Thousands demonstrate for higher wages outside Oak Brook McDonald's

Roughly 2,000 demonstrators from across the country rallied Wednesday outside McDonald's corporate headquarters in Oak Brook to demand a boost in wages to a minimum of $15 an hour for “quick service” restaurant workers.

The rally, sponsored by the Service Employees International Union, lasted about two hours. There was a large police presence, but the gathering was peaceful.

No arrests were reported, but police said there was one medical emergency when a 25-year-old female had a seizure.

Many of the demonstrators, who arrived in dozens of coach buses, were wearing red “Fight for $15” T-shirts, printed in English and Spanish, or other shirts that contained messages such as “We Are Worth More.” Some held signs reading “McPoverty, McShame,” “Quit Being Cheap,” and “Raise That Wage.”

Wrapped in blankets or sporting hats and heavy jackets on the unseasonably cold day, protesters walked more than a mile chanting slogans such as “Supersize my check!”

Not all of the demonstrators were McDonald's employees. Creasie Fowler of Wisconsin came with a group of home care and fast-food workers from Madison and Milwaukee.

“We coordinated with local unions across the country to get the message out, about not just fast-food workers, but home care workers, adjunct workers, child care providers, airport workers, janitors who have all come together under the umbrella of Fight for 15,” she said. “It's all low-wage workers demanding a livable wage.”

Fowler said it was inspiring to gather with people from all over the country who shared a common belief.

“The message that should have been conveyed is that people are standing up and they're fighting back and they're demanding to be paid what they're worth,” she said.

Bettie Douglas, who came from St. Louis, said she has been working at McDonald's for seven years.

“I just can't live on $7.65 (an hour),” she said. “I see the money that McDonald's makes and they make billions and billions, but our paychecks seem to be getting smaller. I feel like they're being very unfair and greedy.”

Luis Frias, 22, from Tucson, Arizona, has been working at McDonald's for 10 months and makes $8.05 an hour. He said he came to the rally because of the company's greed.

“They pay us poverty wages,” he said. “I would like to be able to provide for myself and not have to rely on food stamps.”

But a McDonald's spokeswoman said the company already is taking steps to address wages.

“What we can control is the wages in our restaurants, we cannot control what our independent franchisees do in their restaurants,” Heidi Barker said Wednesday. “We'll continue to look at the wage, we'll continue to look at the opportunities and the benefits we offer our employees. It's something that we regularly do.”

Barker said McDonald's is designed for workers to “move up” if they so choose, and noted that it is largely a first-time, and part-time, job for young workers. All employees, she added, are eligible to get a free high school diploma and some college tuition.

“McDonald's is one of the only businesses in the U.S. that I can think of that can say that 60 percent of top management actually started in the restaurants as crew,” she said.

McDonald's shut down a restaurant near its headquarters Wednesday after the area was swamped by the protesters. The company also told employees in a building targeted by protesters they should work from home, Barker said.

The start of the two-day demonstration comes ahead of the company's annual shareholder meeting on Thursday.

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. McDonald's plans to raise its starting pay to $1 above the local minimum wage starting July 1. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.

But labor organizers said the move falls short because it only applies to company-owned stores.

McDonald's Corp. owns about 10 percent of its stores in the U.S., 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. 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.

• The Associated Press contributed to this report.