Forty percent of women who work in the fast food industry are sexually harassed. That’s according a recent survey commissioned by the National Partnership for Women and Families. After the release of the new numbers, low wage workers across the country protested at McDonald's, including here in Virginia.
Three years ago, when Kamillah Muhammad was 19, she worked for a fast food restaurant in Roanoke. She prefers not to name which one, but she no longer works there because of an experience with a co-worker.
“He would like give me kissy faces and talk about my body inappropriately, and that kind of stuff," Muhammad says. "Call me names, ask me to send him pictures. I didn’t even want to engage in it, I wouldn’t engage in it, I’d just be like ‘Whatever, I’m trying to do this right now,’ But it was just over and over and over."
Muhammad reported the harassment to her manager, but was told to ignore the man and keep working.
“It came to a point where he blew up at me, threw dressing at me, verbally assaulted me, and then I was actually the one that got sent home,” she says.
Muhammad’s story is not unique. Fight for 15, an advocacy group for low-wage workers, brought attention to the issue this week by filing federal complaints on behalf of workers who allege assaults at several McDonalds around the country.
For her part, Muhammad says she isn’t interested in lawsuits, or even getting anyone fired. She just wishes her boss would have stepped in to help create a workplace where she felt safe and could do her job.