Split Congress and Its Impact on Restaurants

Joe key Faver. Joe is a founding partner of Aligned Public Strategies of Full Service Public Affairs and Creative Firm, and he's the host of the Weekly Working Lunch podcast. So you can find Joe's weekly restaurant pod on SoundCloud and Restaurant Business. Thanks for doing this, Joe, Mike did to be your pa, did to talk to you. Happy news, Happy New Year to you as well. Um so Joe's might go to guy when it comes to politics. Uh

So that's what we're gonna get into today. So you know, let's start out by asking what happened to the red wave? And the red wave we're talking about an EBB tide.

There was no red wave. Um, you know, I think, um, you know, we were gonna we're in a kind of a big political transition in the country where UM UM, the technology of detecting voter moods and voter intensity has not kept up, and so polling is is probably as UMS inconsistent over the last five years has ever been UM, and the technology really hasn't caught up to to UM, you know, actively measured voter attitude. So what happens is

no one really knows right. And it's funny how everyone's wrong, but everyone's saying, well, my polls are right with everybody else. The poles are rocks. This is crazy that UM. You know, I think it's difficult. It's going to be increasingly difficult for the publicans two, you know, whether whether they win here or win there, to create a working majority. You see what's happening this week in Congress. I mean, they can't even get a leader that I doesn't even sworn

in yet. And you know, I'm not I'm not trying to be partisan, but you can't help being part of that when you're talking about this stuff. It's you know, it's it's they find themselves in a position where if you get remember, you know, for the first time, and I think American history a major political party did not

have the political platform and an election cycle. The Republicans had no platform, you know, and that doesn't give you a blueprint for governance, right, And so they've they've they've kind of become the anti governments part of you seeing that playoff in Washington right now. So what that means is for voters, to answer your question, there's not a lot to glomb on to except for, well, that is the other guy, right, and that is not a that's not a winning long term strategy. It wasn't a winning

long term strategy this time. And I think what what they're finding and whether you know, who knows what in the back room, what's going on. But you know, Americans, you know, for better for worse. We can talk about we want limited government, we want this, but they like to see Congress legislating. They like, you know, polling after polls, polling for you know, generations, they wanted to see Congress legislating.

And Congress, whether you're whether you agree with or not, I agree with what they did in the last two years. They were legislating. And so I think there was a well spring of support out there um that punditry didn't acknowledge.

And I think the Republicans you know, just ran some terrible candidates to just ran some terrible candidates, and these races can can can be very personal, you know, and and a real popular person that doesn't have real popular views can can win, and an unpopular person that has you know, popular views can lose. And I think they just combination of all those things. Mike, So that the

long winded answer to a short question. But um, there was no way and as such, there's no politt there's no mandate to govern going forward, which is difficult for your you know, your clientele, the business community, restaurants, you know,

they want to manage risk, right, they want it. They want some level of clarity, good or bad, and different as to how to plan for what's coming after them in this current environment does not allow restaurants executives to have any sense of certainty about what the next couple of years looks like. That's great, thanks, And you know,

I guess that leads me right in my next question. Right, So, what does the Republican House and a democratic setting me for restaurants as stimulus done, and and what what can we expect over the next two years? Well, you know, it remains to be seen certainly, certainly in the first you know, let's say that's the bude up in the quarter.

So the first six months of the new Congress, you're going to see especially if um, if McCart he pulls out this, you know, he is contorting himself and conceding by the minute and depending on what he gives away. You know, I think what you're gonna see from the Republican House is just investigations. They're not gonna be in the governing and legislating and talking about the tax law. The Senate will be pushing those types of things. Obviously the White House wills, but I think you're gonna see

a stalemate. I think the big pieces for a restaurant is the activism of the Biden administration. At the regulatory level. We will go full on, and you know they are doubling down. You saw this week he re nominated a whole splew appointees to the e o C and other other other governing bodies. Um not Jessica Lumin to wage an hour, but we expect that any any time now. She's fairly you know, for that position, she's fairly uncontroversial.

