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Having It Their Way
McDonald's racism charged by franchisee over loss of restaurants
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Business New Haven
1/6/2003
By: BNH
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The owner of four McDonald's franchises has charged that the fast-food giant is forcing her to surrender her restaurants because of institutional racism.
Deborah Sonnenschein, an African-American and McDonald's franchisee for 11 years, said she is being ousted from her four restaurants, three of which are in Bridgeport and one in Fairfield, after filing a federal racial discrimination lawsuit.
Sonnenschein told the Connecticut Post that McDonald's officials instructed her to surrender the keys to the restaurants on January 20, which is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Sonnenschein has also filed a complaint over her pending ouster with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Sonnenschein charges that McDonald's “is using exaggeration and falsehoods about the operation of my restaurants,” she said as at December 26 press conference in Bridgeport.
The Illinois-based fast-foot giant, which has approximately 12,000 U.S. franchise restaurants, denies Sonnenschein's charges and says her restaurants are being taken over because of management shortcomings, including cleanliness issues.
Sonnenschein portrays her problems as part of a national pattern. She says that in recent years more than 100 minority-owned McDonald's franchises have been revoked out of about 350 in the country.
McDonald's officials released a statement that the company “is proud of the diversity in its system and does not tolerate discrimination in any form.”
Sonnenschein's allegations drew support from Bridgeport's minority community. A number of local ministers and the head of the Bridgeport NAACP chapter pledged their help and offered even to march on McDonald's corporate headquarters outside Chicago, according to the Post.
Sonnenschein said her federal discrimination lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, came after corporate headquarters began sparring with her over leases, charges and other issues.
“I believe I'm being mistreated by McDonald's because of the lawsuit,” she said. She said the charges of mismanagement and cleanliness issues were “concocted” by the restaurant chain.
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