Connecticut’s Rest-Stop McDonald's Are New ‘Fight for $15’ Target

(Bloomberg) -- The union behind the “Fight For $15” campaign that successfully raised the floor for low-wage work in much of the U.S. has a new target: Highway rest stops, where government ownership and oversight could help establish labor’s long-sought foothold in fast food.

On Wednesday, fast-food workers at several Connecticut highway rest stops will announce wage theft claims against several companies including three McDonald’s franchisees and declare their intent to unionize with the Service Employees International Union. They’ll be joined by some state lawmakers, whom organizers hope will help the workers win.

“The government has a clear responsibility to ensure that anyone they do business with acts as a responsible employer,” said Kyle Bragg, president of 32BJ, the SEIU affiliate organizing at the Connecticut rest stops. “I think unionization goes hand in hand with that.”

A spokesperson for McDonald’s Corp. said the company recognizes employees’ right to choose whether or not to join labor organizations. Franchise owners either didn’t return calls for comment or were unavailable.

Since New York fast-food workers kicked off the “Fight For $15” campaign with a 2012 strike, SEIU has experimented with a mix of tactics designed to raise labor standards and unionize workers at low-wage chains -- especially McDonald’s. The campaign has helped create a sea change in the U.S., with states like California and companies like Amazon establishing a $15 hourly minimum. Earlier this year, McDonald’s said it would no longer participate in lobbying against across-the-board increases to the minimum wage.

But organizers have been unable to wrest union recognition from fast-food giants like McDonald’s, which is facing National Labor Relations Board complaints that allege widespread retaliation aimed at chilling the campaign.

McDonald’s has denied wrongdoing and last year joined the NLRB’s Trump-appointed general counsel in proposing a settlement that would resolve those allegations without making the company liable for misconduct at franchises. The offer has been rejected by a judge and is now pending before the Republican-controlled agency.

For years, SEIU leaders have focused on the top fast-food corporations, with the idea that they establish the business model for franchisees and could forge a deal to let workers unionize. In a speech on Aug. 21, SEIU president Mary Kay Henry called on 2020 presidential candidates to “commit to bring McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King to a national fast-food industry bargaining table that will lift wages and improve working conditions for fast-food workers across the nation.”

But with no such deal in sight, 32BJ says winning collective bargaining for workers at certain stores could help boost the larger campaign. “We are trying to have a breakthrough that unites all fast-food workers,” the local’s recently-deceased president Hector Figueroa said in a May interview. He said victories at places like the rest stops, where the government’s role could help prevent anti-union retaliation, could prove to workers elsewhere “that there is a union worth fighting for, because we have something to show for it.”

The rest-stop strategy draws from labor’s success at airports, where SEIU and other unions have organized thousands of service workers in recent years. In some jurisdictions, unions won policies curbing union-busting by companies operating at the airport; in others, they won higher wage standards that effectively reduced any financial advantage to resisting unionization.

Federal labor law usually prevents states and cities from passing their own laws on unionization, but the U.S. Supreme Court gives them greater discretion when it comes to their own projects and properties. “When the state is acting as a landlord or proprietor of a business, rather than just a regulator, it has more leeway,” said Charlotte Garden, a professor of labor and employment law at Seattle University.

If workers did win collective bargaining at some franchised McDonald’s stores, Garden said, their ability to negotiate better pay and benefits would still be constrained by the tight margins the company imposes on franchisees. But workers could win big changes in disciplinary procedures, for example, and offer inspiration to low-wage workers elsewhere. If McDonald’s Corp. responded to unionization by punishing a store, said Garden, it would bolster SEIU’s claim that it should be held liable for worker conditions as well.

Connecticut rest stop workers have been meeting with union organizers since March. Their official complaints allege that McDonald’s franchisees fail to provide pay and benefits at the level legally required for workers tied to government contracts. Several workers at franchised McDonald’s rest stop locations told Bloomberg they’ve also been organizing to address issues with erratic scheduling, management favoritism and short-staffing. “They told me when I got hired that if I got burned, it’s my responsibility,” said one, Rosana Rodriguez.

To contact the reporter on this story: Josh Eidelson in Washington at jeidelson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Janet Paskin at jpaskin@bloomberg.net, Lisa Wolfson

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