When McDonald’s came to Denmark, it sought – in contrast to its competitor BurgerKing – to establish an ideologically determined anti-union stance.

By Hans Uwe Petersen

If you look up the topic ‘Personnel policy’ on McDonald’s website, under the heading ‘Competitive pay and benefits’, it is emphasized that the company “follows the 3F union’s collective agreement and determines pay and working conditions based on it”. But it wasn’t always like this. When McDonald’s came to Denmark, it sought – unlike its competitor BurgerKing – to establish an ideologically determined anti-union stance.

As early as 1982, Faglig Ungdom in Copenhagen and Lærlingenes Landsorganisation (LLO) decided to launch an action against McDonalds to get them to follow the Danish labor market model. The press initially sided with the company and there was generally little confidence that Faglig Ungdom and LLO would be successful in their endeavor. McDonald’s got a number of employees to write to LLO to get them to abandon their campaign. As it turned out, the battle over collective bargaining conditions at McDonald’s was to be a very long one.

In 1987, efforts to force McDonald’s to enter into a collective agreement intensified, but this did not initially change the company’s principled position. Only when Hotel- og Restaurationspersonalets Samvirke, in close collaboration with both the trade union and political youth organizations as well as the rest of the trade union movement, started a comprehensive union action in the autumn of 1988 did things really get going. Actions in front of McDonald’s stores in both Copenhagen and the provinces also caused the press to change sides in the conflict. The development of the action was followed with great interest by the trade union movement in other countries, where McDonald’s had until then also refused to enter into collective agreements.

Boycott Markat from the campaign

Just before Whitsun 1989, the struggle over collective bargaining was brought to victory. McDonalds became a member of the Employers’ Association of Hotels and Restaurants, AHR, and thereby also accepted to follow the Danish model. For the union activists, it was also very important that the agreement immediately secured the employees an immediate wage increase, just as they gained a number of new rights, where the union was given a mandate to go in and help and negotiate for the employees. This also created the conditions for, as then union chairman Bent Moos put it, showing the employees what the trade union movement can be used for.

On this page we have collected material from the almost 7-year-long action. The material can be found in the archives of Faglig Ungdoms and LLO in ABA. The clips from Hotel- og Restaurationspersonalets Samvirke’s magazine “3 Kuverter” are part of ABA’s large collection of trade union magazines.

The National Organization of Apprentices and Young Workers Archive, Trade Union Cases [Box 75] The campaign against McDonald’s, 1982-1988
Faglig Ungdom København Archive – Cases – [Box 46] McDonalds, 1982-1989
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