A New Front in Union's Franchise Campaign
Source: Bloomberg
by Patrick Clark
Jose Quijano, a McDonald’s franchisee in Puerto Rico, said the burger chain’s corporate office is “destroying our livelihoods.” Jas Dhillon, a 7-Eleven store owner in Los Angeles, charged his parent company with forcing old franchisees under so the chain can resell the stores at a profit.
Those are old accusations, but they got a louder airing today on a conference call hosted by the Service Employees International Union, which has been fighting for raises for franchise workers.
The conference call announced that the union has filed a petition with the Federal Trade Commission challenging the agency to “investigate the franchise industry to determine the existence and extent of abusive and predatory practices by franchisors toward franchisees.” It's the latest salvo in the SEIU’s offensive against franchisor businesses, in which it has lent support to pro-franchisee legislation and highlighted the high failure rate of government-backed franchise loans.
Most franchise industry rules are written at the state level, where the intensity of regulation varies greatly. The FTC’s oversight is mostly confined to requiring franchises to file disclosure documents that help would-be franchisees decide whether to buy into a system. The SEIU's petition is in part an entreaty to Washington to take a greater role in regulating the industry.
FULL story at link.
Demonstrators gather in front of a McDonald's restaurant to call for an increase in minimum wage on April 15, 2015 in Chicago.
Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-18/a-new-front-in-union-s-mcdonald-s-campaign