Talk Poverty • Deepak Bhargava

To be “poor” in America isn’t an identifying characteristic or a defining trait, like being forgetful or creative or tall.

Being a low-income American comes from being paid a low income.

It seems like a basic point, but it’s one Andy Puzder needs to review. Puzder is CEO of CKE Restaurants, Inc., which employs more than 20,000 people and worldwide owns, operates and franchises more than 3,300 fast food restaurants, including Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. Continue Reading

Business Insider • Kate Taylor

Workers’ rights advocates say President-elect Donald Trump’s likely appointment of Andrew Puzder to lead the Department of Labor could be a major setback in the fight for higher wages and greater protections for the nation’s most vulnerable workers.

“It’s hard to think of anyone less suited for the job of lifting up America’s forgotten workers — as Trump had campaigned on — than Puzder,” Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, said in a statement. Continue Reading

Bloomberg BNA • Ben Penn

CKE Restaurants Inc., the conglomerate helmed by Labor Secretary-designate Andrew Puzder, notified 51 workers Jan. 3 that they will be laid off in March when the company relocates to Nashville, Tenn., according to a letter obtained by Bloomberg BNA.

A former CKE senior management employee who worked directly with Puzder at earlier stages of the relocation process spoke with Bloomberg BNA on condition of anonymity. The source alleged Puzder kept employees out of the loop when the company in 2011 was being wooed by Texas officials to move to the Lone Star State.

Puzder “never wanted to do any internal messaging about it,” said the former company director. Rather than keep employees informed, “his choice was always: ‘they don’t need to know; they just need to know where to show up to work,’ ” added the source, who was laid off by Puzder several years ago and acknowledged harboring “strong feelings” about the company.

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Mother Jones • Tom Philpott

The US Department of Labor exists to “foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners [and] job seekers,” and to “improve working conditions” and “assure work-related benefits and rights.” Andrew Puzder, Donald Trump’s choice to lead the department, has not exactly embodied those values in his career as CEO of CKE Restaurants, parent company of fast-food chains Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. He’s a staunch and vocal opponent of minimum-wage hikes, and his company has had to pay out millions of dollars to settle overtime claims.

And now, thanks to OC Weekly’s Gabriel San Roman, we know what Puzder thinks of worker breaks. Spoiler: not much. Continue Reading

CNN • Christine Owens

It’s hard to think of anyone less suited for the job of lifting up forgotten workers than Puzder, a billionaire CEO who vocally opposes any meaningful increase in the minimum wage, who talks glibly about replacing workers with machines, and who consistently attacks rules that protect both workers and law-abiding employers. Continue Reading