Free Republic

Burger King lovers in Michigan are going to need to find a new spot to get a whopper after a franchisee announced the closure of 26 fast food locations. The fast-food restaurant closings will force 434 employees to lose their jobs, according to a letter filed with Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. The franchisee called its ceasing of operations an "unforeseen business circumstance" in a March 22, Warning Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice with Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. The closures will affect stores in Detroit, Dearborn Heights, Ecorse, Ferndale, Flint, Highland Park, Livonia, Royal...

Real Housewives of New Jersey star Siggy Flicker told Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow in a Friday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily that “most of Housewives throughout the franchise are Trump supporters,” but in order to keep their jobs, they either stay silent or pretend to love President Joe Biden.

On Friday, when The Federalist broke news that recently obtained evidence indicates more than 10,300 Georgia voters—a number that continues to grow—voted illegally in the 2020 general election, the corrupt press ignored the story.Instead, corporate and government media focused that day on Democrats’ calls to ditch the filibuster to push through H.R. 1, the so-called For the People Act, and the White House’s announcement that “Biden would travel to Philadelphia on Tuesday to discuss ‘actions to protect the sacred, constitutional right to vote.’”In covering these stories, the press continues to parrot Democrats’ spin that H.R. 1 is necessary to protect...

Crazy Bernie wants Boston Marathon bomber to vote.

Back in 2015, the National Labor Relations Board under Barack Obama essentially redefined the word “employer” when talking about franchise agreements by altering definitions in what’s known as the joint employer standard. At the time, I looked over the final changes and simply concluded, “this is going to be bad.”And it was bad. By allowing labor unions to hold franchisers like McDonald’s responsible for labor practices of their franchisees, despite having no direct control over those policies, they opened the door to all manner of lawsuits, government fines, and other mischiefs. Analysts at the time predicted that it would...

A new city has emerged as a possible site for NBA expansion. One league executive told SEC Network's Jarrett Sutton that Kansas City will inevitably be awarded a franchise, as it's viewed as the NBA's most valuable market for league expansion, alongside Seattle. The Kings called Kansas City home from 1972 to 1985 before moving on to Sacramento. The state of Kansas is well-represented on the college circuit, boasting the powerhouse University of Kansas, but the addition of an NBA franchise would come as a surprise with other notable options being discussed far more. The city has an arena which...

The nation's top labor board reversed an Obama-era decision targeting franchise businesses, but advocates and legal experts say Congress needs to take action to resolve the issue permanently. The Democrat-controlled National Labor Relations Board, which oversees union elections and workplace disputes, overturned decades of precedent in 2015 by holding parent businesses accountable for workplace violations committed by franchisees or subcontractors. The Obama board's decision roiled the business community, particularly franchise corporations, which allow small business owners to operate under a company umbrella but do not manage day-to-day workplace policies. A 3-2 Republican majority returned to the previous standard on Thursday...

Subtitle: The Wisdom of the 14th Amendment. After a quick look at Section 1, this squib takes a closer read of Sections 2 & 3 of the 14th Amendment. We’ll find that, as opposed to recent times, Congress expected itself, rather than federal courts, to sort out and deal with difficult issues. In the latter 1860s that meant incorporating former slaves into the civil society. In the hands of the far Left, an amendment designed to deal with post-Civil War realities is the modern Progressive’s favorite means to social justice. From a hopeless mash of conflicting decisions, Scotus determined, for...

From our earliest colonial times, society expected freeholders, those self-sufficient men, to participate in government. At a minimum that meant voting for local, colonial/state, and federal officials. Only those with a will of their own, those independent men who did not rely on anyone else for their sustenance, were thought capable of self-government. The Framers were concerned with a voting franchise that in time would extend to the shiftless and angry masses. Those who work and pay taxes resent voting by those who don’t work, and don’t pay taxes. In recent decades is the added insult of the untaxed voting...

Why should a union representing workers who are not employees of McDonald’s be empowered to squeeze concessions out of McDonald’s? Why did Willie Sutton rob banks? In a party-line decision, the Democrat-dominated National Labor Relations Board has decided that employees of contractors can be treated as employees of other companies when . . . well, when it is convenient for Democratic constituencies that they be so treated. The underlying case involved an operator of recycling centers, Browning-Ferris Industries of California, which uses subcontractors to staff some of its facilities. Firms have many reasons for using subcontracted labor, one of which...