Into Republicans. Um, So they're gonna they're gonna double down and there you know, they can't govern legislatively, They're gonna govern regulatorially. And we've already seen that in the first few year the Biden administration. But with this n LYB National Relations Sports and Doing is some pretty unprecedented stuff. I mean, they have been pedal to the metal and that's not gonna abb anytime soon. Is there any regulations on restaurants, um, you know outside of the n l

RB and and kinda. Um, the change the changes we may see in franchise law will get to that later, but are there any regulations that the restaurant industry should be particularly concerned about right now? Yeah, we're in the middle of a rulemaking process on a joint employer at a number of agencies, and the restaurant industry estarch, the

franchise business community needs to watch that very very closely. Obviously, the the powers that be want to um, you know, have shared responsibility between Mike Talent franchise Z and Company X franchise or on workplace violations, labor protocols, unfair labor practices.

Right now. You know, in our current world, you know, the company's kind of field that have from the franchise z. The current administration wants that wants to remove that shield and make that joint liability because it's easier to go after make it up McDonald's corporately than it is to go after my kalon the you know, three unit franchise z UM. So you're gonna see in every different every agency.

It was the Department of Labor, National Labor Relations Board. Uh, you know, other agencies will have their own joint employer rules. So this is a you know, this is three or four agencies were playing this. We obviously independent contractor and the restaurants don't employ a lot of independent contracts and stuff when it comes to some stared services maintenance services, the building and so forth. But all the laws around

independent contractors are getting rewritten. I think other pieces that are important to restaurant tours. You know, we talk about the A twenty rule and and and regulations around work, you know, off the kind of off the clockwork, but non skipped work for tipped employees and where is that where is that guiding line? So there's gonna be more energy in that space. Well, so it's a very you know, labor is number one for these for this administration, and

we're the number one labor intensive industry. So there's there's really nothing that you know, the Labor Department and its sub agencies where it's OSHA, whether it's you know that are doing that doesn't directly affect restaurant tours. I think some of your bigger business model issues that we've seen that the industry has worked on in the last couple of years paid leave, for example, nothing's going to happen federally at you paid leave. The Republicans have pivoted, not

insignificantly on this issue. There's a model that both um UH, Vermont and New Hampshire have adopted with Republican governors and Democratic legislatures. That's kind of a shared responsibility type of model between employees and employers and and having private interests bid on running those kind of those uh those those insurance funds is paid leave funds. I think that's a model that if anything happened in the federal level, which is highly unlikely, it would be something like that you've

seen on the far political right. Instead of opposing paid leave and this is kind of post pandemic, but opposing paid leave from a business perspective. They're embracing paid leave as a pro family issue. So there's energy on the right for the first time in a number of different ways. In the paid lead issue. I don't think there's a window in this particular Congngress for that. Um. But you'll see states you know existing, You'll see states that have

paid lead programs to make them more robust. Um. I don't think there's gonna be any accent on minimum wage at the federal level, um um. You know, issue enough to go back historically over the last three years for many of the minimum wage uh increases, we've had Republicans in charge of you know, one House of Congress or the White House when they've happened. So never say never,

but highly unlikely on the wage stuff. I think. I think the regulatory piece is where companies really need to be watching, and they have been for you know, the last two years have been a good lesson than that, gotcha all right? So there's been some back and forth in California over the last week regarding the fast acts. So where does that stand right now? So there's gonna be a hearing so to bring the audience up to speed. Um.

Just before the new year. UM, the the the state UH said hey, we're going with this regulation as of January one. We're gonna started forth in it. And the business from you said, hey, wait a minute. We were told by current law and validated by you the state, that if we uh uh submitted the appropriate number of signatures that this basically creates to run our own ballot initiatives on winding this law, that it creates a stay situation where this law will not go into effect. That's

the guidance you've given us. That's the guidance we've had, you know, forever in this state. And for reasons not yet clear, we can speculate and we'll go into that to why. The state said, math seddle the medal. We're gonna enforce this of January one. So the coalition, if you will, the Dating Restaurant Association, International Franchise Association, Chamber of Commerce, other organizations UH collectively UH filed suit to

for a stay. Judge granted that day and the first hearing and I believe it's January, so the end of next week, UM, they'll be kind of first hearing in court as to how to proceed here. Um, so you know, we would all been speculating as to as to why, um, why the state? You know, it was political pressure from the STIU, of course it was, But does does the state really believe it had legal standing because most of the legal minds in the industry they had no legal

standing here. Um. And it's pro form of you know, shameless giveaway to the union just to you know, it's done unconscidtable use the taxpayer money if they know they have no legal uh laid to stand on, yet they're going to drag the state and tax payers into court. So who knows what's happening. And maybe you know, they have lawyers to maybe they have a pathway. I don't know, but it's up in the air and we'll know more on January and we'll know how serious they are about

trying to enforce this and what their cractionales are. But for right now, the next week and a half of the law is stayed. Um. And you know, my if I don't know, you know, you've been covering the industry a long time. I've been tivering the industry a long time. Yeah, this is this is some pretty big ball politics that the industry has been playing the last couple of years.

