Revealed: Democracy Alliance Member Nick Hanauer Crafted Seattle Minimum Wage
Posted: September 4, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Democracy Alliance, Franchising, International Franchise Association, McDonalds, Minimum wage, National Federation of Independent Business, National Labor Relations Board, National Restaurant Association, National Retail Federation, NFIB, Nick Hanauer, Seattle Leave a comment
Hanauer is now at the center of a lawsuit filed by the International Franchise Association.
Radical venture capitalist Nick Hanauer served on a city advisory committee that eventually produced the legislation boosting minimum wages to $15 per hour. The legislation takes special aim at franchisees, forcing them to adopt higher wages than other small businesses under a shorter timeframe.
“The truth is that franchises like Subway and McDonald’s really are not very good for our local economy. They are economically extractive, civically corrosive and culturally dilutive.”
— Hanauer, in an email obtained by the association
Hanauer, a private-jet-owning multi-millionaire who once had a speech scrubbed from the TED conference website for being “too political,” is a member of the Democracy Alliance, a shadowy collection of liberal millionaires and billionaires that funnels money into Democratic causes.
The group has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into various liberal foundations, Media Matters, and Democratic super PAC Priorities USA. The group is secretive and does not divulge membership rolls, fundraising goals, or allow reporters at its annual meetings.
“Franchising has been under intense scrutiny by union activists and hostile labor regulators in recent weeks.”
Hanauer is now at the center of a lawsuit filed by the International Franchise Association to overturn the law, according to the Seattle Times.
Wealth Destruction: Target Franchises.
“The truth is that franchises like Subway and McDonald’s really are not very good for our local economy. They are economically extractive, civically corrosive and culturally dilutive,” Hanauer wrote in an email obtained by the association.
The business group claims that the law is discriminatory because many franchisees are themselves small business owners akin to mom and pop shops. Franchisees pay licensing and other fees to large corporations to operate under the company umbrella, but the vast majority are independently owned and manage their own affairs. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] REWIND: Everything Wrong With ‘Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol’
Posted: July 28, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Humor | Tags: Action film, Car chase, Christopher McQuarrie, Espionage, Ethan Hunt, Film series, Franchising, Media franchise, Mission: Impossible (film), Tom Cruise Leave a commentJust in time for Rogue Nation, we finish up the Mission Impossible series with what is easily the best of the bunch to date. Still gots sins, yo.
Discrimination: Group of Seattle Franchise Businesses Sue to Stop $15 Minimum Wage
Posted: June 14, 2014 Filed under: Economics, Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: Business, Capitalism, F.D.R., Franchising, Getty Images, International Franchise Association, Los Angeles, Minimum wage, Seattle, Seattle City Council, Socialism, Washington Leave a comment
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, right, announces his proposed increase of the city’s minimum wage. Steve Ringman / AP
For the Los Angeles Times, Maria L. La Ganga reports: Five Puget Sound business owners and a trade group based in Washington, D.C., filed suit in federal court Wednesday to stop Seattle from enacting a $15-an-hour minimum wage, which would be the highest in the nation when it takes effect.
“The city’s minimum wage statute arbitrarily and illegally discriminates against franchisees and significantly increases their labor costs in ways that will harm their businesses, employees, consumers and Seattle’s economy.”
The suit, filed by the International Franchise Assn. and five local franchisees, argues that the new minimum wage discriminates against the owners of franchised businesses because it treats them like national corporations instead of the small businesses that they really are.
[Surrender: Seattle Prepares for Robot Revolution by Setting $15 Minimum Wage]
Calling a thing what it is: 1930s-era Socialist wage and price controls in a 21st-century economy. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray signs a bill raising the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. (David Ryder / Getty Images)
[See also Seattle-Area Businesses Charge Customers Extra To Meet Minimum Wage Hike]
The ordinance, which was passed unanimously by the Seattle City Council on June 2 and signed into law by Mayor Ed Murray a day later, violates the U.S. and Washington state Constitutions, the suit says, along with federal statutes and state law, and could put some small franchisees out of business. Read the rest of this entry »
pundit from another planet 