Skip to main content

What I've Been Reading This Week


Quite the busy week kept me on the road and out of the office.  One of the more thought provoking articles I came across dealt with the relationship between President Trump and the fast food industry.  Recall that President Trump's first nominee for Labor Secretary was Andy Puzder (of Hardees/Carl's Jr. "fame").  Of course he did not make it through the entire confirmation process...but that example certainly lends credence to the fact that the President appears to be quite cozy with certain sectors of the fast food industry.  Whether that pays dividends long term for these employers is still up for debate, but at the below article notes, it appears that things are certainly looking up for the time being.

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.


President Donald Trump: A Friend to Fast Food Employers?

Dave Jamieson over at The Huffington Post muses on the seemingly strong "friendship" shared by President Donald Trump and fast food employers across the country.  Jamieson does a good job providing a concise overview of steps the Obama Administration took which angered the fast food industry...compared to what President Trump has done over the past 7 or so months:  taking steps to undo the Obama Administration's attempt to raise the overtime threshold, indicating its limited interest in raising the federal minimum wage, and appearing ready to embrace the "joint employer" bill that was recently introduced in Congress which would rewrite the NLRB's definition from Browning-Ferris (and you guessed it, make "joint employer" more employer friendly).  At least for the time being, this honeymoon continues...


Little Caesars Introduces Automated Pizza Pickup

As some commentators had suggested, given the increased cost of labor, it was only a matter of time before restaurants introduced automated machines in an effort to cut these rising costs to employ hourly workers.  Recently, Little Caesars began installing machines at some of its locations in which customers order their desired pizza on an app, pay for it, receive a notification when it is ready, punch a code into a machine, and retrieve their pizza from behind a glass window.  As Michelle Maynard at Forbes writes, Little Caesars is not a trailblazer in this case as other chains such as Panera Bread and McDonald's have implemented similar machines.  Unless there is a huge backlash by consumers over the lack of interpersonal communication with an actual human (and these consumers actually take their money elsewhere), I would expect other restaurants to look at implementing similar machines in an effort to cut back on labor costs.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Breaking: Labor Secretary Rumored to Be Leaving Administration

A few hours ago, word leaked out that Labor Secretary Marty Walsh (“Walsh”) is in the midst of negotiations to head up the NHL Players Union and leave his position at the Labor Department. Walsh, who has served as the sole Labor Secretary under President Biden, has taken part in a labor renaissance of sorts as support for organized labor has increased during his term as Labor Secretary (although the number of workers that have joined a union over the past two years has not grown as mush as some expected.)  He has also overseen the ongoing negotiations with rail workers over a new contract, although that matter is still on shaky ground and playing out as we speak. As for who might step into the vacant Labor Secretary role, there are already rumblings that President Biden should nominate Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su (a strong labor advocate) or even a progressive like Senator Bernie Sanders.  Until Walsh officially gives his notice, however, I would expect some/many potential...
Post a Comment
Read more

San Diego Rolls Back Vaccine Mandate For City Workers

Last Tuesday, the San Diego City Council voted to do away with the vaccine mandate for city employees. The city’s vaccine mandate that was in place required city workers to get the coronavirus vaccine or risk termination.  Perhaps to this surprise of no one, the city’s policy came under fire with 14 employees being terminated and over 100 other employees resigning.  With the coronavirus subsiding, including in Southern California, the San Diego City Council took action. Now, bear in mind, the repeal of the vaccine mandate does not take place immediately. With that being said, the mandate will be repealed March 8th.  I suppose the question now is, what other cities or regions follow San Diego’s lead? For additional information:   https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2023-01-24/san-diego-repeals-controversial-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-citing-drop-in-cases-hospitalizations
Post a Comment
Read more