It’s possible that a former McDonald’s employee will serve as the country’s next president.
Over 41 million Americans, or over 13 percent of the population, have at some point in their careers worked at a McDonald’s restaurant. Kamala Harris is one of them; throughout her undergraduate summers, she worked at a restaurant.
Harris brought up her brief experience working as a fryer when she joined the fast food workers’ picket line in Las Vegas in 2019 and when she made an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show in April. If she orders McNuggets, she says she wants a “quarter pounder with cheese and fries” with barbecue sauce for dipping.
In a recent advertisement, the Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign alluded to her summer employment to highlight her background and her platform of supporting American workers, which contrasts sharply with that of her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, who “has no plan to help the middle class — just more tax cuts for billionaires.”
Although McDonald’s is a staple of the resumes of powerful Americans—former House Speaker Paul Ryan and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, for example, both worked there—labor unions representing fast food workers and fast food workers have been spearheading national campaigns to improve working conditions for lower-wage workers, including calls to raise the federal hourly minimum wage to at least $15.
One of their old colleagues could soon become a formidable ally.
As Harris launched her first presidential campaign, she stood with protestors and striking McDonald’s employees. Harris has received backing from a number of significant unions, including Service Employees International Union, which backed the national Fight for $15 campaign.
In June 2019, she stated from Las Vegas, “If we want to talk about these golden arches being a symbol of the best of America, well, the arches are falling short.” “We must acknowledge that working people should be paid a living wage.”
She informed the staff, “I made the ice cream and the french fries.”
She said, “There was no family depending on me to have the bills paid by the end of the month, pay the rent, and put food on the table. “However, the truth about McDonald’s is that most of the people who work there now depend on that money to support their families and households.”
