By Alex Lloyd Gross
Do you work for a living? If answer yes, then the man who President Donald Trump picked for Labor Secretary should concern you. Andrew Puzder is one of, if the most controversial picks for Trump’s cabinet. Puzder owns Hardees and Carl Jr,s, fast food restaurants. He has been called on the carpet for a multitude of verified statements he made and things he has done. Now, today, February 14, 2017 a new allegation of domestic violence has been raised against him. His ex wife, Lisa Fierstein appeared (in disguise ) on the Oprah Winfrey show in 1990. She alleged Pudzer beat her .The episode was titled “High class battered women”. It aired in March of 1990. She has since recanted the statement.
In light of this ,some of Puzder’s supporters have now come out against him. He is a very vocal critic of raising the minimum wage and for good reason. Puzder says that his low income employees do not want it raised as it will cause them to lose government benefits. Meanwhile, Puzder makes millions of dollars while his employees claim they starve. As Labor Secretary, he will have a huge say in any increase to the $7.25 per hour minimum wage. He has called his employees “The best of the worst”, according to allegations uncovered by Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Puzder say’s he Is in favor, of a small increase. However, anything $9.00 or less is considered minimum wage, because many states already have a minimum wage of around $10.00 per hour. Puzder will be able to hold down wages and then, when his tenure of Labor Secretary is finished, he can go back to working at Hardees even wealthier than he is now. Puzder is an accomplished speaker and lots of fast food executives support him and like him, as they share his values. An even bigger group of people don’t want Puzder to get confirmed: His own rank and file employees. Multiple protests across the nation sprung up against him.
Puzder believes that getting paid for overtime is bad for business. “The satisfaction of doing a job well should be payment enough”, he said. That, while workers are away from their families, working 50 or 60 hours per week. Puzder is no stranger to the labor board. He has been in trouble multiple times. One such complaint is the way he pays his employees. He uses a debit card.system. It saves him millions in check fees. When used, the employee incurs debit card fees and those fees push the said employee under the minimum wage threshold. He has paid thousands or workers and been fined . Some of the workers have not been paid by Puzder. Now, he will be in charge of the same labor board charged with investigating his restaurants. He has also been sued countless times, most recently, for his company’s policy on refusal to hire within franchisees.
Puzder , through his website that he is for job creation. His statements on his website refute everything written in this article about him. His actions speak louder than words.The allegations of worker mistreatment happened. The lawsuits happened. The labor violations happened. His opinions on the Affordable care Act serve to benefit only the top 1 percent. He wants it abolished.
Puzder’s spends upwards of $130,000,000.00 to advertise his restaurants. He uses sexy women wearing little clothing eating hamburgers. He will spend up-wards of $4,000.000 for one of those ads to appear during the Super Bowl. Guys like to look at sexy women. He thinks the advertisements are fine. According to Senator Warren, sexual harassment in Puzder’s restaurants is 60 percent higher than normal. Puzder is quoted as saying that he wants to automate his front line and eliminate jobs. He has since backed away from those statements.
The confirmation hearing for Puzder is scheduled for February 16, 2017.