Barack Obama’s presidency opened up new possibilities for workers trying to organize under abusive employers. Under Donald Trump, those possibilities are getting shut down one by one. This week, the National Labor Relations Board, newly stocked with Trump appointees, took its turn, delivering a blow to fast food workers and a gift to McDonald’s:
In a 3-2 ruling, the Republican majority tightened the standards for determining when a company qualifies as a “joint employer” for the purposes of labor law. As a result, it will be harder for unions and workers to file complaints against fast-food chains or other big companies that rely on franchisees and contractors to oversee work.
The two Democratic members dissented.
Earlier this year, McDonald’s was put on trial as a potential joint employer so that it might be held responsible for violating the rights of workers employed by its franchisees. That case has not been ruled on yet, and the change in precedent Thursday could knock a hole in the workers’ argument.
McDonald’s argument is that workers in its stores are employed by the franchisee. But McDonald’s controls every aspect of how its stores are run—including key employment practices, to the point of telling franchisees they were overpaying workers. McDonald’s acts, in other words, as an employer, but by insisting it isn’t, it gets out of responsibility for broken labor laws and it’s easier for the company to block union organizing. And the Trump NLRB just gave it permission to keep doing that.