Restaurateurs, fast food owners and other types of franchise owners have flocked to Washington DC in support of McDonald's. They are opposing the ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which can have a serious effect on everyone in the franchise business.
The ruling by the NLRB, which the franchise owners are protesting, states that companies like McDonald's actually share employer status with their franchisees. If this ruling will be upheld then that would force corporate bosses on the bargaining table when dealing with the employees working on the stores of their franchisees.
This development could expose large companies like McDonald's to claims of violations of labor rights. It can potentially do a great deal of harm to the way that they do business.
Franchise owners are flocking over to Washington in order to show their support of franchisors and in opposition to the ruling which they believe could cause a lot of damage, not just to their businesses and industry but to the economy as a whole.
They have cited the fact that franchise businesses accounted for a great deal of the jobs creation right after the recession. The franchise owners believe that the ruling could put their businesses in jeopardy.
The controversy centers around a particular ruling by the National Labor Relations Board which says that McDonald's USA LLC can be named as a join employer respondent in cases of alleged violations of worker's rights. Franchisors have been immune from such cases in the past, but the ruling would change all of that.
But this development is just part of a bigger struggle. There is an ongoing fight between labor in business. Workers have been demanding an increase in the minimum wage which those on the business side are trying to oppose because it could cost them too much and could potentially cause them to close shop.
