McDonald's Employee Help Line Is Recorded

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You many remember Nancy Salgado, who recently confronted McDonald's USA President about her wages. She claims to be working at the restaurant chain for 10 years and is making $8.25 an hour.

The organization "Low Pay Is Not OK" posted a recording of her call to McDonald's employee help line. I received an email about the incident: 

  McDonald's help line

Video captions of the phone interaction focus on public assistance for McDonald's workers: 

 

Discussion Starters: 

  • How do you assess the organization's argument that the public is supplementing workers' wages? In what ways do you find this argument convincing, and how does it fall short?
  • Imagine that you're the person who received Salgado's call on the help line. How would you react to the posted video? Should she have done anything differently on the call?
  • The recording is clearly edited. What do you think may have happened during the deleted portions? Does that affect your reaction?