For immediate release
Contact:
Alisa Harrison, 202-628-8000
Matthew Haller, 202-662-0770
aharrison@franchise.org
mhaller@franchise.org
twitter.com/franchising411
WASHINGTON, JAN. 4-The International Franchise Association today expressed strong disappointment with President Obama’s recess appointments of Sharon Block, Terence F. Flynn, and Richard Griffin to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), saying the President violated the intent of the Constitutional separation of powers.
“Today’s unprecedented appointments to the NLRB by President Obama amount to an assault on the franchise industry’s ability to create jobs in a continued challenging economic and public policy climate. In the last six months, the NLRB has issued several rulings unfavorable to job creation by franchise businesses, including shortening the period of time employers have to inform their employees about union representation before an election,” said IFA President & CEO Steve Caldeira.
Today’s announcement comes despite a specific written request of 47 Senators in December. The move installs Block and Griffin, whose names were only submitted recently.
“The President is clearly more interested in stacking the deck against franchise small businesses desperate to create jobs in favor of serving Big Labor’s political agenda,” said Caldeira. “Franchise businesses are poised for modest growth of 168,000 new jobs in 2012, yet their recovery remains fragile given the continued regulatory uncertainty caused by actions such as those promulgated by the NLRB. The continued regulatory uncertainty could deter job creation by franchise businesses, despite the franchise industry’s proven history of job creation.”
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About the International Franchise Association
The International Franchise Association is the world’s oldest and largest organization representing franchising worldwide. Celebrating over 50 years of excellence, education and advocacy, IFA works through its government relations and public policy, media relations and educational programs to protect, enhance and promote franchising. Through its media awareness campaign highlighting the theme, Franchising: Building Local Businesses, One Opportunity at a Time, IFA promotes the economic impact of the more than 825,000 franchise establishments, which support nearly 18 million jobs and $2.1 trillion of economic output for the U.S. economy. IFA members include franchise companies in over 300 different business format categories, individual franchisees and companies that support the industry in marketing, law and business development.