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Articles | Hurting Working People

Working Families Can’t Afford An Anti-Labor Secretary

February 6, 2017 7:47 pm

President Trump repeatedly promised during his campaign that he would both bring jobs back to America and create more jobs for people to support their families. By nominating Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants (the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s chains), Trump is blatantly betraying his promise to increase good job opportunities for hardworking Americans. Puzder’s track record of limiting workers’ rights, fighting off employment lawsuits, and publicly speaking about his lack of respect for his employees makes him fundamentally unsuitable for this cabinet appointment. Therefore we must take a stand to prevent him from becoming the next Labor Secretary.

Puzder’s nomination has met widespread opposition from unions, nonprofits, and even CKE employees. The AFL-CIO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Partnership for Women and Families, Equal Rights Advocates, American Sustainable Business Council, Farm Forward, and countless others have publicly urged Senators to reject Puzder’s nomination.

According to its website, the mission of the Department of Labor is “To foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.”

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Articles | Demeaning Women // Hurting Working People

Robert McCreanor and George Nee: Trump’s attack on America’s workers

February 6, 2017 4:25 pm

Providence Journal • Robert McCreanor and George Nee

The nomination of Andrew Puzder for secretary of labor is a grave betrayal of working people in this country. The mission of the Department of Labor is “to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment.” As the leader of this department, the secretary of labor serves as the steward of workers’ rights, charged with ensuring all workers have jobs that are safe, secure, fair and providing dignified wages. It is difficult to imagine a nominee more antithetical to this mission or more poorly suited to represent the nation’s workers than Mr. Puzder.

As the CEO of CKE Restaurants (the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast-food chains) Puzder has overseen a business with a voracious appetite for labor disputes, a fondness for anti-worker practices, and utter disdain for the well-being and dignity of its workers.

Puzder has engaged union-busters, vigorously opposed any meaningful increase to the minimum wage, and railed against the expansion of overtime eligibility. He has said that he “believe[s] in putting hot models in our commercials, because ugly ones don’t sell burgers.” This, along with his complaints about employees filing sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits and opposing paid sick and family leave all add up to a direct attack on working women.

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Articles | Demeaning Women

Herndon: Why Department of Labor pick Puzder is a threat to women

February 3, 2017 8:54 pm

Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel • Astar Herndon

Wisconsin working women and our families saw important gains over the past eight years. While we have more to do to achieve full equity and economic security, President Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of labor, Andrew Puzder, will only take us backward, something none of our families can afford.

During Puzder’s 16 years as CEO of CKE Restaurants (the parent company of Hardee’s and Carl Jr’s,), the company has committed numerous violations of wage and hour and safety laws enforced by the Department of Labor.

Puzder has attacked policies that would raise wages for women and people of color and close the gender and race pay gaps, including raising the minimum wage and extending overtime protections.

Low-wage workers are least likely to have paid sick days and paid family and medical leave — despite the fact that they are the ones who need them most. That’s why 9to5 Wisconsin is leading work on the Wisconsin Family and Medical Leave Insurance Act, a bill that would provide partial wage replacement for workers who need to care for their own or a family member’s serious illness, childbirth or adoption.

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Articles | Hurting Working People

How The Fast-Food Chain Led By Trump’s Labor Nominee Stiffed Workers Again And Again

February 3, 2017 4:16 pm

Huffington Post • Dave Jamieson

Managers at a Hardee’s restaurant in Alabama scrubbed workers’ hours from the logbooks in order to avoid paying them overtime.
Hardee’s workers in Pennsylvania were required to pay 10 cents per hour for the privilege of wearing a Hardee’s uniform.
Workers at a Georgia Hardee’s were told to clock out and sit in the parking lot when business slowed down. When it picked up again, they were told to clock back in and work.
Managers at a Hardee’s in Missouri had money deducted from their paychecks whenever the cash register came up short.
Adult workers at a Hardee’s restaurant in Iowa were paid a “sub-minimum wage” that was legal only for minors, while minors worked so late that their hours broke child labor law.

In each of those cases, Labor Department investigators found that Hardee’s restaurants had violated federal wage-and-hour regulations and workers were entitled to thousands of dollars in backpay. Throughout this time, the Hardee’s brand has been overseen by Andrew Puzder, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next labor secretary.

If he is confirmed by the Senate, Puzder would be responsible for enforcing the same worker protections that his company and its franchisees were caught violating, sometimes repeatedly.

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Articles | Hurting Working People

Garry Ferraris: Puzder hostile to workers, unfit to be labor secretary

February 3, 2017 4:12 pm

Knoxville News-Sentinel • Garry Ferraris

Donald Trump was elected with promises to working people that he had their backs. His nomination of Andrew Puzder for secretary of labor is an affront to workers and a breach of his promise.

The Department of Labor exists to protect the interests of all working Americans. Puzder’s history, in both words and deeds, could not be more inimical to the interests of workers, particularly low-wage workers.

