Current Events > Sinema and Manchin appear at restaurant lobbyist conference after nixing $15/hr

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https://www.dailyposter.com/p/sinema-and-manchin-headlining-event-93a

Weeks after voting to kill a $15 minimum wage, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin will headline the national conference of the restaurant lobbying group that led the battle to block the wage increase and is fighting a separate Democratic measure to make it easier for workers to form unions. Both lawmakers have also recently raked in campaign cash from corporate interests that have been fighting a minimum wage increase.

Sinema and Manchin will join disgraced former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel next week in speeches at a conference held by the National Restaurant Association (NRA), according to the conference agenda. The NRA has been aggressively lobbying against Democrats proposed minimum wage hike and labor legislation.

Manchin and Sinema, who represent West Virginia and Arizona respectively, will be featured on panels entitled Seeking Unity: Conversations on Finding Bipartisan Solutions. The event is the NRAs annual public affairs conference, which in Washington-speak means it is for lobbyists and focused on shaping legislation.

The conference event registration page says it is an off the record event closed to press. The schedule says it will also feature former George W. Bush spokesperson and Fox News personality Dana Perino.

The two Democrats, who were not on the NRAs original event schedule, have been working recently with Republicans to replace Democrats $15 minimum wage proposal with a lower wage reportedly $11, which is lower than Arizonas current minimum wage. Its not clear yet whether their proposal, which hasnt been released, would eliminate the lower subminimum wage for workers like restaurant servers who rely on tips.

Manchin and Sinema will each appear at the virtual conference for conversations with NRA vice president Sean Kennedy, who has been the public face of the opposition to federal minimum wage legislation.

The Raise the Wage Act imposes an impossible challenge for the restaurant industry, Kennedy said in a statement earlier this year. A nationwide increase in the minimum wage will create insurmountable costs for many operators in states.

Meanwhile, executives of the NRAs own member restaurant chains including Dennys, McDonalds, Dominos and the Cheesecake Factory have been telling their investors that they will not be significantly harmed by a higher minimum wage.

To the contrary, Dennys chief financial officer, Robert Verostek, said in a February earnings call that Californias law raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2023 has been good for the diner chains business.
As they've increased their minimum wage kind of in a tempered pace over that time frame, if you look at that time frame from us, California has outperformed the system, Verostek said. Over that time frame, they had six consecutive years of positive guest traffic not just positive sales, but positive guest traffic as the minimum wage was going up.

Last year, the Chamber awarded Sinema with their inaugural Abraham Lincoln Leadership for America Award as well as their Jefferson-Hamilton Award for Bipartisanship. Her Senate office noted in a press release that Sinema was the only Democrat to win both awards.

Both senators are also opposing calls for Democrats to eliminate the filibuster, a stand that will likely block Democrats landmark labor reform legislation, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, that would make it easier for workers to form unions.

In the weeks after Sinema and Manchin cast their votes to block a $15 minimum wage, another group lobbying against minimum wage and labor legislation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, rewarded them with campaign contributions.

Sinema recently received donations from political action committees for Barnes & Thornburg, Cozen OConnor and Steptoe & Johnson three law firms that advertise their services helping corporations halt union drives among workers.

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sinema also fails to support net neutrality, shes been a huge disappointment for the Arizonans who elected her.

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the dems are a waste

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"Sinema recently received donations from political action committees for Barnes & Thornburg, Cozen OConnor and Steptoe & Johnson three law firms that advertise their services helping corporations halt union drives among workers"

How the fuck are those firms still open? Isn't that flagrantly illegal? Merely advertising as such should disbarred everyone in the company and send the heads to prison.

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These clowns need to be kicked out of the party.

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https://twitter.com/MZanona/status/1383881855708012545

Brunch is back baby
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