McDonald's protestors
Thousands of protestors demanding a $15 minimum wage gathered near McDonald's headquarters in Chicago, on Wednesday. The rally happened one day before the Golden Arches' annual shareholders meeting.
McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook will address the meeting for the first time.
A line of protestors held up a banner in a march to the burger chain's headquarters. The long sign ended with the hashtag "#fightfor15," according to Chicago Tribune.
Based on police estimates, about 2,000 protestors from throughout the United States participated in the rally. Last year 1,500 protestors protested at the McDonald's yearly meeting, while 100 were arrested after crossing a police barricade.
However, police reports showed that no arrests were made at the public demonstration on Wednesday. The rally organizers predicted that more protestors would demonstrate outside the shareholders meeting.
Wednesday's protests happened just two days after Los Angeles voted to increase its minimum wage to $15 per hour. That salary will apply to big businesses, and will be phased in during the next five years.
McDonald's announced earlier this year that it would boost the starting wage to $1 over local minimum wages. However, the rally organizers noted that the $1 hike only applies to 10 percent of McDonald's restaurants, according to USA Today.
The public protests come amid McDonald's declining sales as it has been unable to meet consumers' higher expectations for fast food restaurants. Also, competition from smaller chains such as Chipotle has also increased.
McDonald's sales in stores open for a minimum of one year dropped 0.6 percent in April. Meanwhile, sales in the U.S. decreased by 2.3 percent.
Easterbrook's turnaround plan features increasing the burger giant's stock price through a stock buyback plan. That would return $9 billion to stockholders in 2015.
Both union groups and a coalition of big city and state financial officers have argued that the buyback could worsen the relationship between investors and employees. The coalition argued in a joint statement that several companies have "lost their balance."
McDonald's responded to Wednesday's protests as an effort to unionize the employees. It referred to the attempt as a two-year "unsuccessful" attack on the McDonald's brand.
