The black owner of 14 McDonald’s franchises says the company favors white owners and denied him the option to buy restaurants in wealthier communities, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Ohio.
The lawsuit, filed by former professional baseball player Herbert Washington, alleges that the Chicago-based fast food chain discriminated against him, leading to a $ 700,000 sales gap between black-owned McDonald’s franchises. and white.
Franchises in low-income neighborhoods are more expensive to operate, have higher employee turnover, and are less profitable, says Washington, a former Michigan State University star who played for two seasons with the Oakland Athletics in the mid-1970s.
“By relegating black homeowners to older stores in more difficult neighborhoods, McDonald’s assured that black franchisees would never reach the levels of success that white franchisees could expect,” the lawsuit said. “Black franchisees have to spend more to operate their stores, while white franchisees can get the most out of their jobs.”
More than 50 former Black McDonald’s franchise owners made similar claims in a lawsuit filed against the company in October, saying they were forced to sell about 200 stores over the past decade.
“I signed up for extinction”
During a video conference Tuesday, Washington said it had been battling a two-tier system since buying its first franchise in Rochester, New York, 40 years ago. At one point, he owned 27 restaurants, but was forced to sell seven stores in recent years to White owners, Washington said.
It now has 12 restaurants in northeast Ohio and two in Pennsylvania. He blames his defense on behalf of the owners of Black McDonald’s for his problems with the company.
“McDonald’s has pointed me to extinction,” Washington said. “The bows are in large-scale retaliation mode against me.”
McDonald’s denied the allegations. In a statement to CBS MoneyWatch, McDonald’s said Washington was “facing business challenges.” McDonald’s added that “the company invested significantly in its organization,” giving it numerous opportunities over the years to address the issues.
“This situation is the result of years of mismanagement by Mr. Washington, whose organization has not met many of our standards on people, operations, customer satisfaction, and reinvestment,” according to the company.
According to the lawsuit, the number of Black McDonald’s franchise owners in the U.S. currently stands at 186, down from 377 in 1998. The company responded that while the total number of U.S. restaurants has increased from 12,500 by the end of 1998 to the current 14,000, the percentage of stores owned by Negres “is generally unchanged”