
Hakeem Jeffries. / Picture: Shutterstock
A popular U.S. congressman has stated he won’t retain campaign contributions from the National Restaurant Association since of how the trade team generates some of its lobbying bucks, according to the labor advocate Just one Truthful Wage.
The report has not been verified with the business office of the lawmaker, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the present minority leader of the U.S. Household of Reps.
1 Reasonable Wage mentioned it was explained to by Jeffries that he would donate the money from the restaurant affiliation to a charity.
The move would be a win for A person Truthful Wage in its effort to make a scandal out of the NRA’s use of proceeds from its ServSafe food-basic safety education program for lobbying.
The labor group alleges that the association has pushed point out and neighborhood governments to call for some kind of education curriculum like ServSafe for restaurant workers. In accordance to A person Fair Wage, the NRA then sells the ServSafe coaching application to the personnel for $15 a pop and makes use of the proceeds to foyer in opposition to mandated wage hikes, primarily utilizing money from personnel to do the job in opposition to their economic passions.
The NRA has channeled ServSafe proceeds into its income stream for about the very last 16 years. Lobbying money are drawn from that one general pool.
Nevertheless Just one Fair Wage successfully pitched a story on the circumstance to The New York Times past week. It was entitled, “How Restaurant Staff Enable Pay back for Lobbying to Continue to keep Their Wages Small.”
A working day immediately after the tale appeared, A person Reasonable Wage announced that it was launching a food stuff-safety teaching program to compete with ServSafe. The $10 program will be owned by an worker co-op getting shaped by the group. The proceeds will be utilised to foyer for boosts in restaurant workers’ wages, Just one Honest Wage mentioned.
On the exact same working day, two ServSafe graduates filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to the NRA, alleging they’d been fooled into having to pay income that was then used to lobby in opposition to their interests. Among other things, the action asked that any employee who paid for ServSafe be reimbursed their $15 and that none of the program’s proceeds be utilised for lobbying.
On Thursday, A single Truthful Wage revealed a checklist of U.S. senators and congressmen who have recognized marketing campaign contributions from the NRA.
On the record are 51 senators and 167 users of the Dwelling, A single Good Wage stated. Jeffries was low on the position by contribution sizing, significantly powering the House’s No. 1 receiver, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who was supplied $45,000.
The largest recipients in the Senate have been Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and John Thune (R-S.D.)
“Any elected formal who statements to care about staff need to quickly reject Nationwide Restaurant Association lobbying money, and return those stolen money to the personnel fighting to raise wages for all Us residents,” Saru Jayaraman, president of One Honest Wage, claimed in a statement. “While he was only a insignificant receiver of NRA funding, we thank Minority Chief Jeffries for his management and pledge to return this stolen worker cash.”
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