The Working Lunch

It’s 2024 and legislative sessions are starting all over the country. Congress is heating up as well. And, oh yeah, there is a national election this year . We’ll discuss what the year ahead will look like for restaurant operators.

And Sean Kennedy, the Executive Vice President of Public Affairs for the National Restaurant Association stops by to talk about the state of play with regard to the FTC’s assault on service charges. We’ll discuss what should operators expect on that issue in the coming months and how they can engage.

We’ll talk about those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

Starbucks has had one heck of a week with the release of an internal audit regarding the company’s conduct during its ongoing unionization fight, another tough loss at the NLRB, and tons of media coverage about its sagging numbers. These are not happy days in Seattle. We’ll discuss.

And a job training program gone bad or exploiting cheap labor? We’ll take a look at the lawsuit in Alabama against the state for exploiting convicts in work release programs that also involves a few of our QSR friends.

And our old friend Jeff Hanscom, VP of State & Local Government Relations & Public Policy for the International Franchise Association drops by the pod to look ahead with us into 2024 and see how and where the joint employer issue may play out at the state level.

We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

We talk with Doug Kantor, General Counsel of the Nationl Association of Conveneince Stores about the new coalition in Washington that is leaning headfirst into the credit card debit card fee fight with the banks and credit card companies.

And we discuss the cooling job market and how it may impact worker leverage and the ability of the labor community to continue their organizing efforts in the industry

We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

We discuss the changing politics of the debate around interchange fees and how the banks and credit card industry, usually in lock step with Republicans, is increasingly finding itself at odds with their old friends and on the target list. We’ll discuss why.

And Steve Clark, the President & CEO of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association stops by the pod to give us a status check on One Fair Wage’s efforts to eliminate the Tip Credit via the 2024 ballot. He’ll give us the state of play and what the next few months look like in the Bay State on this important issue

We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

We do a deep dive on the election results from this week and discuss wha happened, why it happened, and most importantly, what does it mean for the employer community?

And speaking of elections, we are joined by Eric Terry, President of the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association to discuss the big story of the night - the Democratic takeover of the Virginia House of Delegates. We’ll discuss the impact to the industry’s issue agenda and what we should expect in the 2024 session.

We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

The impacts of California’s new fast food law keep rolling in. This week, McDonald’s not only discussed price increases in California but new prototype restaurants less reliant on traditional labor. We’ll take a look at the real impact of these mandates.

And its election day in many parts of the country next week and a few jurisdictions are particularly important to the industry, namely in Virgina and Minneapolis. We’ll dive into the races operators need to know about.

And pharmacy workers have joined the fun and are protesting major national employers like Walgreen’s and CVS over working conditions. Does this have an impact on the industry’s labor pool? We’ll take a look.

We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

The NLRB issued their long-awaited joint employer standard and it's literally everything the labor community would have wanted. We’ll talk about what’s next for the industry as the immenine threat to the franchise business model has finally arrived.

And the credit card companies are on the political ropes as the FTC pursues a cap on interchange fees. Why are the banks suddenly playing defense and what does it mean for Main Street businesses? We’ll dig into that.

We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

We are joined by Townsend Brown, Policy Analyst at Multistate, to talk about California’s new law mandating that large companies annually disclose data regarding their global carbon footprints. How will companies begin to comply and is their legal action ahead? We’ll discuss.

And the industry had another big showing in Maryland this week literally flooding the Montgomery County Council chambers with angry servers wanting to protect their incomes. Could we have beaten back another tip credit elimination bill? We’ll take a look.

We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

The Federal Trade Commission revised a proposed rule this week lumping in restaurant and delivery service charges with other, what it calls, junk fees and hidden charges. We’ll take a look at why this happened and more importantly, where do we go from here.

And the industry got an important win this week when legislation to eliminate the tip credit was soundly defeated in very blue, very progressive, Prince George’s County, Maryland. What does this say about the strategy used in Maryland relative to the strategy employed in Chicago. We’ll discuss.

We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

We discuss our current world of chaos - the Republican meltdown in Washington, DC, war in the Middle East, and, oh by the way, a Presidential election looming - and its potential impact on small business owners and their consumers.

And a small game board - themed restaurant chain in New York City may lay the groundwork for the new world order in which unionization elections are held. We’ll take a deep dive into that story.

We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.