McStrike at the Golden Arches

To get a Quarter-Pounder with cheese in Macedonia, Ohio, you'll have to cross a picket line. Six young McDonald's employees got so angry over management's alleged rudeness and refusal to grant leave over Easter that they launched the first-ever strike against the company in the U.S. "Trade unions have never gone after McDonald's because its workforce is so transitory -- it's mostly composed of kids," says TIME correspondent Edward Barnes. But while the nation's sunny economic prospects may embolden service sector labor, the major threat facing McDonald's in the three-day-old strike isn't the emergence of a McUnion; it's bad publicity. Which may be why, despite the microscopic scale of the action, the head office has pledged to resolve the "valid issues" raised by the strikers. After all, it just isn't a "Happy Meal" if it's served with a scowl.