January 19, 2017

Democratic Senators Renew Call for Puzder Hearing to Include Hardees, Carl's Jr. Workers

Washington, D.C. - Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.), United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and 20 of their colleagues today sent a letter to HELP Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) calling for the upcoming hearing for Secretary of Labor nominee Andrew Puzder to include current and former workers at Hardee's and Carl's Jr., who can provide the Committee with context on Mr. Puzder's treatment of workers. Several of Mr. Puzder's workers spoke at a public forum last week and provided information on Mr. Puzder, telling their personal stories of mistreatment, lost wages, and unpaid overtime.

"Mr. Puzder's treatment of the 70,000 people working for the restaurants of his company, CKE Restaurants, Inc. (CKE), reveals his view of American workers, and his commitment to enforcing federal labor laws-the Secretary of Labor's chief responsibility," said the Senators. "The comments from his current and former workers raise very serious concerns about Mr. Puzder's record with regard to workers' rights, and about Mr. Puzder's fitness to serve as Secretary of Labor."

The letter reveals important information about Mr. Puzder's treatment of workers, including his company's failure to pay workers a living wage, its failure to pay workers for overtime, and its many violations of federal and state labor laws. The Senators revealed Mr. Puzder's business model as one that "squeezes corporate profits out of workers by paying them as little as possible and cutting benefits and hours to the point that mothers and fathers struggle to support their families."

"More than 150 million American workers rely on the Department of Labor for the strong enforcement of labor laws," wrote the Senators. "For these workers, the Secretary of Labor's commitment to that mission is not an abstraction or technicality. The policies of the Department of Labor directly affect whether families can put food on the table, whether workers can afford to send their children to college, and whether hard-working Americans can afford to retire in old age. We hope you will work with us to ensure that Mr. Puzder's nomination hearing fully addresses whether he is committed to this solemn responsibility."

22 Senators signed onto the letter, including Senators Murray, Warren, Sanders (I-Vt.), Franken (D-Minn.), Bennet (D-Colo.), Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Kaine (D-Va.), Durbin (D-Ill.), Stabenow (D-Mich.), Menendez (D-N.J.), Brown (D-Ohio), Merkley (D-Ore.), Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Hirono (D-Hawaii), Markey (D-Mass.), Booker (D-N.J.), Murphy (D-Conn.), Van Hollen (D-Md.), Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Hassan (D-N.H.).

The full text of the letter is available below. 

January 19, 2017



The Honorable Lamar Alexander
Chairman
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
 
Dear Chairman Alexander,

You will soon convene a hearing on the nomination of Andrew Puzder, President-Elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Labor.  Last week, several of Mr. Puzder's workers spoke at a public forum attended by 17 members of the Senate.  We had previously asked you to include these workers in the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee's hearing on Mr. Puzder's nomination, and you refused.

Mr. Puzder's treatment of the 70,000 people working for the restaurants of his company, CKE Restaurants, Inc. (CKE), reveals his view of American workers, and his commitment to enforcing federal labor laws-the Secretary of Labor's chief responsibility.  The comments from his current and former workers raise very serious concerns about Mr. Puzder's record with regard to workers' rights, and about Mr. Puzder's fitness to serve as Secretary of Labor.

The forum last week yielded several important insights about Mr. Puzder's treatment of the workers:

  • Mr. Puzder's company violates federal and state labor laws by failing to pay workers for overtime. Laura McDonald, a General Manager at Carl's Jr. from 1998 to 2012, experienced wage theft by working unpaid overtime and being called into work on vacation days. She is a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against CKE related to these violations. Ms. McDonald said that "if a General Manager goes over the labor budget, we would be disciplined or fired. So we worked without pay. All general managers work off the clock, and CKE knows we do it." Roberto Ramirez, a former Carl's Jr. employee, said that "for many years, I started working 30 minutes before my clock-in time to make sure that I finished all my duties," but he was never paid for that time and was punished with fewer hours if he failed to finish those tasks anyway.
  • Mr. Puzder's company fails to pay workers a living wage, endangering their health and well-being and shifting the costs of basic social services onto taxpayers. Lupe Guzman, a 47-year-old single mother who has worked as a graveyard shift leader at Carl's Jr. for 7 years, makes only $8.75 an hour and has to rely on SNAP, Medicaid, and public housing assistance to supplement her wages. Ms. Guzman explained that "there are people that have been working [at Carl's Jr.] for years and are making the same as they have when they walked in." She added, "I work almost every day and am still considered poor. I live on housing assistance, food stamps, and Medicaid just to survive."
  • Mr. Puzder's company relies on a business model that squeezes corporate profits out of workers by paying them as little as possible and cutting benefits and hours to the point that mothers and fathers struggle to support their families. Christine Owens, an expert on labor law and labor market research, explained that Department of Labor inspectors have found numerous instances of wage theft and other illegal activities at CKE's restaurants, finding violations in 60% of wage and hour investigations. She said while many business leaders believe in the basic regulations administered by the Department of Labor and take into account the interests of their employees, "nothing in the public record about Mr. Puzder suggests that he is such a business leader, or for that matter, that protecting and promoting the interests of America's workers is or will be a paramount concern."
  • Mr. Puzder displays a disrespectful attitude toward his own workers that is directly contradictory to the Department of Labor's mission "to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States." After taking over at CKE, he proudly announced "no more people behind the counter unless they have all their teeth." He argued against increasing the minimum wage by asking, "How good could you be at scooping ice cream?" He explained his preference for replacing workers with robots by stating that robots are "always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there's never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex or race discrimination case." Ms. McDonald said that while working at CKE was a good experience before Mr. Puzder became CEO, his policies "make it impossible to do the job without working off the clock." And after Carl's Jr. management stole Mr. Ramirez's wages, he said that "the district manager...came to the store to tell me there was nothing I could do."

As you know, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is charged with reviewing the background of the President's nominee for Secretary of Labor "when the committee determines that such information bears directly on the nominee's qualifications to hold the position." With that in mind, we ask that you reconsider your decision to exclude these individuals from Mr. Puzder's upcoming hearing before the HELP Committee and allow all of the Committee's Senators to fulfill their constitutional duty to thoroughly review this nomination.

More than 150 million American workers rely on the Department of Labor for the strong enforcement of labor laws. For these workers, the Secretary of Labor's commitment to that mission is not an abstraction or technicality. The policies of the Department of Labor directly affect whether families can put food on the table, whether workers can afford to send their children to college, and whether hard-working Americans can afford to retire in old age. We hope you will work with us to ensure that Mr. Puzder's nomination hearing fully addresses whether he is committed to this solemn responsibility.


Sincerely,


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