Striking Fear Into Corporate Hearts, Labor Board Hands Big Win to Workers
(COMMON DREAMS) Deirdre Fulton — In what is being described as “one of the biggest labor decisions of the Obama administration,” the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Thursday expanded its “joint-employer” standard, paving the way for unions to organize on a much broader scale—and striking fear into the hearts of corporations that have used previous labor laws to shift workplace responsibilities elsewhere.
While the ruling dealt specifically with a California waste-management company, observers said its implications could go much further. “McDonald’s, Burger King and every other company that relies on a franchise business model just suffered the legal setback they’ve been fearing for years,” wrote Huffington Post labor reporter Dave Jamieson on Thursday afternoon.
In its 3-2 ruling, the NLRB held that Browning-Ferris Industries of California was a joint employer of workers hired by a contractor, Leadpoint Business Services, to help staff the company’s recycling center.