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Berman is a shill for the restaurant industry, which is clearly spooked by the thousands of fast-food strikers who've elicited broad public outrage over their poverty wages and abuse at work. The fast-food strikers want higher wages and an end to retaliation for trying to form a union.
This week, fast-food workers walked off the job in a wave of one-day strikes, first in New York, then in St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago, Detroit, Flint, Milwaukee and Seattle. Workers who hadn't planned on joining the fast-food strikers suddenly decided to join them. Scabs refused to cross picket lines, according to Bud Meyers at The Economic Populist.
Berman is an old corporate hit man whose own son has called him despicable. This is what he has said about dear old dad:
“My father is a despicable man. My father is a sort of human molestor. An exploiter. A scoundrel. A world historical motherf*cking son of a b*itch. (sorry grandma)”
“He props up fast food/soda/factory farming/childhood obesity and diabetes/drunk driving/secondhand smoke.
He attacks animal lovers, ecologists, civil action attorneys, scientists, dieticians, doctors, teachers.Meyers has more about Berman's recent appearance on Fox News:
Recently on July 29th, on the Fox News business channel, host Stuart Varney interviewed Richard Berman of the Employment Policies Institute to provide a "critical analysis" of the walk outs. Berman dismissed the idea of raising fast food employee wages, claiming that a hike in pay would result in lower employment:
"The business model just does not support those kind of wages. If people are feeling that they are not being paid adequately, then they have got to find a job someplace else."
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| Berman |
Berman, a corporate lobbyist, did not disclose his organization's ties to the fast food industry. According to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the Employment Policies Institute is one of many front groups associated with Berman which provides political cover for clients in the restaurant, hospitality, alcohol, and tobacco industries. Berman specializes in a so-called "aggressive media outreach" approach intended to "change the debate" in favor of major clients.
Berman, who says the fast-food industry can't support paying $15 an hour, is trying to convince the general public that this raises the incentive for fast-food businesses to replace workers with some automated method of preparing, serving and selling fast-food via an iPad. According to the Employment Policies Institute's 2011 990 form, Berman is paid $1.16 million to use scare tactics to convince others that they aren't worth $15 an hour.It's the same old story of powerful corporations trying to crush their workers using devious means. Let's hope the fast-food strikers can write a new chapter with a happier ending.