You know what what Sean Cannon the n r I pulled off with the Restaurant Relief Fund is you know, unbelievable by partisan support for this industry, uh during during the pandemic and this activity in California is pretty pretty epic as well for us to get together as an industry raise a kind of money that we did play the ballot game, which we don't really play a lot, uh, get the signatures, get something on the bout and qualified

and now we're in the court. So you know, it's it's a kind of new your day in the industry, and the industry you know, knows that they're against the ropes against a very very well funded opponent. We still tend to, you know, for you know, you add up the market caps of our big corporations, you get an astronomical number. We still have very short short crocodile arms, alligator arms relatives to our market caps are funding these kinds of things. But we're doing a lot better than

we've ever done traditionally. So we'll we'll know on the third teams kind of what what the environment looks like where this judge will be. But the broader question for the industry is, you know, what does it look like if other states and cities, you know, pursue copycat legislation if you will, And and so the industry is mobilized, and there's a target. Listen about ten states, by the ten states where political winds are right in the political environment is right for a fact act type of bill.

We see some at the municipal level right now. Mineapolis is kind of a hot pot where we may see some level of fast Act like legislation. We already have a similar kind of model in Detroit. The one in Minneapolis doesn't directly it's all employers, not a q SR specific thing. But this is this is the way man

and um industry knows. I think soberly that the old days of HR twenty two in Congress, you know, it's those days have left us, and we're playing ball on the ballot in a lot of states, are playing ball municipally in a lot of states, and it's gonna cost a lot of money. Yeah. Well, it's great that, you know, the the industry, which is so fragmented. I think that's part of the reason why they haven't been able to join hands and and fight some of these regulations, UM

and legislation in the past. Uh, it's great that they're starting to come together to fight for what's best for the industry. UM. So you mentioned, you know, Minneapolis being a municipality. UM and you also mentioned five to tend states. So what states do you think could be fast followers? And and are they gonna wait? I guess you know,

obviously they're gonna wait until next week. But if this goes to referendum, are they gonna wait until the referendum comes through for them to start pushing harder on this? How do you think that's coming? Yeah? Well yeah, so let me take it kind of methodical order. You know, right after the fact at path in California, right after it got in the process, within about half an hour of the final vote. Literally, Michael, I'm coming thirty minutes

of the final vote. UM. The s c I you put out on Twitter a you know, Victory laps spiked the ball and listed about fish or seven states where they're taking their road show too. Next they're the ones that first said, hey, ain't saying nothing in the warm up that right, So we're we're looking at a lot of those traditional you know, blue trifectus states and maybe some of the new blue trufector states. Four states, uh now have four more states after the elections now have

total blue control. Uh. So those are you know, Massachusetts and Maryland top of that list, but we're looking at Washington, We're we're getting our act together in Oregon, Illinois, New York, New Jersey area where you are, Maryland, massachusettskind of the usual suspects, um, but with Massachusetts and Maryland kind of added to that list now because of changing their leadership

as well. So it's gonna be a busy year. UM. I do know that, um Um, the restaurant in you know association, National Restaurant Association, I say, are really working very well, very much in conjunction, very closely on this issue. And we're seeing a lot of uh you know, cooperation, a lot of money being spent, a lot of money being raised, and strategies put in place to really kind

of bolstress going forward. And you know, it seems that SI you seems to have momentum here, but at the unit level, you know, what we're seeing is that the unionization momentum seems to have slowed at Starbucks. You know, the effort seems to be stalling here and about two seventy stores, they're not close to a C B A. You know, have the Union's lost some of the wind in their sales at the unit level or is this something that's just unique to Starbucks now? I think I

think they have, you know, in the Starbucks. It's a good question and difficult want to answer. I mean, um, you know, with with an attrition rates in this industry, it's it's a no brainer for Starbucks to go into the old bean Smith four corners, you know, and just try to run the clock out on on on the process. Because you know, the first Starbucks votes were about twelve

months ago. It's tweluf thirteen months ago. And if you look at those original stores, I bousically see what the turnover rates, how many of those those people that voted in that union lecture are still there? Right? Uh? And even in Starbucks and he does pretty well relative to the competitor's net space, it's still just average attrician. You've got a whole new cast of characters and in there two years later. Starbucks is smart to kind of stress the process out. They know the math um and so

