On Tuesday, a raw, windy London day, workers from six McDonald’s restaurants gathered across from the UK prime minister’s office at 10 Downing Street to demand a £15-an-hour “real living wage,” fixed contracts, union recognition, an end to lower wages for workers under twenty-five, and eradication of the pay gap between men and women. (One 2019 study by the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union — the organizers of the UK fast food workers’ movement — found that eight of ten UK women work for employers who pay men more.) Protesters also carried signs that called for an end to “McSexual Violence, McShame,” announcing that the #MeToo movement had come to 10 Downing Street by way of the far-flung immigrant neighborhoods ringing London where these McDonald’s strikers live and work.

Tuesday’s action was the third year in a row that employees from McDonald’s, TGIF, Wetherspoon, Uber, and food delivery workers walked out of their workplaces to stage a “McStrike.” Their action this year, as for the last two, was marked by morning rush-hour picket lines, the better to disrupt business as usual in this ever-thrumming, rushing megacity. (McDonald’s released a statement Tuesday, saying: “We are extremely disappointed that a very small number of our people in just a handful of our restaurants are considering industrial action. . . .  Their potential actions do not represent our people. We are committed to investing in our workforce, listening to and doing what is right by them.”)

Single mother Melissa Evans walked the line in front of the South London Wandsworth McDonald’s where she has worked for years to support her son. On the day of the strike, she wore a broad grin. Every time I looked at her, she seemed radiant with happiness.