Month: October 2026

Ian Hodson – National President of the BFAWU

Monday 05 October 2026

 

#McStrike Is Back — This Time to End, Not Defend

Some campaigns belong to a moment. Others create an identity that workers recognise long after the placards have been put away.

 

#McStrike did that.

 

When McDonald’s workers first took strike action, they challenged one of the biggest corporations in the world over low pay, insecure work and a basic demand every worker should expect — dignity and respect at work.

 

They were workers many said were impossible to organise. Yet they organised, found their collective voice and put conditions in the fast-food industry onto the national agenda.

 

They demonstrated something the trade union movement should never forget.

 

Worker power isn’t granted. It’s built.

 

Now #McStrike is back.

On Tuesday 6 October, we are returning to McDonald’s Head Office in East Finchley alongside End Not Defend.

 

This time our message is simple.

 

Nobody should have to endure sexual harassment just to earn a living.

 

For too long workplace sexual harassment has primarily been treated as an individual grievance. Something happens, the worker reports it, HR investigates and a process begins.

But by then the harm has already happened.

 

End Not Defend starts somewhere different.

 

If something arising from work can cause physical or psychological harm, employers should identify the risk, assess it and take steps to prevent workers being exposed to it.

Sexual harassment is a workplace health and safety hazard.

 

What has happened at McDonald’s demonstrates why this matters.

 

In 2023, McDonald’s Restaurants Limited entered into a legally binding agreement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission following concerns about the handling of sexual-harassment complaints made by staff.

 

In 2025, that agreement was extended with a strengthened action plan following further serious allegations.

 

The EHRC has also written to McDonald’s franchisees reminding them of their legal responsibilities. Its preventative approach includes regular risk assessments identifying where sexual harassment could occur.

 

So if employers should assess the risk, why aren’t we treating sexual harassment properly as a workplace safety risk?

 

Our current system too often places the burden on the worker who has already experienced the harm.

 

Report it. Prove it. Go through an investigation. Challenge the outcome. Potentially pursue legal action.

 

We need to turn that approach around.

 

Employers should identify risks before workers are harmed. Workers need safe and trusted ways to report concerns. Patterns of harassment should not disappear into confidential HR processes. Regulators need the information and powers to intervene.

 

That is what End Not Defend means.

 

Prevent the harm. Don’t defend the failure.

 

There is a reason we’re bringing these campaigns together.

McStrike wasn’t simply about wages. It was about power.

 

Sexual harassment is easier to hide where workers feel isolated or frightened that speaking out could cost them hours, opportunities or their job.

 

Collective organisation changes that balance of power.

 

On Tuesday 6 October at 6pm, we’re going back to McDonald’s Head Office.

The golden arches became a symbol workers turned on its head once before.

 

We’re turning them around again.

 

I BACK THE WORKERS.

 

#McStrike is back.

 

END NOT DEFEND.