Daily Pulse: A Big Win for Franchise Workers, Tesla is Perfect, Trouble at Amazon's Lab126
Employees are Employees: In a landmark decision, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that franchise workers are also employees of the parent company. This could make it easier for fast-food workers to collectively bargain for higher wages at such corporations as Burger King and McDonald’s — 90% of whose employees work for independently-owned restaurants.
The ruling does not completely enfranchise franchise workers but “moves the standard closer, if not all the way back, to what some say is its more liberal, pre-1980s interpretation,” writes Noam Scheiber of The New York Times.
The old test required the so-called upstream company to exert “direct and immediate” control over working conditions. Under the new NLRB definition, only indirect control need be established. But given the extensive rules companies that employ a franchise model impose, it’s not hard to imagine this ruling have wide implications.
Stock Recovery Continues: The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 369 points, notching the biggest two-day percentage gain since 2008. The news was as good for the broader market: The S&P has recovered about half of the 11% it shed during a six-day losing streak sparked by concerns about China’s economy.
Take the Afternoon Off: Gap GPS is ending on-call scheduling for employees across its five brands — Athleta, Banana Republic, Gap, Intermix, and Old Navy. The practice has come under increased fire and scrutiny as an unfair hardship for hourly workers, who must be at their employer’s beck-and-call but can be waved off or sent home based on real-time sales data.
#Quote
“When he learns to read and write, he can text me.”
— UFC Champion Ronda Rousey’s latest trash talk to boxing super-star Floyd Mayweather in a war of words about who is actually the world’s best paid fighter. At least.
Tesla is Perfect: Consumer Reports has given a score of 100 to Tesla’s Model S P85D, a tiny but significant improvement over the 99 it got two years ago. There are some caveats. The score is based on road tests, not reliability (“It hasn’t been problem free”) or value ($127,820 MSRP).
But it is, Consumer Reports director of automotive testing Jake Fisher says, about giving credit where credit is due for a vehicle that is “pursuing the envelope in so many benchmarks that it really scored off the charts.”
JoAnn Muller of Forbes naturally assumed CR was “crazy.” But she got Fisher on the phone and discovered “to my surprise, he sounded quite rational.”
#Stat
87
The MPG equivalent for Tesla's P85D
Amazon Bails: Amazon “has dismissed” dozens of engineers from its consumer electronics division, the first layoffs in the 3,000-person unit’s history and an indication that the company is taking a step back in an area where it has failed lately to — sorry for the pun — catch fire.
“The company also has scaled back or halted some of Lab126’s more ambitious projects — including a large-screen tablet — and reorganized the division, combining two hardware units there into one,” reports Greg Bensinger of The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources.
Lab126 produced the iconic Kindle reader, which essentially created the ebook business. But nobody wanted the Amazon Fire Phone, a big bet critics said had no obvious advantages against Apple and Samsung — except for features like a 3-D screen and facial recognition tech that even some Amazon engineers “privately regarded as gimmicky and unnecessarily expensive.”
It’s Official: Apple has sent out invitations for a Sept. 9 event at which the latest iPhones will be unveiled. The inscrutable hint the ever-playful Apple put on this invitation is: “Hey Siri, give us a hint.”
Siri is already in on the joke, responding to that question with such replies as: “You’ll have to wait until September 9. I bet you were one of those kids who snuck downstairs to open presents, early, weren’t you?” and “You’re cute when you’re desperate for information.”
- Missed the last update? Then check out Isabelle Roughol's 'New Orleans Ten Years On, Walmart's Non-Stance on Guns, Gap Ends On-Call Shifts'
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Cover Art: Models walk the runway at the Swedish School of Textiles Show at Stockholm Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2016 on August 26, 2015 in Stockholm, Sweden. (Photo by Nigel Waldron/Getty Images)
People are the most valuable resource any business has. Let's work together to help you hire better , support, motivate and reward your team for less turnover, higher productivity and success for all!
9 年Terry, very important point and this won't stop with franchise operations. the push will be for any small business to provide a "living hourly wage". So thinking more broadly, on the employee side, the end result will be making the small business a harder place for entry level workers to find a position forever changing that model. From the business owner side, one way to make it as a small business franchise or otherwise will be as family owned, joint ownership operations where everyone does everything and everyone is salaried plus profit share (no hourly workers)...the old owner operator model.. Which may further mute the interest in starting a small business in the first place. But keep in mind small businesses make up more then 60% of jobs in America. The downstream impact could be disastrous even if you have a 10% or 20% drop in interest in starting a small business or opening a franchise.
Currently unattached
9 年The franchises thing is a stupid decision. I wrote a longer response, but the style sheets at LinkedIn at it. Suffice it to say that there will be tax and health care and other consequences which will render franchises an untenable business model. At which point, the companies will turn to trademark license agreements instead, to enforce exactly the behaviour currently required of franchisees. It's a relatively straight forward legal topological transformation.
National Sales Manager/ Marketing Director
9 年Most franchisees are small business owners who could now face big business labor issues, thanks NLRB. Tesla has no business being in business receiving billions in our tax dollars and still managing to lose over $4k per car.
People are the most valuable resource any business has. Let's work together to help you hire better , support, motivate and reward your team for less turnover, higher productivity and success for all!
9 年Re: higher wages for franchise workers While fare wages are certainly an important goal in any industry, what used to be considered entry level or summer jobs for teens and young adults are being treated like they are adult careers to support a family. Where is the place in our culture for summer jobs, for part time work? If every function in a business must support a "living wage" who honestly believes that the employer can afford the same number of employees? Are we all happier with 20% fewer, higher paid employees? Where is the victory for the people let go because the employer doesn't have the revenue to support more people at those wages? Employers don't have a never ending flow of cash...it has to come from somewhere. Do the lower income workers who depend on the "dollar menu" going to be OK with the $2 menu? How else does the franchisee afford the higher wages? What happened to the "minimum $70K" employer? He's in trouble.
--Teaching-management
9 年Mr. John what do you mean by this picture?