|
Fast
Food
Workers,
Supporters
Rally At
Detroit
McDonald's
Protest
tied to
NLRB
counsel
saying
company
plays a
role in
franchise
employment
decisions
DETROIT
- Dozens
of
Detroit
area
fast-food
workers
and
their
supporters
rallied
at a
Detroit
McDonald’s
Wednesday
calling
on the
$5.6
billion
company
to stop
hiding
behind
its
franchisees,
pay its
workers
$15 an
hour and
respect
their
right to
form a
union
without
retaliation.
This
comes
after
the
National
Labor
Relations
Board’s
general
counsel
said
Tuesday
that
McDonald’s
plays a
critical
role in
employment
decisions
at its
restaurants,
despite
the
fast-food
giant’s
repeated
assertions
to the
contrary.
Police
were
called
to the
site
after
workers
briefly
took
over the
drive-thru.
“It’s
time for
McDonald’s
to stop
hiding
behind
its
franchisees
and pay
its
workers
$15 an
hour so
they can
support
their
family,”
said
Kaya
Moody,
who has
worked
at the
McDonald’s
at 4235
Woodward
for 4
years
She
earns
$7.75 an
hour and
says the
pay
isn’t
enough
to take
care of
her
along
with her
9-month-old
child.
Who’s
the
Boss?
McDonald’s
Is
•
Contrary
to
Company’s
Repeated
Claims,
Move by
NLRB’s
General
Counsel
Shows
Fast-Food
Giant is
An
Employer
•
Labor
Board’s
General
Counsel
says
McDonald’s
plays
critical
role in
employment
decisions
at its
restaurants;
Company
can’t
hide
behind
franchisees
any
longer
New
York,
NY—Despite
McDonald’s
repeated
assertions
that it
does not
control
employment
decisions
at its
franchised
restaurants,
the
National
Labor
Relations
Board’s
general
counsel
said
Tuesday
that the
$5.6
billion
company
is
indeed a
joint
employer
that
exerts
substantial
power
over its
employees’
working
conditions.
In a
determination
that
carries
widespread
implications
for the
fast-food
industry,
the
general
counsel
found
that
McDonald’s
wields
such
extensive
influence
over the
business
operations
of its
franchisees
that
individual
franchise
operators
have
little
autonomy
in
setting
or
controlling
workplace
conditions.
McDonald’s,
for all
intents
and
purposes,
is the
employer.
The
general
counsel’s
office
Tuesday
informed
regional
directors
of the
NLRB in
offices
around
the
country
that
McDonald’s
should
be
treated
as an
employer.
There
are
dozens
of
charges
alleging
illegal
conduct
by the
fast-food
giant
pending
in at
least 17
cities
that
could
now be
adjudicated
using
the
government’s
new
directive.
“McDonald’s
can try
to hide
behind
its
franchisees,
but
today’s
determination
by the
NLRB
shows
there’s
no two
ways
about
it: The
Golden
Arches
is an
employer,
plain
and
simple,”
said
Micah
Wissinger,
an
attorney
at Levy
Ratner
who
brought
the case
on
behalf
of
McDonald’s
workers
in New
York
City.
“The
reality
is that
McDonald’s
requires
franchisees
to
adhere
to such
regimented
rules
and
regulations
that
there’s
no doubt
who’s
really
in
charge.”
For
nearly
two
years,
McDonald’s
and
other
fast-food
workers
across
the
country
have
been
joining
together
and
going on
strike,
calling
for $15
and the
right to
form a
union
without
retaliation.
But time
and time
again,
the
company
and
other
industry
players
have
tried to
sidestep
workers’
calls,
inventing
a
make-believe
world in
which
responsibility
for
wages
and
working
conditions
falls
squarely
on the
shoulder
of
franchisees.
“Now
that the
government
has
recognized
what us
workers
have
always
known—
that
McDonald’s
is the
boss—maybe
the
company
will
stop
making
excuses
for why
we’re
treated
so
poorly
and pay
us a
wage we
can live
on,”
said
Richard
Eiker,
who has
worked
for the
same
Kansas
City
McDonald’s
franchisee
for 18
years.
“As the
federal
governments
determination
shows,
McDonald’s
clearly
uses its
vast
powers
to
control
franchisees
in just
about
every
way
possible,”
said
Kendall
Fells,
organizing
director
of Fast
Food
Forward.
“It’s
time the
company
put
those
same
powers
to work
to do
something
about
the fact
that its
workers
are
living
in
poverty.”
The
government’s
determination
is the
latest
challenge
to the
fast-food
industry’s
low-wage
business
model,
in which
franchisors
reap
rewards
of a
profitable
industry,
while
forcing
franchisees
to
shoulder
all the
risk. In
March,
McDonald’s
workers
in three
states
filed
class-action
lawsuits
against
the
company,
alleging
widespread
wage
theft.
The New
York
Times
wrote
that the
suits,
“argue
that
both the
corporate
parent
and the
independently
owned
franchises
where
many of
the
plaintiffs
work are
jointly
responsible
for
illegal
pay
practices
carried
out by
the
franchises…That
strikes
at the
heart of
the
low-wage
fast-food
business
model.”
|