This NLRB ruling is one of the most important rulings in recent history

[Recursion]

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-nlrb-gives-labor-a-rock-solid-win-20150827-column.html

Emphasis mine

The new ruling has implications for a wide range of modern employment arrangements that leave workers wondering who's the boss. These include franchise arrangements in which employees toil for big fast-food corporations but are nominally employed by small businesses operating stores; McDonald's is the target of a whole sheaf of cases before the NLRB on that issue. You can expect employer groups to fight the new ruling, which materially broadens the definition of "employer," in court.

We reported on this case last Sunday. It involved a couple hundred sorters and other blue-collar workers who were nominally employed by a labor outsourcing firm, Leadpoint, at a landfill and recycling center in the Silicon Valley town of Milpitas operated by a larger company, Republic Services. The Teamsters union maintained that Republic and Leadpoint were joint employers, which would allow the union to organize them under a contract it has for 60 Republic employees. Republic maintained that it had no authority over the Leadpoint employees.

The NLRB, in a 3-2 vote along party lines, with Democrats in the majority, found that Republic had enough authority over the wages and working conditions of the Leadpoint workforce to count as a co-employer. The decision elicited praise from the AFL-CIO, whose president, Richard Trumka, stated that it enhances workers' collective bargaining rights by ensuring that "all parties who control their wages and other conditions of employment" are at the bargaining table. "This decision may very well signal the beginning of the end of outdated laws that fail to address an economic structure tilted against working people."

The pro-employer Competitive Enterprise Institute, by contrast, called it "yet another decision by unelected regulators" and predicted it will have a "devastating impact on American employers and employees" by hurting "anyone who now benefits from flexible work arrangements." NLRB members may be "unelected," by the way, but they're nominated by the nation's president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

This is why the letter after a candidate's name is so frigging important.

Anyways. This is the start of ending the contractor/franchise fig leaf that too many companies exploit. (e.g. if you work at a corporate-owned McDonald's, you actually have one of the best fast food jobs there is because McDonald's has decent HR policies; if you work at a franchise McDonalds, you have an awful fast food job. If this ruling stands, McDonald's can no longer use the franchise arrangement as a way to deny most McDonald's employees the benefits they give to their "regular" employees.)

[msanthrope]

1. And if you look into the NLRB selection controversy, it's even more obvious that

the letter after the name really matters.

[pampango]

3. Indeed. Another huge reason that winning elections matters. n/t

[Sherman A1]

2. Indeed

This can and will most certainly have far reaching consequences. A great day for workers.