Diane Furchtgott-Roth on the National Labor Relations Board
December 27 | Posted by mrossol | American Thought, Democrat Party, US ConstitutionI don’t hear any Democrats complaining. Must be this is their MO.
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Economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth writing for RealClearMarkets.com, Dec. 23:
On Friday, just before the holidays, NLRB General Counsel Richard Griffin announced that he had issued complaints against McDonald’s MCD +1.01% franchised restaurants and McDonald’s USA, the parent corporation, as joint employers. Workers complained that they were unfairly disciplined in retaliation for communicating with unions, including facing threats, fewer work hours, and job loss.
In July Griffin stated (without offering a legal argument) that McDonald’s USA was a joint employer of those workers who are employed by local McDonald’s franchises. . . .
For half a century, the local franchise was considered the only employer. The NLRB defined employers as those who controlled workers’ “essential terms of employment,” namely hiring, wage rates, firing, and job description. The franchises were the employers, not the owner of the franchise.
When I called the NLRB to ask whether I could see the Advice Memorandum discussing the legal foundation for the change, I was told by an anonymous spokesman that “the memorandum is not available [publicly] because it’s part of the litigation process.” The arguments in the Advice Memorandum—but not the Memorandum itself—will be available when the case goes before regional administrative judges in the spring, I was informed.
So the NLRB unilaterally changes the law without any notice or public comment, uses the change in the law to sue a major corporation, and tells the general public that the legal reasoning behind the change cannot be revealed.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/notable-quotable-diane-furchtgott-roth-on-the-national-labor-relations-board-1419543554
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