it has kind of dizzled a little bit. Um. But you know, it's interesting my dis your question at the unit level, it's it's fizzled a little bit. But I think, you know, like everybody's business model changes over time. Look look at look at Bloomberg's business model now versus twenty years ago. I mean night and day, right, the technology

you guys are into, it's just a whole different company. Right. Similarly, the unions you know, for for fifties, sixties, seventy years, we're kind of, you know, my awfully focused on collective bargain graments c b as were the goal and and that's how you measured your success or not. How many

places could you actually unionize? And over the last ten or fifteen years, I mean they have figured out, and probably more of the last five or ten years to be specific, they have figured out that they don't need c b as to win. I mean they're winning the conversation there they have they the labor community, I want the unit I'll say the labor community is a nonprofits and naturals groups, all the kind of stuff. They have won the conversation around our business model. Look at our

business model now whis flat years ago? I mean, we used to laugh, we have bully laughed about fifteen bucks of that I'm crazy that was Now you can't get anybody fifteen bucks now, right, And this is happening before the pandemic. Obviously pandemic excited. But they've won the national conversation on our model. Most people don't think our business model is a great model, right, Um, And so whether it's paid leaves that they are, we're exposed in the

pandemic and a lack of paid leave policies. Obviously the

wage stuff is worse than from us. So they have forced so many changes to the business model this industry outside of a cb A that you know, by any means except for dues revenue they have they can be spiking their football and I don't know of any time you think about historically the relationship between the unions and the Democratic Party, you can go back and you can see George me you know, sitting at the desk of f d R right and and the unions have always

had a close association with Democratic Party. But for most of the last hundred years the Democratic Party has been run by Southerners, and um, they don't have any relationship with unions. At all. The the union lack of a better term, dominance ownership of the current Democratic Party and the progressive direction of it is unprecedented. I mean they have one. They have they have literally intellectual uh control over a big swath agenda of one of the two

major governing parties in the in the country. I think it's fascinating to watch. They've always been a big interest group. They've always been a big you know, every president is always addressed the NFL, A meeting everyhere, you know. I mean, but they run the show now, I mean they run the show and a bunch of states that used to be when I when I first started this industry that

number one, I did it. I did it. The true story, Michael, I did an assessment when I was a Walmart Uh, how most powerful five most powerful unions need state capital and about going back, you know, twenty plus years. But in so many of them, the vast majority was the teachers Union. And now that the sd I you and some of the unions that that touch our industry the most, have resided prominence in so many state capital Sacramentos and the tip of the Iceberg, and they have really won

the conversation. So it's at the unit level. You're Mike, you're my Kalent franchise d X. Your business model looks I don't know how it could look any different if you were unionized for five years ago versus not being ugunized now. It's not in a day if I and five years ago. And so they've kind of won in a lot of ways. I always say that they might have won the arbitration, but they on the conversation, Yeah,

for sure. And I think part of it is is, you know, cultural right, Um, you know, I had a guest on the UH months ago saying, you know, they made unionization cool, right, And so I think that's the kind of helped them make some of the inroads at the at the union level, right. And we we have we have, you know, going back to the nineteen this is Gallup first started pulling this particular issue, union acceptance, union popularity. Never been hired there today and you know

what forty plus years of doing that polling. So again, I think the more because we haven't had a strong union movement, so it's more hypothetical. And oh isn't this great blah blah blah? Would you get in the nooks and crannies of it and people start to you know, really understand what's going on. I would assume those numbers

are gonna dropped significantly. Um. But when they realized that that the you know, that hourly label is going to be replaced by robotics, right, I mean it's just yeah, that issue in our in our industry, right is very under um kind of trade in terms of technology. So um. I think. So, I think one of the things harsh reality in our business that you know, people are going

to be replaced. Yeah. And so I think you've got three kind of political currents that are kind of or four I should say, that are kind of presenting challenges for restaurant companies and restaurant exactly. Obviously, you've got a very informant, mobilized employee base that you've never had of the last fifty years. Right, You've got customers that are dialed in, you know, for better for worse on what informed customer base that often doesn't see eye to eye

with the industry position. Right, You've got um, um, you know, the our general backstop for the last fifty years, the Chamber of Commerce Republican Party has left the building. All this has left the building and they're not. They're they're attacking corporate America's much as anybody is, right, and so you've got these these cross currents. Uh, You've got a

completely cohesive Democratic Party on these labor model issues. I mean there is almost almost no except for Joe Mansion on the minimum wage issue, which was a deal waiting to waiting to happen. You've got complete cohesion in one political party on your iss she said, you've never had before.

