The National Labor Relations Board is investigating after the Fast Food Workers Committee charged that New York City McDonald's restaurants,
fired nine workers in retaliation for their activism in the waves of fast food strikes since November 2012:
The workers also alleged that McDonald’s locations suspended employees, cut their hours and threatened them with termination for union activities. The incidents took place at locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx, according to the charges.
The U.S. fast-food industry is largely franchised, meaning independent businesspeople own and operate the restaurants. They pay a percentage of their sales to the parent company, which manages the brand and image. McDonald’s U.S. locations are about 90 percent franchised, and the parent has a hands-off approach to how employees are managed. If the NLRB holds McDonald’s accountable as a joint employer, the company may have to police its franchisees more closely to prevent future infractions.
According to the fast food industry, it would be a terrible thing if major brands like McDonald's had to exercise some oversight over their franchises to prevent labor laws from being broken. Mind you, fast food restaurants dictate not only what food their franchises serve and how it will be prepared, but also employee uniforms, restaurant decor, and more. Yet dictating "don't break labor laws" will somehow be the undoing of this highly functional system.
Meanwhile, low-wage workers who dared to stand up and demand a living wage and the right to organize have had to deal with everything from intimidation to losing their livelihoods.