McDonald’s workers at six stores in Auckland and Hamilton went on strike last Friday. The strikes are a protest over pay negotiations that have been stalled by the company. Negotiations between the Unite Union and McDonald’s have been underway since March, but broke down recently when the company failed to meet the deadline for a revised offer. Josephine Lindsay, a worker at McDonald’s Glenn Innes called the wages “slavery pay.”

“It’s only just enough to pay the rent, you can’t live on these wages.” McDonalds pays 52c an hour less than their major competitors in the industry, some managers only earn $1.50 more than the minimum wage and a lot of experienced workers have spent years on the minimum wage.

In an intervew Unite Union organiser Kathryn Tucker said that as well as pay the issues workers at McDonald’s had were “Long hours, not getting breaks, doing double shifts for no overtime. Finding it hard to get training to get promoted. And there’s also a discreet form of bullying.”

The Employment Court recently ruled that McDonald’s should pay $15,000 former Kaiapoi McDonald’s worker, Chantelle Coup, who was bullied into resignation after joinng Unite in 2007.

In an incident last month one McDonald’s manager demanded a seventeen-year-old girl complete her shift even after she had had her foot run over while working in the drive-through.

“This incident and the many occasions where workers are pressured to work two or three eight hour shifts in a row with no breaks or rostered off by unscrupulous managers, highlights the scale of the problem that McDonald’s unfair contract creates.” said Unite National Director Mike Treen.

More strikes are expected at the fast food giants stores.