McDonald’s Franchisees See Strength in Numbers; Some See a Union

McDonald’s franchise owners—a traditionally organizing-averse group—are banding together to gain leverage with their franchisor as the fast-food giant pushes design and operational changes that will increase costs for owner-operators.

The planned changes include increasing the number of restaurants that offer delivery, adding electronic kiosks inside restaurants, and operational changes aimed at improving the speed of drive-through orders. The franchisees say a lot of the changes aren’t proven means of improving profits, and that some previous changes imposed by McDonald’s LLC didn’t produce the intended results, or were scrapped shortly after being introduced.

There are certain requirements to meet the legal ...