To: Thomas E. Perez, U.S. Secretary of Labor
Third-degree burn. McDonald's "treatment"? MUSTARD.
Four out of five fast food workers have been burned on the job—most repeatedly, many badly. To make matters worse, many fast food restaurants don’t even have a properly-equipped and accessible first aid kit and instead try to treat workers’ injuries with mustard and other condiments instead of getting them the treatment they need.
It is unconscionable that fast food companies value their own profits over basic safety for their workers. I urge you to investigate the fast food industry’s failure to provide safe working conditions or proper treatment for severe injuries.
Why is this important?
An expectant mother is told by her manager to treat a bad boiling-water burn with mustard. MUSTARD.
A fast-food worker gets third-degree burns from a blisteringly hot, totally unsafe fry lamp.
A cook sears the entire palm of his hand on a too-hot grill — and his supervisor makes him work for hours before getting it treated.
This is the truth about the serious, painful and often permanent injuries that occur every single day in fast-food kitchens across the country. Dangerous conditions, insane “first-aid treatments” like mustard and butter on burns, and poor management have led to this: Four out of five fast-food workers have been burned, most repeatedly. That’s 2.8 million workers burned this year.
Call on the Department of Labor to investigate an industry that is putting millions of fast-food workers’ health and safety at risk EVERY DAY.