New York, May 23 (RHC)-- Hundreds of McDonald’s workers went on strike around the United States Wednesday demanding the fast-food giant take full responsibility for the safety of workers and customers during the pandemic.  

Ieshia Townsend -- a Chicago McDonald’s employee on strike for personal protective equipment, paid sick leave, health insurance benefits and hazard pay -- told reporters: “I’m doing what I feel is best for me and my family due to the COVID-19 situation.  I want to be able to protect my family, but I also want to be able to protect my co-workers around me when I have to go to work.  So I just want McDonald’s to make sure that workers like me — you say that we are essential workers.  Protect me and my beautiful boys, and even my friends and family that are around me.”

In related news, sanitation workers in New Orleans are in the third week of a strike demanding $150 in weekly hazard pay, PPE, repairs to trucks and a wage increase.  The company contracting with New Orleans to pick up garbage, Metro Service Group, has brought in work-release prisoners as temporary replacements.  The prisoners are being paid less than the minimum wage. 

In other news, the U.S. Labor Department reports another 2.4 million U.S. workers filed unemployment claims over the last week. The total number of newly unemployed people is rapidly approaching 40 million, a level not seen since the height of the Great Depression.