Am I allowed to title today’s entry “McJobs”? Not according to McDonalds.
What interests me about this story is that although McDonalds raises legal issues in their letter to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, they clearly understand that they have a weak case (the word was coined in 1991 and is already in the American Heritage Dictionary), so they are appealing to public sentiment as well. In their letter, which was CC’d to media organizations and published in an industry trade magazine, McDonald’s CEO Jim Cantalupo says:
the term is “an inaccurate description of restaurant employment” and “a slap in the face to the 12 million men and women” who work in the restaurant industry.
Yeah, right — I’m sure those are wonderful jobs. If they really wanted to respect their workers, how about letting them form a union?
UPDATE: McEconomics, and Mirriam-Webster stands by their word.
UPDATE: Another article on the McJob economy.
