Reject Andy Puzder for ‘Anti-Labor’ Secretary

“Puzder opposes meaningful minimum-wage increases, and attacked the expansion of paid-sick-day and overtime legislation. And while he rakes in millions as the CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Hardy’s and Carl’s Jr., workers struggle to get by. The company is currently being sued for wage theft and sexual harassment” – The Nation

Call your senators by dialing 1-844-612-6113 or finding their local office here. Demand that they reject Puzder’s nomination (the Nation has created a script to help you out).

I am calling to urge you to oppose the nomination of Andrew Puzder as Labor Secretary. Mr. Puzder has shown again and again that he cannot be trusted to look out for workers’ best interests or to even follow basic labor laws himself. His company, CKE Restaurant, is currently being sued for wage theft and sexual harassment, and we recently discovered that he did not even follow labor laws when hiring a housekeeper in his own home. I urge you to oppose Andrew Puzder’s nomination.

Say NO to Cheap Eats

“Restaurant workers are already among the lowest paid workers in America. Many full-time workers rely on public assistance to make ends meet. Often enough, restaurant workers could not afford to eat at the restaurants where they work. And at the bottom of this system are the employees of the restaurants on these cheap eats list.

American enterprise has long been a gateway to the American dream for many immigrants. But much of it was also built on exploited labor. Enslaved African-Americans built Southern plantations. Chinese immigrant workers built the railroads. Latino migrant farm workers are the backbone that turned California into America’s agricultural powerhouse.

This view of people of color as sources of “cheap” labor bleeds into our restaurant culture: Immigrant food is often expected to be cheap, because, implicitly, the labor that produces it is expected to be cheap, because that labor has historically been cheap. And so pulling together a “cheap eats” list rather than, say, an “affordable eats” list both invokes that history and reinforces it by prioritizing price at the expense of labor.” -Diep Tran, NPR, Food for Thought