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US PRESIDENTIAL hopeful Bernie Sanders is set to join McDonald’s workers on Thursday as they walk out in a nationwide strike demanding the right to join a union and a pay rise.
Other candidates for the 2020 election, including Cory Booker, Julian Castro and Jay Inslee, have also lent support to the cooks and cashiers from the fast-food giant.
They have also promised to join workers on picket lines.
Mr Sanders said he was proud to be standing with workers fighting for $15 (£11.70) an hour.
The long-running campaign is led by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
“If Amazon can raise their minimum wage to $15 an hour then there is no reason that McDonald’s, a company that took in $1.4 billion (£1.1bn) in profit and paid its CEO $22 million (£17.21m), can’t pay its workers a living wage,” the Vermont senator said.
The strike action coincides with the company’s annual shareholder meeting which is usually held at its headquarters in Chicago, Illinois.
But bosses relocated at the last minute, switching the venue to Dallas, Texas.
The striking workers said the move was made because they felt the pressure of their militant stance.
Grace Glahn, a Des Moines McDonald’s worker said: “When we joined together and went on strike nobody gave us a shot.
“But now candidates for the presidency are standing right by our side.”
It showed that they were “a powerful force” she said, adding “We are going to keep on striking until McDonald’s hears us.”
SEIU president Mary Kay Henry said: “When giant corporations like McDonald’s rig the system to hold down wages and keep workers from joining together in a union it holds back millions of black, brown and white working people around the country.”