So if you're a restaurant company executive, that the political environment is so different over the last three or four years, and it has been seeing thirty or forty years, it all kind of looked the same, and it's it's hard for some of our folks. As a general rule. You know, we have a lot of exacts that are not politically dialed in. You know, we're not a regulated inditstry. We're

not banking, we're not finance. You know, we're not energy that are just airlines that are just constant governments in your business every day. We tend to be a little arms and length, you know, and a lot of our executives grew up in that system and you know, aren't

his you know familiar with the nuances of it. And I think, in my point being, we tend as an industry to be hell no on everything right now, would pose that would that we're at for anything, And I think time is kind of run out on that strategy. And I think you know, you see businesses, you know, making major major announcements in the sustainability space or the E s G space, and you know, the businesses are moving forward faster than kind of some of the political

allies are. So my point being, I think we're running out of out of friends in the process if we're in transigent, So we've got to I think businesses have to come to the people and say, hey, here's a here's a paid leaves scheme that we can work with. Let's let's give this away. Hey, here's a portable benefit scheme,

let's have that conversation. Hey, here's a more proactive here's a a recycling thing that maybe we can we can work into our model that won't damage you know that we're her a business model in our in our operations. We've got to We've got to do that. We've never been really good in the industry of that, but we've we've got no, we don't have a lot of allies now to be that backstop that we used to have.

And so I think it's the industries can have to pivot the way it looks at these issues and manages them going forward. That's not appeasing, that's just recognizing what the plane field is. Yeah, but they're on their heels though, right, Like I mean you mentioned at the beginning at the top, right about the Republicans, I mean, they left has got them on their heels and they're just the party of No, and and they don't really have a platform, and it's

an issue, right. So it seems like the restaurants are kind of in the same place where they're just kind of playing defense and uh, reacting as opposed to being out in front and leading. So is there anything that you know, you had some great examples of how they can kind of contribute to the legislative process, But is

there anything that they should be lobbying for? Yeah, you know, I've yes, I think there's some some big picture stuff that they should at least be starting conversations on to to get enough traction that you can officially move on the lobby. But you know, we have this. We've got a revamp how we look at labor in this country. We we have a we have a an entry level gap. The labor shortage was happening in our space long before

the pandemic. I was, I was doing presentations in talking about labor shorter staffed, never never, you know, and then and then we we we did all this this immigration stuff in the wall and all this kind of stuff. Then we had the pandemic. You know, if you look at you know you're a finance guy. Look what what's happening in England with Brexit? I mean, who whose economies and worst shape in Europe? England because they know bodies,

they know they cut their immigrations. Now they have their bodies. They're the worst inflation of any country. Conversive, we we have, you know, this dearth of of available staff that we wanted to work in our spaces. And it's like you're either you know, the entry level of the run of the letter or your or your white collar executive. You know, you're inside some company and we need to develop a

class of worker. Um it's kind of project of working onto It's not not fullid based, but we need to we need to reform the labor model so that we can develop a class of worker that we can have some kind of pay scale around if you will have some kind of training regiment, apprenticeship regiment around, have some type of portable minimal safety, that portable benefit structure around, and then have the text code appreciate that and create this worker that's in this hybrid between what we have

now the traditional FTE and a salary position. I think I think the economy, that modern economy has evolved passed our old fashioned way of classifying in treating work. I think it's a huge issue that this industry should be leading finding the next way. I don't have only answers about the next way is I just know that it's

this gap. And so if you're twenty year old my kalent and you know you're you're you're walking into you're looking for your first job, We're gonna lose everybody to Amazon because we don't have We're not competitive on the wage front, we're not competitive on the benefit front, we're competitive on the training front, and we're losing people out of the industry. Isn't that we're losing Burger thing is

not losing them to Popeye. It's we're all losing them to Amazon and other industries because there's this eCos structure around them that we have not formulated. And I don't think we're going to do that. I don't think companies are gonn do that on their own. But there's a way we can maintain our competitiveness by kind of creating

that space in the labor code. And I think, you know, that would be a ten year process, but it's something we could actually contribute a great deal of that conversation, the expertise and before something and have a very different conversation about how wages and benefits fit in to the overall thing. That's a big issue I think. I think on the recycling, you know, how about we say, really, let's recycling comes this. You know green you know Bernie stand standal were an issue, but man, it's a it's

a it's an economic issue. You're your governor, your mayor, you're running out of land and barry trash right, Chinese won't take our stuff anymore. We were we we have an economic need. We're going to deal with this stuff. Um. I think the industry, especially so much waste and it's coming. There's no way, it's not coming. So we can either kind of, you know, be in charge our own fate or we can let it happen to it. And we've seen with some of these producing responsibility bills in log

