3 Memphis McDonald's workers arrested during demonstration

(WMC) - Fast food workers took their fight for a higher minimum wage to McDonald's corporate headquarters in a suburb of Chicago.

Three McDonald's workers from Memphis are among the more than 100 demonstrators who were arrested for criminal trespassing in Oak Brook, Illinois on Thursday. They held a sit in at the entrance of the fast food chain's corporate headquarters.

In Memphis on May 15 fast food worker Ashley Cathey was the first to clock out of her job at McDonald's in protest.

"Look how that drive-thru is backed up now that I'm gone you, hear me? Look how it's backed up now that I walked out," said Cathey.

Cathey is among hundreds of fast food workers who traveled to McDonald's corporate headquarters outside Chicago demanding better working conditions, the right to form a union, and a minimum wage raise to $15 an hour.

Demonstrators called for a higher minimum wage while the company was holding it's shareholders meeting. More than 100 protestors were arrested.

Cathey was one of three Memphians arrested for trespassing. But demonstrators say they will continue to fight for the right to unionize without retaliation. They say the company misleads the public by portraying the majority of their workforce as teens.

Demonstrators here say most fast food workers are adults who are struggling to make ends meet.

The arrests were made when some of the protestors tried to move from the entrance deeper into the McDonald's corporate campus. People from nearly three dozen cities showed up for Thursday's demonstration.

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