The “sole reason” that the National Labor Relations Board, the federal government’s main labor law enforcement agency, is pursuing a major case against McDonald’s Corp. is the efforts of a union-funded activist group, according to the board’s general counsel, Richard Griffin.
The general counsel made the comment during an American Bar Association forum Friday in response to a question regarding the NLRB’s complaint saying that the corporation is a “joint employer” with its privately owned franchise restaurants and therefore legally responsible for labor violations that occur at them. The case has drawn intense attention from business groups, which argue that if McDonald’s is found responsible, it would have major repercussions for all businesses that franchise.
“The sole reason why our agency is involved in the McDonald’s situation is because there is a national campaign that’s called the ‘Fight for $15’ that is being run by a fast-food workers alliance that is seeking to raise wages in the fast food industry to $15 a hour,” Griffin told the audience. He noted that the case began after about 300 complaints of unfair labor practices at different restaurants were filed with the board.
Fight for $15 is a nonprofit activist group founded and run by the Service Employees International Union, which has long sought to organize workers at fast-food chains. A finding that McDonald’s Corp. is a joint employer with its franchisees would make the SEIU’s campaign much easier by allowing it to focus its efforts on the corporate parent rather than organizing the workers restaurant-by-restaurant. The union spent $23 million in 2014 on the Fight for $15 campaign, Labor Department filings show. The organizing director of Fight for $15, Kendall Fells, is an SEIU employee.
Matthew Haller, spokesman for the International Franchise Asssociation, said Griffin’s comments indicate that the McDonald’s complaint was the fruit of a well-funded, extensively organized campaign by a major union that stands to benefit if the labor board prevails.
It “proves the [NLRB’s] new joint employer standard has given the government the tools the union asked for to create the SEIU’s intended result — millions of more dues-paying members to support progressive causes that will destroy family-owned franchisees. The question is will policymakers stand up for these family-owned businesses or allow them to fall by the wayside,” Haller said. McDonald’s is an franchise association member.
It is not clear if, as Griffin’s statement appears to indicate, that all of the estimated 300 complaints filed against McDonald’s came from people affiliated with the SEIU-funded group. “Some of charging parties/petitioners are individuals and others are organizations. I can’t speak to all of the individuals’ or organizations’ affiliations, though,” NLRB spokeswoman Jessica Kahanek told the Washington Examiner in an email.
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Kahanek said Griffin’s comments at the forum were merely meant to explain how the NLRB’s charging process works. “He was clarifying how cases come before the NLRB v. other agencies. As you know, the sole reason the agency can act in ANY case is that a party or individual files a charge,” Kahanek said.
As general counsel, Griffin’ runs the board’s day-to-day operations. Nominated to the post by President Obama, he is a former top lawyer with the International Union of Operating Engineers.
