A WAVE of labour unrest taking place across the United States has been labeled “Strikesgiving” by the AFL-CIO trade union confederation, with McDonald’s and Kaiser workers leading industrial action.

More than 32,000 union members at multibillion-dollar hospital chain Kaiser are set to walk out on Monday, with a further 8,000 set to join them the following week.

They are in dispute over a paltry 2 per cent pay offer which has been rejected by nurses, orderlies and other hospital staff who slammed a two-tier system that will see wages cut for lower-paid workers.

Negotiations have been in deadlock for some seven months, with support for the strikers coming from AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler and the presidents of the Teamsters, the Teachers, AFSCME, the Operating Engineers, the United Food and Commercial Workers, Unite Here, and the Steelworkers.

“The entire labour movement is behind the Kaiser Permanente employees standing up to corporate greed at its worst,” they said.

McDonald’s workers in in Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, Sacramento, and San Diego are set to strike amid growing allegations of systematic sexual abuse across its franchises.

In the latest case Walter Garner, manager of a Pittsburgh restaurant, raped a 14-year-old worker just months after harassing two workers in previous months.

Workers are calling for the passage of legislation that would hold McDonald’s headquarters and franchise holders jointly responsible for their actions.