The Working Lunch

A new report is out this week examining consumer trends with regard to alcohol, especially wine and cocktails to go. Since the public has overwhelmingly embraced these pandemic-era advances, can any policy makers really stand in the way at this point? Mike Whatley, Vice President of State Affairs & Grassroots Advocacy for the National Restaurant Association who issued the report, joins us and will take us through the data.

And New Jersey is looking at franchisee bill of rights legislation for the hotel sector that could significantly disrupt the relationship between hotel brands and many of their operators. Could additional legislation aimed at the restaurant industry be far behind? Sarah Bratko, Policy Counsel for Government Affairs & State Relations at the American Hotel & Lodging Association will join us and help us understand what’s happening in the Garden State.

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

Sectoral Bargaining has come to Minnesota - in the nursing home - space specifically but all employers should be watching. It’s not the industry your in that’s important - it’s the process. We’ll discuss how intentionally the labor community is leveraging independent standards boards as a way to force collective action.

And we’ll discuss the steps that companies are increasingly taking to manage their reputational exposure on ESG issues and analyze the risks.

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

We are going to follow-up on the latest from our story of a few weeks regarding the Supreme Court decision on California’s law around humane treatment of breeding hogs. We are joined by Laura Abshire of the National Restaurant Association and Steve Clark from the Massachusetts Restaurant Asscoiation to get both of their perspectives on where the issue goes from here - hint, Massachusetts.

And right of center attacks on corporate DEI policies have now come to the doorstep of Chik-fil-A - yes, you heard that right - Chik-fil-A. Is no respected brand safe from this line of attack? We’ll discuss.

And the unions in California flexed their political muscle in Sacramaneto this week on a wide variety of issues including some directly targeting the restaurant industry. We’ll assess the legislative carnage and talk about the road ahead.

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

One Fair Wage and the Restaurant Opportunities Center (and their SEIU funders) have grabbed on to the child labor issue and are effectively leveraging it to their advantage. The same advocates effectively leveraged health and safety issues during the pandemic - just ask Starbucks and Chipotle. Could we be seeing a new angle on the organizing front? We’ll discuss.

And Target becomes the latest corporate pinata in the culture wars as conservative activists pound the company for its marketing efforts to the gay community. We’ll assess the challenge and the company’s response.

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

This week, a number of states and localities across the country held local elections and the results, while difficult from which to draw national meaning, seem to be slightly better news for the blue team than the red. We’ll take a look at that.

And we continue to watch third-party contractors from big companies like Google and Amazon make progress toward potential union organizing. Could companies a little closer to home like DoorDash and UberEasts be next? We are joined by Bloomberg Labor Report’s Dan Papscun who has done extensive reporting in this space and discuss what the future may look like for traditional employers.

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

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed California’s law regarding humane treatment of hogs and their right to apply those standards to pork produced in the state as well as products from out of state. We’ll discuss the implications to the marketplace for operators.

And the city of Chicago gets a new mayor and city council this week and the restaurant industry plays heavily into the new mayor's agenda starting off with elimination of the tip credit among other items. We’ll take a look at that.

And our old friend Jeff Hanscom, Vice-President of State & Local Government Relations at the International Franchise Association, stops by the pod to get us up to speed on that onerous joint employer liability bill slowly working its way through the California legislature. It’s always a good conversation when Jeff’s on the pod.

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

The industry is falling into a child-labor trap of its own making that will very likely come back to bite us hard. Why on earth, might you ask, would we give our opponents that kind of ammunition? We’ll take a run at that one.

And Scott Dolch, the President & CEO of the Connecticut Restaurant Association stops by the pod to discuss the status of critical scheduling and tip credit elmiation legislation that he is trying to fight off. With a month left to go in their session, Scott shares his take on how it all may play out.

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

We take a look at the ongoing punishment conservatives are dishing out to respected consumer brands who run afoul of their litmus tests on “wokeism”. What can restaurant brands learn from the Disney and Bud Light sagas? We’ll discuss.

And the unionization activity by third-party providers for Amazon and Google have significant joint employer ramifications that could affect all franchised brands down the road. We’ll do a deep dive into that.

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

We discuss the confirmation hearing of Labor Secretary-designate Julie Su and the energy that both the labor community brought to her defense and the business community, led by the IFA and the NRA, brought to her opposition.

And we visit with longtime industry leader, Stan Harris, President & CEO of the Louisiana Restaurant Association, who shares his insight on the difficult environment facing operators and how the public affairs and lobbying apparatus of the industry should be working to relieve those pressures.

And we discuss a landmark judicial decision that could take all the energy - pun intended - out of the movement to ban natural gas.

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

A couple of big brands this week announced some vigorous sustainability initiatives, namely Wendy’s & Chipotle. We’ll discuss those efforts and whether they fall in the category of good PR or preparing the business for the future - or both.

And the ongoing tussle between some franchisees and their franchisor parents played out in a couple of state legislatures this week. We’ll take a look at the volatility of those issues and how the industry collectively addresses them.

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