An advocacy group is planning a consumer boycott of McDonald’s starting Tuesday, June 24.
The People’s Union USA is targeting the fast food chain, encouraging people to “take a stand” and demanding “fair taxes, an end to price gouging, real equality, and corporate accountability,” according to an Instagram post.
Led by John Schwarz, the People’s Union began organizing “economic blackouts” in February against companies like Amazon and Walmart, motivated by the corporate rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion programs as well as other grievances.
“We’re boycotting McDonald’s because they’ve shown time and time again that profit matters more than people, from price gouging to tax evasion, from inequality in pay to exploitation in advertising,” he told USA TODAY. “And yes, their DEI efforts feel more like promotional stunts than real systemic change. We’re done funding companies that pretend to stand for something while doing nothing.”
McDonald’s was one of the corporations to roll back its DEI initiatives in January. Citing the “evolving landscape around DEI,” it stopped setting goals to increase diversity in senior leadership and ended a program that encouraged diversity among its suppliers.
McDonald’s chief people officer for the U.S. market, Jordann Nunn, in June told a human-resources conference that the company changed some of its DEI language, “but at the core, none of our programming has changed.
The fast food chain has also faced backlash from some customers about its prices, CNN reported. The average price of items has soared about 40% since 2019. The company says this is in line with its rising costs, according to CNN.
McDonald’s did not respond to USA Today’s request for comment on the boycott.
USA Today contributed to this report.
Natassia Paloma may be reached at npaloma@gannett.com, @NatassiaPaloma on X; natassia_paloma on Instagram, and Natassia Paloma Thompson on Facebook.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Why is McDonald’s being boycotted? Why some consumers are ‘taking a stand’ this week
Reporting by Natassia Paloma, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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