And protests against corporate shareholder meetings continued Wednesday. In Chicago, crowds of baggage handlers, janitors, cabin cleaners and security officers rallied outside the United Airlines shareholder meeting, demanding higher wages and better working conditions. Inside the meeting, United CEO Oscar Munoz was grilled by shareholders over the violent removal of a doctor who suffered a concussion, broken nose and lost teeth after he was dragged semi-conscious off a plane after refusing to be “involuntarily rebooked” from a flight. Meanwhile, in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook, hundreds of fast-food workers protested outside the McDonald’s shareholder meeting to demand the minimum wage be raised to $15 an hour. This is one of the protesters.
Protester: “We deserve dignity. We deserve $15 an hour. We deserve to be able to take care of our kids. My son, I can’t even buy him any shoes. I haven’t bought him any shoes all year long. He hasn’t had shoes. And he deserves to be able to have some shoes on his feet, just like, I’m quite sure, the shareholders, they take care of their families.”