Some 23 individual complaints were filed this week against McDonalds alleging sexual harassment at some of its corporate and franchised stores. The majority of the claims were filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and contend (again) that McDonald’s is a joint employer of the workers in their franchised locations and hence, equally re$pon$ible and liable for the alleged harassment and subsequent retaliation against the employees. Because the complaints were filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, they are not affected by NLRB or DOL interpretations of the joint employer standard under the Fair Labor Standards Act and/or the National Labor Relations Act. McDonalds employees in a host of cities across the country went on strike yesterday against the company claiming it has not adopted a $15 minimum wage and had not done enough to address sexual harassment claims in its stores. Three of the 24 declared candidates seeking the democratic presidential nomination joined striking workers to pander for the support of the progressive picketers. Former HUD Secretary (under President Obama) Julian Castro joined striking workers in Durham, North Carolina, while NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio marched with strikers in Des Moines, Iowa and Washington state Governor Jay Inslee joined pickets in Chicago. Not to be outdone, candidate Senator Bernie Sanders couldn’t resist jumping into the fray, holding a digital town hall meeting with another group of McDonalds employees in Dallas, Texas. Maybe McDonald’s executives thought they bought their way out of this kind of trouble when they announced the company would no longer support efforts to block minimum wage increases? How’d that work out???