trade union recognition.
A spokesman for McDonald’s, which has operated in Britain since 1974, said the strikers represented less than half of the 33 union members who were balloted and the stated reason for the strike related to internal grievance procedures and not pay or contracts.
He said the company and its franchisees were offering staff the option of a guaranteed hour contract but so far 86 percent of its employees had chosen to stay on flexible contracts.
A union representing the workers said it also wanted trained shop stewards to monitor stores across Britain. Two managers in the Cambridge branch of the restaurant were suspended this year for bullying and harassment, the union said.
The strike action coincides with the various industrial actions in Nigeria.
On Monday, the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) resolved to proceed on an indefinite strike. The Association took the decision following their National Executive Council meeting which lasted from 7 pm yesterday until the early hours of this morning.
The doctors say they will sustain the industrial action until all their demands are met by Government.
The doctors’ strike came weeks after the academic staff union of universities, ASUU, embarked on an indefinite strike.
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