NLRB: McDonald's Responsible For Franchises' Violations Of Workers' Rights

I missed this in December when it first was announced. This is from Low Pay is Not OK:

On December 19, 2014, just a few weeks after [Low Pay is Not OK's] biggest fast food strike to-date, the National Labor Relations Board made a groundbreaking ruling: McDonald’s can no longer hide behind their franchisees and will be held responsible for violations against the rights of their workers.

The ruling states:

[NLRB's] investigation found that McDonald’s, USA, LLC, through its franchise relationship and its use of tools, resources and technology, engages in sufficient control over its franchisees’ operations, beyond protection of the brand, to make it a putative joint employer with its franchisees, sharing liability for violations of our Act. This finding is further supported by McDonald’s, USA, LLC’s nationwide response to franchise employee activities while participating in fast food worker protests to improve their wages and working conditions.

McDonald’s has long claimed no responsibility for working conditions — placing all the blame for bad practices on the franchisees. But the NLRB made it clear that the McDonald’s corporation is the real boss, and it’s up to them to take responsibility and treat their workers fairly.

Read more about the historic ruling here [at NYT].

Over the years, Stella and I have occasionally driven through the line at a local McDonald's to satisfy our sweet tooth with a McCafe™. We prefer Starbucks's Frappucino™, but the McDonald's product is cheaper and very few Starbucks outlets have a drive‑thru.

Mickey D feels Rosie's muscle
(organizing really works!)

But that has changed over the past year. First, McDonald's appeared to have no intention of negotiating a wage higher than the legal minimum, until LPisNOK began organizing its workers. Then McDonald's workers went on strike for better pay; about 500 workers at many franchises around the country were actually arrested for doing so. (That is the point at which I stopped trading with McDonalds altogether.) Then there was a credible report that a McDonald's in South Boston fired 10 workers because they didn't “fit the profile” of the store; all 10 workers just happened to be Black, and management made statements that can only reasonably be construed as confirming that the workers were fired because of their race. (Follow the link; read the statements for yourself.) McDonald's Corp. declined to make any effort to compel the store to rehire the workers, claiming franchises make those decisions independently. Hence the NLRB case and the ruling that the corporation can't hide behind its franchises in matters of violations of workers' legal rights, such as firing people because of their race.

Stella is not a vocally aggressive labor rights advocate like me, but she does put her money where her heart is, and has a strong sense of fairness. I've noticed she has silently stopped going to McDonalds now. For her as for me, as for the workers, enough is enough.

Scott Walker's Anti-Collective Bargaining Law Struck Down

A Wisconsin county judge has struck down Gov. Walker's draconian anti-collective bargaining law as a violation of both state and US constitutions. Here's Scott Bauer at HuffPo:

...

Dane County Circuit Judge Juan Colas ruled that the law violates both the state and U.S. Constitution and is null and void.

In his 27-page ruling, the judge said sections of the law "single out and encumber the rights of those employees who choose union membership and representation solely because of that association and therefore infringe upon the rights of free speech and association guaranteed by both the Wisconsin and United States Constitutions."

Colas also said the law violates the equal protection clause by creating separate classes of workers who are treated differently and unequally.

The ruling applies to all local public workers affected by the law, including teachers and city and county government employees, but not those who work for the state. They were not a party to the lawsuit, which was brought by a Madison teachers union and a Milwaukee public workers union.

Walker issued a statement accusing the judge of being a "liberal activist" who "wants to go backwards and take away the lawmaking responsibilities of the legislature and the governor. We are confident that the state will ultimately prevail in the appeals process."

...

It is good to see Walker brought up short, even if only temporarily. An appeal is planned. Let the judge-shopping begin.

AFTERTHOUGHT: the right to bargain collectively by forming unions is central to achieving fairness in employer treatment of workers. This is no less true of public employees. As it has been repeatedly shown that quality and productivity rest squarely on fair worker compensation and working conditions, I am forever mystified that some "conservatives" demand the most unequal possible relationship between management and labor. Forcing workers into effective wage slavery by denying their bargaining rights is not just wrong... it's also stupid beyond words. In other words, it's Republican.

Labor Day 2012: "I Owe My Soul... To TheCompany Stoʼ Candidate"

Neela Bannerjee at the LA Times (H/T Enfant, in comments) tells us a story that sounds like something out of the nineteenth century:

WASHINGTON -- Employees of a major coal industry donor to Republican causes have raised complaints about their participation in an event earlier this month organized for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the crucial swing state of Ohio.

Several miners at Murray Energy’s Century coal mine in Beallsville, Ohio, contacted a nearby morning talk radio host, David Blomquist, over the last two weeks to say that they were forced to attend an Aug. 14 rally for Romney at the mine. Murray closed the mine the day of the rally, saying it was necessary for security and safety, then docked miners the day's pay. Asked by WWVA radio’s Blomquist about the allegations on Monday’s show, Murray chief operating officer Robert Moore said: “Attendance was mandatory but no one was forced to attend the event.”

Yep, those are the basic tenets of our American capitalist society: "Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Attendance is mandatory but no one is forced to attend the event.”

Feel free to stay home if you would prefer never to be promoted or to receive a raise, or if you would like to be given the dirtiest, most dangerous possible job in the dirtiest, most dangerous workplace anywhere. But hey, you're not being forced; it's merely mandatory.

Happy Labor Day. I hope yours is a better one than that of those coal miners. People who work for a living deserve better.

As MA Gov, Rmoney Raided State Environmental Funds To Pay For Football Rally

From Mike Ludwig of Truthout...

Forget tailgating, Mitt Romney went all out when the New England Patriots went to the Super Bowl in 2005. Romney, then governor of Massachusetts, diverted $45,000 from the state's Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) to hold a send-off rally for the [Patriots] football team ...

Five days after the rally, four high school students were struck by a pickup truck in the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. School officials blamed the accident on poorly plowed roads. Governor Romney blamed the DCR ... and quickly fired DCR Commissioner Katherine Abbott ... .

Surely the word "Recreation" in the department name is not intended to mean "pro football rallies." But this wasn't Rmoney's first run-in with the DCR; read the linked article. Here's another assessment...

...

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a nonpartisan alliance of local, state and federal environmental resource professionals, places at least some of the blame for the accident on political games and Romney's decision to divert public funds to pay for the Patriots' rally. The group says the fiasco is a prime example of Romney's "take-no-prisoners" management style ...

"He approached governance like a hostile takeover and this resulted in gutted agencies, crippling reorganizations and poor morale among workers," said New England PEER Director Kyla Bennett, a former enforcement attorney with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ...

...

(Bolds mine.) Please read the rest. Rmoney as governor consistently, one might say relentlessly, acted to the detriment of the environment and of public employees. How could anyone justify putting somebody in charge of government and the environment who detests the whole notion of government and doesn't give a good damn about the environment? Of course that doesn't work: it was never intended to work. In our era, the GOP sees its sole mission as making sure government doesn't work. And they're distressingly good at it.

There's only one solution. Charge Rmoney with misappropriation of state funds; convict him; dump him in a jail for a few years ($45,000 is almost certainly a felony). That would, at least temporarily, spare the nation's forests, lakes, rivers etc. the wanton destruction Rmoney would surely bring.