Fast Food Shutdown: From disorganisation to action in the service sector

Abstract

This article discusses the Fast Food Shutdown, a strike on 4 October 2018 that involved Wetherspoon, McDonald’s, TGI Fridays and UberEats workers in the United Kingdom. It compares the different strategies of the Bakers Food and Allied Workers’ Union at Wetherspoon and Industrial Workers of the World at UberEats. The two case studies, drawing on the authors’ ongoing ethnographic research, provide important examples of successful precarious worker organising. In particular, the argument focuses on the role of action in organising, as well as the relationship between the rank-and-file and the union. While these could point the way to the recomposition of the workers movement – both in greenfield sectors and within existing unions – there remain important questions about how these experiences can be generalised.

Beyond mobilisation at McDonald’s: Towards networked organising

“…Consequently, social media could have the contradictory effect of further reducing union membership, by pulling attention and resources away from organising, even as spectacles of worker collective action seemingly increase’ (p. 20). Given the limited resource of BFAWU, it is understandable why it has focused on the immediate gains which social media–facilitated mobilising activities can bring, but to build on the successes which #McStrike has already achieved and take the campaign to the next level requires greater organising activity (see also Cant 2018; Cant & Woodcock 2019). OUR Walmart demonstrates that social media can facilitate effective organising in addition to supporting mobilising.…”

“…Following this initial strike, in January, McDonald’s increased pay at its directly run restaurants and recommended that its franchises did the same (Chapman 2018). A more limited strike and demonstration followed on May Day 2018, before a large-scale day of action on 4 October 2018 which linked together McDonald’s workers with other hospitality workers at Weatherspoons, TGI Fridays and Uber (see also Cant & Woodcock 2019). Again, the action focused on a strike by a limited number of workers in combination with a large demonstration outside a central London McDonald’s outlet, in addition to dozens of other local protests.…”

“…For example, during a 3-week period between 20 September and 4 October 2018, The Guardian covered the strike with over 2,000 words across four articles, plus a video posted on its website. To understand these events requires first examining the fast food workers movement in the United States which directly inspired them (Cant 2018; Cant & Woodcock 2019).…”

“…The #McStrike came to fruition following votes in favour of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union’s (BFAWU) call for industrial action at two McDonald’s restaurants. The movement which developed out of this strike resembles, and is inspired by, the Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU) Fight for $15 in the United States (Cant 2018; Cant & Woodcock 2019). However, Fight for $15 proved extremely resource intensive and has been heavily criticised for ignoring worker organising (Dencik & Wilkin 2015; McAlevey 2015, 2016).…”

Worker Organisation in Precarious Times: Abandoning Trade Union Fetishism, Rediscovering Class

“…These studies have analysed the possibilities in the context of different labour regimes (C. Smith and Pun, 2006) and the role played by gender, ethnicity, race and migration status in work exploitation (Mezzadri, 2017;Morrison, Sacchetto and Croucher, 2020). Other studies, drawing from the labour process tradition, have looked at workers' organisation in the new platform economy, starting from the construction of collective identity and solidarity, thus adopting a more processual view in which trade unionism is a means towards an end rather than a means in itself (Tassinari and Maccarrone, 2019;Cant and Woodcock, 2020).…”