“Liberté, Égalité and French Fries” is an episode of Rough Translation that highlights the organization and defiance from a group of workers at a French McDonalds trying to save a workplace that became an unlikely home and place to find belonging in a country that has not done to work to embrace immigrants and the less fortunate. It’s a surprising, touching story that highlights some of the ugly contradictions we face in capitalism.
Every company has its own corporate culture. Its slogans and values that you’re expected to learn and live by as an employee — and then, possibly forget about when you clock out at the end of the day.
Liberté, Égalité and French Fries
But, what happens when the employees of a company take that corporate philosophy so deeply to heart that it actually becomes a problem for the business?
On this episode, we hear from residents of an immigrant neighborhood in Marseille, France who considered their local McDonalds to be a home of sorts, as well as a gateway into French society. So when the owner tries to sell it, they mount a mini-revolution and take extreme measures to try and save it.