How do we know that? Puzder is the long-time CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. His restaurants are notable for low wages, discriminatory conditions, rampant sexual harassment, wage theft and unsafe working conditions. His workplace practices have been challenged repeatedly by the very department he has been nominated to lead.

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Articles | Hurting Working People

Will DeVos Defections Energize Bid to Stop Labor Nominee?

February 2, 2017 4:05 pm

BNA • Ben Penn

The effort to derail Andrew Puzder’s labor secretary confirmation could get a boost from new Republican opposition to President Donald Trump’s education nominee, but it’s still too early to draw close parallels.

Two moderate Republican Senators—Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine)—both said Feb. 1 that they will vote against Betsy DeVos for secretary of education. That raises the question of whether they might also cross the aisle to disapprove of Puzder at either his committee vote or, more likely, on the Senate floor.

Until Puzder submits his paperwork and testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, it’s difficult to predict whether a few GOP Senators would defect and vote against the fast-food executive. Still, increased vulnerability for DeVos signals that lobbyists on both sides of the issue may redouble efforts to focus on Collins, Murkowski and other centrist Senators in both parties. If DeVos were to be officially blocked, this could give more ammunition to the anti-Puzder movement.

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Articles | Hurting Working People

Local labor union petitions Alexander, Corker against Puzder

February 1, 2017 3:06 pm

The Tennessean • Jordan Buie

On the same day as a mobile billboard commissioned by a national women’s advocacy group circled in Franklin in protest of Labor Secretary nominee Andrew Puzder, , a local labor union delivered a petition to Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker in opposition to Puzder.

The Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee delivered the petition with 500 local signatures, pushing a national petition to over 50,000 on the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrialized Organizations national labor union website.

“Mr. Puzder has proven in his time as CEO of CKE Restaurants that he is not an advocate for working families,” said Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle TN president Vonda McDaniel in a news release. “The Secretary of Labor is tasked with enforcing the laws that protect workers from abuse and exploitation. Given his history, it is clear that Mr. Puzder cannot be trusted to fill that role and we join thousands of voices across the country in urging our senators to vote against his confirmation.”

Puzder’s stance against raising minimum wage, automation and his view of the Affordable Care Act as a burden to employers has put him at odds with labor unions.

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Articles | Hurting Working People

Labor Pick Puzder Stakes Future on Discredited Trickle Down Economics

January 31, 2017 6:54 pm

Newsweek • David Madland

President Trump’s nomination of fast food CEO Andrew Puzder to head the U.S. Department of Labor is a betrayal to American workers—including the very workers Trump promised to champion.

The reasons are plenty: Puzder’s firms have a long record of violating basic workplace standards. Puzder opposes raising the minimum wage. He expresses disdain for allowing workers to earn overtime, take breaks, or bargain collectively with corporate headquarters.

He even once said he would be interested in trading his workers with machines, because machines “never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case.”

But perhaps the ultimate betrayal comes from the fact that Puzder, whose confirmation hearing is set for February 2, believes that trickle-down economics is somehow good for the economy.

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Articles | Hurting Working People

Why as a small-business owner I am opposed to Trump’s labor nominee

January 31, 2017 3:36 pm

Bangor Daily News • Laura O’Meara

As small-business owners in Portland, my husband and I are appalled that President Donald Trump has nominated Andrew Puzder, a millionaire fast food CEO, to lead the U.S. Department of Labor. Puzder’s record shows a disregard not just for workers, but also all small-business owners and responsible employers who believe in safe, fair workplaces.

We have owned a small, independent bookstore with two locations in Maine since 1987. Our staff includes amazing full-time employees who have worked for us from seven to 29 years. We have always operated our business with the knowledge that our success was dependent on the dedication and motivation of our employees. Unlike Puzder, we treat our employees fairly with dignity and respect.

Small business and communities benefit from the key workplace protections that Puzder has attacked. Puzder opposes meaningful raises to the minimum wage, arguing it would be harmful to employers. As a small business, our experience matches what the data nationally and in Maine say — paying fair wages boosts business by increasing employee well-being and reducing employee turnover. So we heartily supported raising the minimum wage, first in Portland and then across Maine.

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Articles | Hurting Working People

Low-wage workers in peril

January 30, 2017 3:22 pm

San Francisco Chronicle • Joan M. Graff

It’s clear that Labor Secretary nominee Andrew Puzder disdains the mission of the nearly 104-year-old agency he is nominated to run. As the steward of workers’ rights, the Department of Labor is charged with ensuring that workers are paid fairly and that their rights to a safe and healthy workplace free of harassment are secure.

Puzder fiercely opposes raising the federal minimum wage, despite the growing income gap and the fact that millions of working families live in poverty. And during his tenure as CEO of CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc., the fast-food empire has racked up an abysmal record of wage violations and sexual harassment. It is no wonder he says he would prefer robots to people on his payroll.

His appointment betrays the trust of those who voted for Trump based on the repeated promise at the heart of his campaign: to help workers who have been left behind.

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