McDonalds Workers Resistance

McDonalds Workers Resistance (MWR) - Britain, 1996-2004
MWR was a group of mostly young McDonalds restaurant workers, founded in Scotland. Not an official union, it was a radical anarcho-syndicalist-influenced grouping which sought to assist McDonalds workers to better their wages and working conditions. Having some successes - remarkable given the transitional and difficult nature of fast food work, MWR mostly wound down in 2004 as many militants had left or been sacked.

Links on libcom.org
A Brief History of McDonalds Workers' Resistance
McDonalds Workers Resistance archive
Workplace organising information on libcom.org/organise

So, who are you?
The proletarian formerly known as Funnywump.

Briefly, what was McDonald’s Workers Resistance?

McDonald’s Workers’ Resistance was set up by a group of teenage workers at one restaurant in Scotland in 1999. In 2000 those workers decided they needed to communicate with other McDonald’s workers in the UK and around the world.

McREVOLUTION
Who are the shadowy burger flippers plotting to bring down McDonalds?

[400 words]

As we have heard, in the beginning, some time in 1997, the roots of what we now know and love (or hate as the case may be) as MWR started as an attempt to unionise a McDonald's store, bringing forth comments from managers such as- "do you want to keep your job? You could go far".

So I'll say a wee bit about McDonalds and McDonalds Workers Resistance, MWR, and then Bouncer will say a bit about web activism and the role we think it should play. But firstly a big thanks to Chainworkers and the CUB for inviting us here, we are very grateful.

Transcript of a speech by Wayne from MWR to the Canadian Labour Congress' Mid-Term Conference in Ottawa on October 18 2003

[5,600 words]