You can rightly complain about the things which go on inside the White House, the State Department, the Justice Department or the EPA and all of the headline grabbing controversies which erupt from them. None of them, however, may be up to nearly as much mischief as the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) though it doesn’t seem to catch the attention of the media nearly as much. This week they were at it again and while a bit on the wonky side, a new wrinkle in the rules could spell big trouble for America’s employers and many, many workers....

McDonald's franchisees are terrified for the future of the company, according to a new survey. The operators' six-month outlook for McDonald's business is the worst in the 12-year history of the survey, which was conducted by former Janney Capital Markets analyst Mark Kalinowski. "At least half of the operators in my region are on the verge of collapse," one franchisee wrote in response to the survey. "With minimum wage for fast food workers potential increasing to incredibly high levels, we are facing a crisis situation. Another said: "The operators sit on a cliff right now. With sales going in the...

I’m an immigrant who has realized the American dream. But Washington’s new labor rules are a nightmare. In 1985 I left my home in Pakistan at age 19 and came to the United States with the help of an uncle. I considered this my best chance to start a life away from the government control and corruption that troubled my country. That proved true. Through hard work, I learned to run restaurants and I now own dozens of stores as a franchisee. But the National Labor Relations Board is threatening to upend my business model by muddling the distinction between...

The federal government has said in a major, closely watched lawsuit that McDonald's Corp. violated workers' union rights at its individual franchise restaurants. What officials haven't said is exactly how the corporation did this since it didn't actually employ the workers, the franchise owners did. To win the case, the government will have to prove that McDonald's is a "joint employer" of the workers with the franchises — a concept that runs counter to very understanding of what a franchise is: a legally separate entity that merely rents out the parent corporation's trademarks. The actual charging documents by National Labor...

President Obama's National Labor Relations Board will consider a case this week with important implications for the future of the franchise industry. Last year, NLRB's lead attorney found that McDonald's corporation should be treated as a "joint employer," meaning that it be responsible for the business and labor practices at each and every one of its franchise operations. This week, an administrative law judge will determine the viability of that finding. If he confirms it, McDonald's could face numerous suits and actions from the NLRB....

Are franchises small, independent businesses or should they be considered part of a much larger company? The question is at the heart of two upcoming legal cases. The outcomes could affect profits and change how franchisees hire, fire, manage and pay workers.

M aster spy James Bond, one of pop culture’s most iconic figures, is now available for dangerous assignments from Canadian writers, thanks to a copyright quirk that allows the writing and publication in Canada of original material based on Bond creator Ian Fleming’s work. As of Jan. 1, the original writings of Fleming, a former British naval intelligence agent who published 12 novels and nine stories featuring 007 between 1952 and 1966, have entered the public domain. That’s because Canada’s view of copyright is that it extends for 50 years after the death of a writer.

Deny Government Employees the Vote During fifteen years in civil service, I only found out after being laid off from a government jurisdiction whose tax base collapsed, that it was an unreal world."Civil Servants" aren't servants at all, they are de facto superiors of the citizenry whose lives they regulate.Their government union representatives feel free to hijack compulsory union dues, promote socially destructive, sexually-radical policies, in the meantime, corrupting the political process that is supposed to regulate government employment.The only solution is to politically disenfranchise public employees–deny them the vote. Let's set up the brouhaha this invites, by contrasting some...

On Tuesday, every one of We the People who is old enough needs to get out and vote. Period. No excuses. The Democrats have nearly destroyed free, capitalist, constitutional America, and if they are not soundly, roundly, and decisively defeated, they will do so. Period. Repeat, PERIOD. Misleadership of the party – McConnell, Boehner, and their lackeys and toadies – have made it painfully clear that they are not conservatives I have no illusions that a Republican victory will take us back to the Reagan years. The misleadership of the party – McConnell, Boehner, and their lackeys and toadies –...

Dawn Lafreeda began working at Denny’s when she was 16, making her way up from hostess to waitress. In 1984, at the age of 23, she bought her first store. She now owns over 70. “When I was a kid, I told myself that I was going to be self-employed when I grew up and have a better life and have the things I’d never had,” she told Entrepreneur magazine this past summer. Franchising was Dawn’s ticket to a better life. She’s not alone. Franchising has been a successful business model for Americans wanting to own their own businesses and...