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Black employees at a McDonald’s in Rock Island, Illinois, say they were routinely subjected to racial harassment, such as being referred to as “ghetto,” “lazy” and “smelly” by their white supervisors and co-workers, and racial discrimination, such as being given fewer hours to work than their white colleagues.
One says she was fired for speaking out about the unjust treatment. Another says she quit out of fear of retaliation.
Now the workers are suing.
Selynda Middlebrook, Stephanie Stevens and Luther Gray, acting on behalf of his 17-year-old daughter, A.G., filed a civil rights lawsuit against the McDonald’s Corporation and Gendco Inc., the local franchise owner, in federal court in Illinois on Tuesday.
They are seeking the court’s determination that McDonald’s engaged in racial discrimination and are asking to have the employees reinstated with backpay, among other things.
“The General Manager, who is white, and other managers, who are Latina, at the Eleventh Street McDonald’s Restaurant have engaged in severe or pervasive harassment of Black employees and customers,” the lawsuit says. Management also treated Black employees more harshly in terms of enforcing dress codes and discipline, and frequently scheduled Black workers for fewer hours and shifts than white workers.
At one point this spring, Middlebrook’s hours were reduced to just one shift of four hours per week, not nearly enough to support herself and her child, the lawsuit says.
“As a new mother, I started working at McDonald’s to provide a better life for my baby girl, but at work, I was subjected to harassment and discrimination,” Middlebrook was quoted by USA Today as saying.
The situation at the McDonald’s restaurant directly involved in the lawsuit is “not an isolated incident, but is instead symptomatic of a pattern or practice of McDonald’s corporate leadership’s failure to address pervasive racism and anti-Black sentiment throughout the organization, from executives in the C-suite to individual managers at restaurants throughout the country,” the lawsuit claims.
In addition to the monetary damages they are seeking, the workers who filed the lawsuit want the court to order McDonald’s to instruct its managers that racial discrimination and retaliation toward Black employees will not be tolerated by any level of employee, including a general manager.
They also want the restaurant chain to train its managers to prevent racial discrimination and retaliation, to create “a safe reporting mechanism including multiple channels for reporting race discrimination and retaliation” and to make workers aware of those channels.
Trina Gendron, the owner of the McDonald’s franchiser Gendco Inc., told Business Insider she is investigating the allegations made in the lawsuit.
“I am deeply committed to running a values-led organization, and discrimination, harassment or retaliation of any kind are not tolerated in my restaurants,” the online magazine quoted her as saying.
The Illinois lawsuit is only the latest in a string of legal actions brought against McDonald’s this year over claims of racial discrimination.
In July, three McDonald’s workers in Lakeland, Florida, filed a similar civil rights lawsuit claiming Black employees were discriminated against on the job.
The general manager there allegedly made discriminatory remarks about Black customers — saying “it’s always Black people who want free stuff” when customers ask for condiments, for example — and made Black employees uncomfortable. What’s more, the employees claim they were retaliated against when they reported such instances to the regional human resources manager.
In September, McDonald’s was served with another racial discrimination lawsuit from 52 Black franchisees who claim the company only sells its undesirable locations to Black franchisees and fails to support their businesses.
That lawsuit alleges McDonald’s is guilty of practicing “systematic and covert racial discrimination,” which cost the franchisees money and denied them equal opportunities for success.
And in January, two McDonald’s executives filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the company claiming it regularly fired Black executives and pushed Black franchisees out of business.
The high-level employees who filed suit said they were subjected to racial discrimination and a hostile work environment and were retaliated against when they sought to fight back.
Have you been racially discriminated against while working at a McDonald’s restaurant? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
Middlebrook and the other plaintiffs are represented by George A. Luscombe III and Barry M. Bennett of Dowd, Bloch, Bennett, Cervone, Auerbach & Yokich and Eve H. Cervantez of Altshuler Berson LLP.
The McDonald’s Racial Discrimination Lawsuit is Selynda Middlebrook, et al. v. McDonald’s Corporation, et al., Case No. 20-cv-4214, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois, Rock Island Division.
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Please add me to this class action against MCDONALD’S RACIAL DISCRIMINATION case 20-cv-4214. Thanks !
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