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California Fast-Food Workers Strike, Demanding Hazard Pay and Protections Against COVID-19

HeadlineApr 09, 2020

In California, hundreds of workers at 30 fast-food restaurants are on strike today to demand personal protective equipment and paid sick leave. This is Irving Gaza, a McDonald’s worker in San Jose, who joined a strike earlier this week.

Irving Gaza: “I am the one who’s the most at risk. I am the guy who’s in the drive-thru. I’m in very close contact with people. McDonald’s doesn’t want to pay me hazard pay or any of us hazard pay. We’re getting no masks or anything like that. Nothing.”

Meanwhile, the United Food and Commercial Workers union is calling on the Trump administration to issue mandatory safety policies to protect grocery store workers. The union wants to ensure all shoppers wear masks, with limits on the number of people allowed into a store at any given time, enforced social distancing, disinfecting and sanitizing procedures, and personal protective equipment for all workers.

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