The Working Lunch

We do a deep dive on the election results from this week and discuss wha happened, why it happened, and most importantly, what does it mean for the employer community? And speaking of elections, we are joined by Eric Terry, President of the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association to discuss the big story of the night - the Democratic takeover of the Virginia House of Delegates. We’ll d...

The impacts of California’s new fast food law keep rolling in. This week, McDonald’s not only discussed price increases in California but new prototype restaurants less reliant on traditional labor. We’ll take a look at the real impact of these mandates. And its election day in many parts of the country next week and a few jurisdictions are particularly important to the industry, namely in Virgina...

The NLRB issued their long-awaited joint employer standard and it's literally everything the labor community would have wanted. We’ll talk about what’s next for the industry as the immenine threat to the franchise business model has finally arrived. And the credit card companies are on the political ropes as the FTC pursues a cap on interchange fees. Why are the banks suddenly playing defense and...

We are joined by Townsend Brown, Policy Analyst at Multistate, to talk about California’s new law mandating that large companies annually disclose data regarding their global carbon footprints. How will companies begin to comply and is their legal action ahead? We’ll discuss. And the industry had another big showing in Maryland this week literally flooding the Montgomery County Council chambers wi...

The Federal Trade Commission revised a proposed rule this week lumping in restaurant and delivery service charges with other, what it calls, junk fees and hidden charges. We’ll take a look at why this happened and more importantly, where do we go from here. And the industry got an important win this week when legislation to eliminate the tip credit was soundly defeated in very blue, very progressi...

We discuss our current world of chaos - the Republican meltdown in Washington, DC, war in the Middle East, and, oh by the way, a Presidential election looming - and its potential impact on small business owners and their consumers. And a small game board - themed restaurant chain in New York City may lay the groundwork for the new world order in which unionization elections are held. We’ll take a...

We sit down with Misty Chally, the Executive Director of the Critical Labor Coalition to discuss what that group is doing in Congress to address and potentially alleviate the labor crunch that operators can’t seem to climb out of. And we update you on the national autoworkers strike and what ramifications its success or failure may have on presidential politics in Michigan and other labor movement...

We’ll discuss what happened in Chicago this week with a major shift in perceived industry positioning with regard to tip credit elimination. We are joined by Berman & Company’s Mike Saltsman for his analysis of what happened, why it happened and how the industry manages the issue going forward. And Sean Kennedy, the Executive Vice President of Public Affairs for the National Restaurant Association...

The new proposed overtime rule is out and we discuss the impact - better than we thought, worse than we thought, or about what we thought. We’ll discuss the impact, the process going forward, and what’s next for operators. And the NLRB released yet another decision last month, the Stericycle decision, that may make every employer rewrite large segments of their employee handbooks. We’ll explain. A...

The National Labor Relations Board has turned union election rules upside down, issuing new regulations around quickie “ambush” elections and instituting a de facto card check rule, making union organiziaing significantly easier. We’ll discuss the ramifications for all employers large and small And the world of alcohol continues to change, both from consumer tastes and trends to laws and regulator...

We’ll have a conversation with Michael Formica, the Chief Legal Strategist for the National Pork Porducers Council to talk about supply chain ramifications from recent legal and legislative outcomes regarding gestation crates, interstate commerce and more. We’ll discuss what operators large and small need to know about impacts to the current prices and market and more importantly, down the road. A...

We are joined by Sean Kennedy, the Executive Vice President Public Affairs for the National Restaurant Association to bring us up to speed on the epic ongoing battle in California facing all restaurant operators and how the next few months will play out legislatively and politically. And speaking of the NRA, Sean’s colleague Mike Whatley, the Vice President of State Affairs & Grassroots Advocacy,...

We visit with Ed Egee, Vice President of Government Relations and Workforce Development at the National Retail Federation who will discuss the emerging policy and legal challenges around Artifical Intelligence. The big question is - Does Artificail Intelligence make it easier to artificially discriminate? The Trial Bar sure seems to think so. We’ll dive into that and other pending issues with Ed a...

