OAK BROOK, Ill. -- McDonald’s shut down its restaurant adjacent to its headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., on Wednesday after the area was swamped by hundreds of protesters calling for pay of $15 an hour, reported the Associated Press.
The restaurant was closed because of traffic concerns, Heidi Barker Sa Shekhem, a spokesperson for McDonald’s, told the news agency. The company also told employees in a building targeted by protesters they should work from home, she said.
Protesters descended on McDonald’s, restaurant workers spoke alongside Service Employees International Union (SEIU) president Mary Kay Henry, Rev. William Barber II, convener of the Moral Mondays movement, and others, calling for the company to invest in its workers by paying a living wage, organizers said in an announcement. The group claimed that as many as 5,000 people took part in the protest.
The start of the two-day demonstration comes ahead of the company’s annual shareholder meeting taking place on May 21, said AP. Last year, McDonald’s also closed a building because of a protest, and more than 100 people were later arrested after refusing to leave corporate property.
The campaign for pay of $15 an hour and a union began in late 2012 and has involved a range of tactics, including ongoing demonstrations in cities around the country. Earlier this year, McDonald’s said it would raise its starting pay for workers to $1 above the local minimum wage. Labor organizers said the move falls short because it only applies to company-owned stores.
McDonald’s Corp. owns about 10% of its stores in the United States, while the rest are run by franchisees.
The protests come as McDonald’s fights to hold onto customers amid intensifying competition from smaller rivals and changing tastes, said AP. CEO Steve Easterbrook, who stepped into the role in March, has said he wants to transform McDonald’s into a “modern, progressive burger company.”
Thursday will mark his first shareholder meeting as CEO.
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