It’s worth noting that today will be no doubt be remembered for the Scottish referendum, an exercise in democracy at a international level. Coincidentally, it’s also one year to the day since the people of Tecoma attempted to redress the fact that democracy had failed them by attempting to hand over 97,030 petition signatures to McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN97jMG9-BU
With McDonald’s using Supreme Court writs in an attempt to silence the growing protest in Tecoma at that time, the campaign used the leverage of national media to take a Change.org petition from around 10,000 signatures to over 90,000 in a few short weeks. Initially a time was negotiated with McDonald’s Australia to hand over the petition to Australian CEO Catriona Noble. Our campaign agreed to be respectful to McDonald’s and allow them to receive the petition and make comment without a huge crowd at their Sydney HQ. A local Mum and Dad with their 4 year old daughter made the trip to Sydney on behalf of the Tecoma community. Instead of the mutual respect that we agreed upon McDonald’s locked their front door and sent their receptionist out to receive the petition. It was arrogance on their behalf and the poor PR image served only to see our petition numbers spike yet again.
It was at this point the campaign decided to attempt to hand the petition to McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson in Chicago. It was hoped that using the Indigogo crowd funding platform we could raise around $A3,000 to send a delegate to Chicago for a couple of nights and hand the petition to McDonald’s. With a timeframe of only 17 days to raise the money we pushed the button on the funding initiative and promoted it via the Change.org petition. To our great surprise we hit our funding target in only 55 minutes and went on to raise around $A40,000 to fund a PR initiative on McDonald’s home ground.
The video posted here was shot by documentary film-maker Tim Smith and distills much of what happened in the five short days that our delegation were in Chicago.
Starting with a full page advertisement in America’s second largest newspaper The Chicago Tribune, we respectfully asked McDonald’s to drop the legal action and leave Tecoma. In an attempt to negotiate a suitable time to hand the petition over the delegation was told “Just mail it to us” When the delegation insisted that they would hand it over in person they were told there was no guarantee that the they would be received. To further illustrate the arrogance of this corporation when the US media contacted McDonald’s for comment about the petition they told them “We are unaware that the Australians are here in Chicago”
On Wednesday the 18th at 11:00am the delegation made it’s way to the Oakbrook HQ to be met by two McDonald’s executives. They refused to shake the delegation’s hands and would not acknowledge the petition, instead having a security officer receive it. Despite the delegation travelling from the other side of the globe McDonald’s refused to engage them in any meaningful way. The two executives then invited the press inside for a statement in which they claimed:
The protest was from a vocal minority.
The vast majority of the Tecoma community supported the development. They knew this because they had received an email of support (a single e-mail).
That McDonald’s were only suing protesters for their safety.
That the Tecoma trading strip already operated 24/7.
That the Tecoma trading strip included businesses similar to McDonald’s such as Earthly Pleasures and India Gate.
They also handed the US media google maps of Tecoma with the Dandenong Ranges National Park cut off.
McDonald’s arrogance was breathtaking, almost everything they told the US and international media was a lie.
Back home when Australian CEO Catriona Nobel was asked on ABC radio “why she was fighting with Tecoma?” She didn’t display the arrogance her US colleagues had shown, instead she demonstrated she was well out of her depth by replying “We are not fighting Tecoma, we are just suing them” She also went on to claim” Tecoma had the right to protest”, although her company’s court action was effectively taking that right away.
The US media blitz had an enormous response back in Australia with the delegation making a half dozen satellite crosses to news programmes such as 7:30, The Project, Sunrise and Today. On top of this they featured on all TV news, and conducted countless radio, internet and newspaper interviews. One New York based consultancy estimated that the PR the campaign generated was worth somewhere between 3 and 5 million dollars. With McDonald’s fighting against minimum wage rises in the US, zero hour jobs in the UK and Australians saying “no” their share price dipped that week wiping around 800 million dollars off the company’s value.
Whilst McDonald’s did eventually push ahead and open the store, it is widely regarded as a lemon, again demonstrating the corporate arrogance to not back down in the face of overwhelming opposition. The trip to Chicago did however have an ongoing and powerful effect, being:
It took a local issue and turned it into a global one
McDonald’s eventually dropped the legal action and agreed to mediation.
McDonald’s no longer claim the store is supported by the majority of the community
CEO Catriona Noble was ultimately dumped from her position.
It inspired other communities to stand up to McDonald’s
Tecoma became known as “The little town that roared”
Today, 18/9 will always be remembered as the day Tecoma stood toe to toe with a bully and stared them down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN97jMG9-BU