In Maine and other places, it's it's happening. I think we have to control our own destiny in that space. And I think I think the energy kind of renewable

energy space. You know, we're talking about natural gas bands and you know, I just think there's a lot of big picture issues that we that that we should really be um a voice in, and we still kind of play small ball on some of these unit level in Nicol what I would consider Nicol dimond just scheduling or you know, real breaks, all this kind of stuff, Like, man, we gotta revamp our entire labor structure if this industry is going to continue to survive and without being completely automated,

because we're losing our workers to other industries. So I think that's a there's things that I think idea for you know, and and you know, for me, a federal minimum wages. It's like it's archaic, right is A is a sixteen year old that's starting at his first day Adam McDonald's worth what a two year old is at his first day at McDonald's. Is that sixteen year old working in say, Arkansas, you know, does he deserve the

same pay as a sixteen year old in California? Right, So just having one blanket wage for the entire country doesn't make sense. And we know that you're really just legislating against those states that are you know, paying that have lower minimum wages uh statewide right. Um, So to me, it just seems like an archaic way to try to lift wages, right. That has to be a better way to do it. Yeah, And I kind of follow, even though I don't. I don't work in the space uber

lift you. They're not my clients, but I do watch. You know, they are a hybrid of our labor model. You know, they are independent contractors as drivers by and large. Um, they're not full time employees that our employees. They are

operating intentionally in this gray area. And you're seeing Australia played with some some ideas that there's a kind of a beta project going on on Ontario right now about a kind of portable benefits reasim for this class of workers, and some wrap around facing that, and you know, Uber and Lifts are probably doing it to retain drivers and

keep regulators off the back, right. But in that model, there's there's there's So if you're that sixteen year old, you know, let'st's say you're an eighteen year old, you're high school graduate. You know, you're in school, you're you're training for X. You don't have healthcare, blah blah blah. If we could, if we could say, look, we're gonna classify Mike Calon as a schedule P worker whatever you wee I would call it. But here's that pay band.

He can make between thirteen and sixteen bucks an hour depending on what he does. He's only gonna work thirty hours a week. But we're gonna contribute like Social Security, like any other employer, We're going to contribute some piece of his paycheck to a portable benefits scheme so he has paid lead where he can goes to see a doctor. Uh. You know, we're gonna work with the state in their

workforce development training programs. We're gonna make sure Mike's and those that he's building skills so that all this wrap around around that worker. We could probably start retaining some workers in the future. Um, but we've got to get out of the box of thinking about just by human and ways to get in, which we've been doing for four years. So long, long winded answer to a short question. But those are those are things we think about. Yeah,

some great topics. Um, all right, So I was reading an article this morning about shareholder proposals targeting political expending are expected to kind of ramp up this year. Um. You know, you know, I was thinking of Michael Jordan at the time. It's like, if you're a restaurant, I'd want to be Michael Jordan, right. I wouldn't want to make my political affiliations, knowing right, because I don't want to piss off half my potential customer base. But you know,

maybe that's me. But what's your advice to your clients about making political donations in such a charged environment? You know, that's that's such a great question. I think there are ways to you spend either corporate dollars or personal political dollars or pack dollars ever you want to whatever jar you want to pull them to impact public policy. Uh, in a more effective way now than giving Congressman and

Michael Halen five thousand bucks in this fundraiser. I think that's a that's a relative path, right, But there are ways, um to either through policy organizations, you know, partnering with

the national governor. I'm just making it up. He's making them, you know, but you know getting you know, if instead of having a three hundred thousand dollars to a bunch of congressmen that are can't even pick a speaker, Um, why aren't you three hundred thousand dollars to the US Conference of Marriage to come up with a business friendly

recycling program, you know, whatever that is. I think they're ways for dollars to impact the process other than the way of here's a check for we're gonna go off fundraising or I'm gonna stand around our studits in our cocktail and he's gonna tell us what we want to hear. And you know, Mike, I love the convenience story industry. If you're the greatest employers a way a restaurant, I

love the restaurant industry. You're the greatest. I mean, there's a wind up, right, It's just such an antiquated way to do stuff, and I think they're better used to our So I think a lot of companies. You've seen companies on our industry closed down their facts, right, Um, because in the way, in the wake of the Citizens

