Published: 15/04/2020

McDonald’s workers in Marseilles Saint-Barthélemy have responded to widespread distress and food shortages in their poor neighborhood by taking over the restaurant and converting it for local food storage and distribution. McDonald’s France provides no protective equipment to workers in the dozen outlets it has maintained open in the lockdown, and is pressing for nationwide re-opening.

The workers, with the support of neighborhood associations, have responded to growing food insecurity in the community by collecting food from residents and shopkeepers, storing it in the restaurant’s refrigerators, and preparing food boxes for delivery, under strict hygienic conditions. Inside the restaurant, the workers maintain sanitation protocols.

“In this state of emergency, if we don’t take action for our neighborhoods, who will?”, says a union member at the restaurant.

“We demand equal rights for everyone everywhere” (left) and “Tax Evasion – we work here, we live here, we’re staying here”