FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Max Moran, [email protected]
On Wednesday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and International Franchise Association, two big business advocacy groups, named Philip Miscimarra to lead their campaign to undermine franchise and sub-contractor workers’ rights.
The hiring of Miscimarra indicates that the Chamber and IFA are ramping up their defense against the Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU) lawsuit to overturn a Trump-era NLRB rule against “joint-employer” workers.
Miscimarra will lead the Chamber and IFA’s defense of a rule that undermines the abilities of both workers with multiple jobs and subcontracted workers to form unions. This rule prevents large corporations like McDonald’s or Amazon from being held accountable for violating these “joint-employer” workers’ rights.
“Big business selecting Trump’s chief union-buster for their fight to kneecap workers’ rights is no surprise,” said Jeff Hauser, Executive Director of The Revolving Door Project. “The Chamber of Commerce worked hand-in-hand with Phillip Misicimarra when he was on the National Labor Relations Board. Despite their best efforts, I think their years-long campaign to dismantle workers rights is still going to end in defeat.”
Why Miscimarra Is Big Businesses’ Pick:
Miscimarra, a corporate lawyer, previously served as chairman of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) under Trump, where he enacted an anti-worker agenda.
Notorious anti-union law firm JacksonLewis touted that Miscimarra “fought for employers” and left “roadmaps for reversal of Obama precedents.”
During Miscimarra’s tenure, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a 10-point corporate wish list for the NLRB. It included curtailing picketing rights for striking workers, limiting approval of workers’ bargaining units, and lifting protections for “joint-employment” workers. The Board took action on all 10 points of the wish list.
In addition, as Chairman, Miscimarra wrote an infamous 15-page dissent against recognizing graduate students and research assistants as employees.
Following his departure from the NLRB, Miscimarra immediately returned to the law firm MorganLewis, whose clients include about 90 percent of Fortune 100 corporations, including 9 of the 10 largest corporations, and two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies. He now serves these corporate clients by leading MorganLewis’ NLRB appeals practice.
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PHOTO CREDIT: “Fast food strike and protest for a $15/hour minimum wage at the University of Minnesota” by Fibonacci Blue is licensed under CC BY 2.0