Continuing a long-running fight for a $15 an hour minimum wage, protesters surrounded McDonald's headquarters Thursday outside Chicago as new CEO Steve Easterbrook addressed his first shareholders meeting.

Thousands of workers – chanting for McDonald's to "supersize my check" – came to Oak Brook this week to call McDonald's out for insufficient pay, drawing negative attention to the fast food giant two weeks after Easterbrook's announced turnaround plan failed to impress investors.

At the top of the meeting, activist shareholders called on Easterbrook to back a major hike in the minimum wage and railed that the company has done too little to address the issue.

Easterbrook pushed back that McDonald's has been on the industry's cutting on edge on the issue, when it announced earlier this year that it would start paying workers $1 per hour above the local minimum wage. The hike, however, only applies to company owned McDonald's which account for about 10% of stores in the USA.

"I am incredibly proud of the announcement," Easterbrook said of the $1 per hour hike. "We voluntarily took leadership."

Organizers bused in activists from throughout the country and came with 1.4 million petition signatures calling for McDonald's to support hiking the minimum wage to $15. Organizers said they planned to deliver the petitions to McDonald's officials.

Usa Today