Future Dunedin candidate Bex Twemlow made the comments on Facebook after five Central Dunedin McDonald’s workers downed tools and protested outside the restaurant on Wednesday, calling for a living wage after the company’s latest pay offer was rejected.
"You all realise they [McDonald’s owners] could easily completely automate the restaurants and not employ hundreds of people, paying them a wage which then is spent in our economy?" Mrs Twemlow said.
"Honestly, I do wonder why good people bother."
Unite Union Dunedin organiser Andrew Tait said Mrs Twemlow’s comments dismissed hundreds of McDonald’s workers and depicted them as not contributing to the community in other ways.
"It’s completely out of touch with ordinary people," he said.
If Mrs Twemlow was trying to win votes ahead of October’s local body election, she was going about it in "completely the wrong way".
Mr Tait said while stores already featured automation, which the union expected to continue, workers still deserved to be paid a living wage.
The strike was not specifically against local owners but part of nationwide bargaining with a co-operative of McDonald’s and its franchisees, including local franchisee owners Justin and Eterei Stonelake.
Union members recognised the Stonelakes’ stores, which include Central Dunedin, were well run and some staff were paid above contract rates but the latest pay offer from the co-operative was below the rate of inflation — "an effective pay cut", Mr Tait said.
Mrs Twemlow yesterday stood by her comments and said she was not dismissing unions or people’s rights.
"The future is here ... the business people have a choice to either continue to do the good that they do and build businesses that support the community and give them burgers and fries, or take what I would see would almost be the easiest option for Justin and Eterei and automate it, but they choose not to."
She said the Stonelakes were great employers and made significant contributions to Dunedin by employing young people, including her daughter.
Mrs Twemlow said she had worked with the couple on youth employment programmes and disliked the "demonising" of McDonald’s and Dunedin business owners who contributed to the community.
"My comment is specifically about the rhetoric that is drawn from [the strikes], from our community, that don’t see the harm that their comments cause."
Mr Stonelake yesterday referred comment to McDonald’s spokesman Simon Kenny, who declined to comment.
University of Otago School of Computing senior lecturer Veronica Liesaputra said the idea of automating restaurants had existed for years and had been trialled by some businesses, especially in the United States, where a nearly fully automated McDonald’s was tested in Texas.
Dr Liesaputra said, in theory, restaurants could be automated but in practice neither the hardware or software required existed — existing automated restaurants had issues, limiting their widespread adoption.
"With the advancement of technology, we may be able to automate everything seamlessly," Dr Liesaputra said.
"However, for now, in my opinion, the robots are not taking over the restaurant business yet."
