McDonald's anger over McJob entry

BBC News. November 12, 2003.

McDonald's has expressed its outrage over how the latest Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary describes job prospects at the US fast-food giant.

In its latest edition, the dictionary defines the term McJob as "low-paying and dead-end work".

McDonald's CEO Jim Cantalupo dismissed the term as "an inaccurate description of restaurant employment".

He called it "a slap in the face to the 12 million" industry's staff, according to the Associated Press news agency.

In an open letter to Merriam-Webster's, Mr Cantalupo said that "more than 1,000 of the men and women who own and operate McDonald's restaurants today got their start by serving customers behind the counter".

The letter has been sent to media organisations, and it was also published in the latest edition of an industry trade organisation.

McDonald's - the world's largest fast-food chain - has more than 30,000 restaurants and nearly 500,000 employees.

The term McJob was coined by the Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland in his 1991 novel Generation X to describe a "low-prestige, low-dignity, low-benefit, no-future job in the service sector".

IMPRIMIR