United case, was that two thousands twelves? Maybe? Yeah? The driving force and American political money are find net worth an individual, you know, and when you know, millionaire X can write a thirty million dollar checking this fun a millionaire I can write a thirty minute what is company wise checking? Mike Hallen, it's a joke, you know, it doesn't even matter. So I think I think we have to re examine our political business model. Um, it's been you know, actress being for a long time. I don't

think pack is the way. But you know, the restaurant industry, by and large, we we have and we just doubled. And I'm not complaining your point of fingers, but we've struggled for years to harness our biggest political striketh, which

is our footprints. Right. There's no you can't draw a legislative municipal city council, you know, dog catch your district small enough that it has doesn't have a much of restaurant in it, right, and we if we could ever mobilize that grassroots army, we really wouldn't need to play with bouts, but we haven't been able to do that. Again, to your point where such a spread out industry, you know,

I've always kind of said, we're not an industry. We're just an archipelago of billions of tiny little island out there, and it's hard to it's hard to be a nation sometimes when you when structures like that, and that's our grassroom. I've always said that we should, you know, we should organize ourselves more like an interest groups, more more like interest groups and trade associations because of our footprints so

spread out. We're on a capital tensively labor intensive, and you know, I would I'd rather us act like the the the the National Rifle Association and stead of the National Restaurant Association in terms of being a grassroots army based you know entity and um, you know, a RP or whatever. It always thought that was a better model for us, but that would take thirty years to change too. But they we're always been working with the scenes like that.

That's the case though, right, yeah, yeah, you know, And and so it's hard because you know, in a lot of a lot of industries, you know, the employees and the managers on a lot step want a lot of issues. We've never enjoyed that in the industry. We always tend to be kind of cross purposes with our employees on political issues. So it's harder. We've got a lot of operators out there and a lot of restaurateurs out there. We should have millions of voices on issues, you know.

And then going back to fast Act, we're starting this conversation. You know, we had major, major employers that have major operations in California in five or six California based but did almost nothing on on on Fast actors of you know, weighing into the conversation and getting their franchisees or people into those meetings. We we didn't get out spent in California out lobby. We've got out political. We got out grassrooted,

you know. And and um, that's that's the worry for these other states is in California if you think about it, and I know we're probably running over your time here, but um, there was while the political bar was very high, you know, in terms of the Union's strength in California, how much dominant they have over the government process there. That was the high water mark for our organization as well. I mean, we have lots of companies based in California.

Every brand's got operations. We had, we have a huge industry footprint in California, and we didn't realize, you know, in this fight, right, we're not set up that way in Washington and Oregon. We're not set up that way in a lot of these New York, a lot of these states. And so we if we underperformed in California with the playing field as it was, man, we could be in a world of hurt in some of these other states. So it's be interesting to see how all

this plays out. All right, Well, fingers crossed for for good outcomes for our restaurant listeners. Man, Uh, we're gonna leave it there. Jed, you're great, Thank you so much for doing this again. Where can um members of the audience find you if they're they're seeking your public affairs knowledge? Uh, feel free to call us that Aligned Public Strategies and it's Joe dot keep op or K E F A U v E R at Align Public Strategies dot com.

Happy to uh engage any conversation, answer questions, whatever I can do to help move the ball forward. My friends, as do you. So appreciate all you do. Mike. Uh. You have a great gift of taking very complicated stuff and making it user friendly and simple. And I love reading your stuff because it's one of the few things I can understand. So I do appreciate all that you do as well. So good as you thing. I'm glad you find it useful. Man, Well, listen, you're the man.

Thanks again for doing this. We'll speak soon, right, Thanks for listening, and all right, Joe, Thanks man, You're great. Bloomberg Intelligence is a service provided by Bloomberg Finance LP and its affiliates. This recording does not constitute, nor should it be construed as investment advice, investment recommendations, or a recommendation as to an investment or other strategy. Bloomberg Intelligence should not be considered as information sufficient upon which to

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