Activists Criticize 4 McDonald’s at LAX

Four McDonald’s restaurants at Los Angeles International Airport violated health and safety codes and employees there suffer dangerous working conditions and intimidation by managers, according to a report to be released today by a nonprofit worker advocacy group.

McDonald’s also failed to pay concession fees to the city agency that operates LAX, according to the study by the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. The company has franchises in Terminals 1, 5 and 7, and the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX.

A company spokeswoman disputed all the organization’s claims and said the restaurants have consistently received the county health department’s highest rating.

The alliance has joined with several powerful labor unions in a four-year campaign to improve working conditions at the world’s third busiest airport by unionizing employees and enforcing the city’s living-wage law.

McDonald’s’ 300 workers aren’t unionized and the company is not required to pay the city’s living wage because its contract with the airport agency predates the law’s implementation in 1997.

The living-wage law requires companies that contract with the city of Los Angeles to pay employees $7.99 an hour with benefits and $9.24 an hour without benefits.

The alliance will present the report to the Airport Commission today. The group hopes that the 16-page document will prompt the city agency that operates LAX to reconsider a contract amendment it is negotiating with McDonald’s.

“We want them to investigate whether this company should continue operating at LAX,” said Madeline Janis-Aparicio, alliance director. “We think this is outrageous conduct and it cannot continue for one day more.”

The McDonald’s contract amendment would require the company to resolve billing disputes with the airport agency and to institute the living wage at its four LAX locations, said Paul Haney, an airport spokesman.

The amendment may include an extension of the company’s term at the airport--which expires in 2005--but the length of this extension hasn’t been determined, he said.

McDonald’s owes the airport more than $800,000 in concession fees, according to the report.

Haney could not confirm the number, saying that the amount owed is in dispute.

McDonald’s is committed to working with the airport agency to resolve the billing disputes, said Lisa Howard, a spokeswoman at the company’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill.

The health and safety violations cited by the alliance report and based on Los Angeles County health department records include a waste-water leak that shut down the McDonald’s in Terminal 1 last summer, and open chemical containers stored near food items in its Terminal 7 restaurant last summer.

The company disputed claims that it has ongoing health and safety problems at its four LAX locations.

“Since 1998 when the Los Angeles Department of Health Services instituted a grading system, all four of our airport locations have consistently received a grade of ‘A,’” Howard said.

The alliance report also mentions claims filed by McDonald’s workers with the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration alleging dangerous working conditions at LAX franchises.

McDonald’s managers do not provide back support belts for workers who carry loads of 35 pounds or more between terminals, and failed to place rubber floor mats behind eatery counters--causing several employees to slip and fall, according to the complaints.

Managers also did not install first-aid kits in their restaurants, forcing workers to use mustard to cool burns and coffee grounds to soothe cuts, according to a complaint filed Friday.

First-aid kits are available at all McDonald’s restaurants and the company isn’t required by law to provide rubber mats--which can be a tripping hazard--or safety belts to employees, Howard said.

The report also includes several complaints of harassment or intimidation by restaurant employees.

Howard said she wasn’t aware of any such problems at the airport restaurants.