Erin McDowell/Insider
- McDonald's workers in Italy called a strike over having to work in intense heat with faltering AC.
- Their union said several employees had fallen ill while working next to hot kitchen equipment.
- Italy has been hit by dangerously high temperatures, with officials telling people to stay indoors.
McDonald's workers in southern Italy declared a strike last week after temperatures hit 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to local reports.
Workers at two branches in the city of Bari said they were being forced to work in boiling temperatures alongside intensely hot kitchen equipment, according to local outlet Bari Today.
Domenico Ficco, a representative of CGIL, the union supporting the strike, said several workers, who have to work alongside hot fryers and other equipment, had fallen ill due to the heat, local outlet Calabria 7 reported.
One hundred and forty workers were set to picket the branches as of Saturday, after portable air coolers had failed to compensate for broken AC, the outlet reported.
McDonald's Italy admitted the coolers were barely making a difference, Bari Today reported.
The day after the strike was declared, the company agreed to close one branch and operate only the drive-in and delivery services in another during these conditions, per the outlet.
It also said the franchisee had recently conducted maintenance on the AC in these branches, but the extreme heat had caused technical problems, per the paper.
The company did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
An oppressive dome of heat settled over Italy last week, with some locations seeing temperatures as high as 118 degrees Fahrenheit, The New York Times reported.
Two workers are believed to have died due to heat-related illness in Italy this year, and workers in many parts of the country have threatened to strike, The Guardian reported.
CGIL has long raised the alarm over a lack of air conditioning for restaurant workers, Calabria 7 reported. It also said that temperatures in the neighboring region of Basilicata were putting factory workers at risk, The Guardian reported.