The Industrial Welfare Commission is potentially being revived in California and could have momentous consequences for the restaurant industry. We are joined by Ben Ebbink, an attorney with Fisher & Phillips in Sacramento and of counsel to the California Restaurant Association to fully understand the moving parts of the IWC and what it means for operators. And the Labor world has been busy this Su...

The unions in California have resurrected an old friend from the past - the Industrial Wage Commission - as the latest weapon to torment the quick service industry. What does this development mean for all restaurant employers? We’ll discuss. And the Supreme Court has issued a couple of decisions - and one important non-decision - that all employers should pay close attention to. Those actions, cou...

The issue of service fees is making front page news lately as operators look for ways to pass on high labor costs. Along with a changing dynamic around tipping, could the industry be setting itself up for a fight with policy makers and opinion leaders? We’ll discuss. And the tip credit elimination battle in Chicago heated up this week with the mayor clearly leading the charge. If they are successf...

A new report is out this week examining consumer trends with regard to alcohol, especially wine and cocktails to go. Since the public has overwhelmingly embraced these pandemic-era advances, can any policy makers really stand in the way at this point? Mike Whatley, Vice President of State Affairs & Grassroots Advocacy for the National Restaurant Association who issued the report, joins us and will...

Sectoral Bargaining has come to Minnesota - in the nursing home - space specifically but all employers should be watching. It’s not the industry your in that’s important - it’s the process. We’ll discuss how intentionally the labor community is leveraging independent standards boards as a way to force collective action. And we’ll discuss the steps that companies are increasingly taking to manage t...

We are going to follow-up on the latest from our story of a few weeks regarding the Supreme Court decision on California’s law around humane treatment of breeding hogs. We are joined by Laura Abshire of the National Restaurant Association and Steve Clark from the Massachusetts Restaurant Asscoiation to get both of their perspectives on where the issue goes from here - hint, Massachusetts. And righ...

One Fair Wage and the Restaurant Opportunities Center (and their SEIU funders) have grabbed on to the child labor issue and are effectively leveraging it to their advantage. The same advocates effectively leveraged health and safety issues during the pandemic - just ask Starbucks and Chipotle. Could we be seeing a new angle on the organizing front? We’ll discuss. And Target becomes the latest corp...

This week, a number of states and localities across the country held local elections and the results, while difficult from which to draw national meaning, seem to be slightly better news for the blue team than the red. We’ll take a look at that. And we continue to watch third-party contractors from big companies like Google and Amazon make progress toward potential union organizing. Could companie...

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed California’s law regarding humane treatment of hogs and their right to apply those standards to pork produced in the state as well as products from out of state. We’ll discuss the implications to the marketplace for operators. And the city of Chicago gets a new mayor and city council this week and the restaurant industry plays heavily into the new mayor's...

The industry is falling into a child-labor trap of its own making that will very likely come back to bite us hard. Why on earth, might you ask, would we give our opponents that kind of ammunition? We’ll take a run at that one. And Scott Dolch, the President & CEO of the Connecticut Restaurant Association stops by the pod to discuss the status of critical scheduling and tip credit elmiation legisla...

We take a look at the ongoing punishment conservatives are dishing out to respected consumer brands who run afoul of their litmus tests on “wokeism”. What can restaurant brands learn from the Disney and Bud Light sagas? We’ll discuss. And the unionization activity by third-party providers for Amazon and Google have significant joint employer ramifications that could affect all franchised brands do...

We discuss the confirmation hearing of Labor Secretary-designate Julie Su and the energy that both the labor community brought to her defense and the business community, led by the IFA and the NRA, brought to her opposition. And we visit with longtime industry leader, Stan Harris, President & CEO of the Louisiana Restaurant Association, who shares his insight on the difficult environment facing op...