February, 09 2017, 10:30am EDT
Days Before Confirmation Hearing, Fight for $15 to Flood Hardee's, Carl's Jr. Restaurants Nationwide Declaring Trump Labor Nominee Unfit to Serve
Restaurant Workers to Turn up Heat on Embattled Andy Puzder In Protests at CKE’s Corporate Offices in Anaheim, Hardee’s Headquarters in St. Louis
NATIONWIDE
Days before a U.S. Senate committee hearing, the working Americans in the Fight for $15 movement will Monday escalate its opposition to Andy Puzder's nomination as labor secretary with its most militant and disruptive protests yet against President Trump's pick.
Hundreds of cooks and cashiers from multiple states will converge on Hardee's corporate headquarters in St. Louis, Mo., while hundreds more will descend on CKE corporate offices in Anaheim, Calif. In two dozen other cities, food service workers will protest at Hardee's Carl's Jr. and McDonald's restaurants. McDonald's CEO recently expressed support for Puzder despite an escalating series of unsavory revelations and complaints against the beleaguered nominee.
"Andy Puzder is unfit to be Labor Secretary - period," said Angel Gallegos, a Carl's Jr. cashier from Los Angeles, Calif. "We're stepping up our fight to demand that Puzder withdraw his nomination, and if he won't, then the U.S. Senate should reject him. Working families need a real labor secretary who will fight for ordinary people, not powerful corporations."
Working people announced the protests as Puzder revealed he can't even follow the law in his own home. This week, Puzder admitted that he didn't pay legally required taxes for his housekeeper for many years and that he only paid up when pressured to do so because of his nomination.
At the protests, workers will carry signs that read, "Andy Puzder: Worst of the Worst CEOs" and "Puzder: I Pay My Taxes, Why Don't You Pay Yours?"
The wave of protests will mark the third time that workers in the Fight for $15 have taken to the streets in protest against President Trump's nomination of Puzder. In late January, people who work at CKE brand stores filed 33 complaints with state and federal agencies alleging wage theft, sexual harassment, and retaliation and intimidation against workers trying to organize on the job.
Puzder's restaurants have a long and troubled history of worker abuse. In 60 percent of Department of Labor investigations since 2009, CKE restaurants and franchises were found to have violated wage and hour laws. Since Puzder became CEO of CKE in 2000, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which falls under the DOL, has found 98 safety violations at Carl's Jr. and Hardee's locations, with 36 of them capable of causing death or grave physical harm. Capital & Main reported that, under Puzder's tenure as CEO, Carl's Jr. and Hardee's have been hit with more federal employment discrimination lawsuits than any other major U.S. hamburger chain.
According to CKE's latest financial disclosures, Puzder makes as much as $10 million a year, which means he makes more in one day than he pays his minimum wage workers in one year. Despite this, he has been an outspoken opponent of minimum wage hikes, spending $10,000 of his own money in 2006 to block a Nevada ballot initiative raising the minimum wage to just $6.15. He's shown open contempt for men and women who work in his restaurants, calling them "the worst of the worst." A report from the National Employment Law Project estimated Puzder's low pay costs taxpayers $250 million a year in public assistance.
Puzder has also opposed basic protections and working Americans' rights, like meal and rest breaks for employees working long hours. He has even said he would like to replace Carl's Jr. workers with machines because they "never take a vacation, they never show up late, there's never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case." Puzder has also supported repealing the Affordable Care Act and cuts to Medicaid, even while he forces his own workers to rely on these programs by denying them health care.
"By picking Puzder, Donald Trump has shown that instead of taking on the rigged economy, he wants to rig it up even more," said Doreatha Hines, a Hardee's cashier from Orlando, Fla. "If Trump is going to be a president for the fast-food corporations instead of for the fast-food workers he is going to be on the wrong side of history. And one thing is for sure, whether Puzder's nomination is confirmed, denied or withdrawn: we won't back down for one minute in our demands for $15 an hour and union rights for all working Americans."
Fast food workers are coming together all over the country to fight for $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation. We work for corporations that are making tremendous profits, but do not pay employees enough to support our families and to cover basic needs like food, health care, rent and transportation.
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‘Poor Jeff’: Sanders Ridicules Bezos-Owned Washington Post for Attacking Billionaire Tax Plan
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Sen. Bernie Sanders mocked Jeff Bezos on Tuesday after the editorial board of the newspaper owned by the Amazon founder denounced his plan to tax billionaires' wealth.
In an opinion piece published Monday, the Washington Post editorial board accused Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who co-sponsored Sanders' wealth tax plan, of threatening to "strangle America’s golden goose" by hitting billionaires with an annual 5% wealth tax.
"Sanders wants to confiscate 5% of all assets every year from America’s billionaires, with the goal of stealing half their fortunes," the editorial complained. "He estimates, unrealistically, that this could raise $4.4 trillion over 10 years to fund a wish list of progressive fantasies, including something akin to a universal basic income and more government-managed healthcare."
The editorial then argued this was bad because "even for billionaires, a 5% tax on every asset they own would virtually wipe out any gains they make in a normal year," and would force them to sell off some illiquid assets such as "collections of wines, art, jewelry, and yachts" just to make their annual payments to the government.
The editorial concluded by claiming "Sanders and Khanna take as a given the capacity of American capitalism to deliver continuing prosperity, no matter how many anchors they weigh it down with," then warned that "economic history proves that future growth is never guaranteed."
In a social media post, Sanders mocked the Post editors for publishing an opinion piece defending the economic interests of their owner, whose current net worth is estimated by Forbes to be well north of $200 billion.
"Surprise! The Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post is against my 5% billionaire wealth tax," Sanders wrote. "I wonder why? If enacted, Bezos would owe $12 billion in taxes, and an average family of four would receive a $12,000 direct payment. Poor Jeff would be left with just $224 billion to survive."
In a news article about the tax plan published by the Post Monday, Khanna was quoted as saying it was needed to address the historic disparities in wealth that have only grown over the last 50 years.
"This is Sen. Sanders' defining vision for our age," Khanna explained. "It is the most ambitious and transformative legislation for our times to tackle inequality in the New Gilded Age."
Wealth inequality has become so acute that the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal in February published a news analysis declaring that billionaires' tax avoidance schemes were "becoming a problem for the economy."
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The attack on Iran sparked large protests in countries including Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, and Turkey, with demonstrators taking to squares and streets to condemn what many called a war of imperialist aggression waged by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.
In South Africa—which is leading a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ)—labor, leftist, student, and Muslim groups are among those denouncing the war.
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) issued a statement Tuesday proclaiming, "No to war, no to regime change, no to oppression."
"History has taught the global working class a bitter lesson: So-called 'interventions' in the name of democracy have left behind destruction, instability, and suffering for ordinary people, never liberation," SAFTU asserted. "From Iraq to Libya, from Syria to countless other theaters of intervention, it is workers and the poor who pay the highest price."
"The future of Iran belongs to its people, not to Washington, not to Tel Aviv, and not to foreign intelligence agencies," the federation stressed.
In Pakistan, at least 23 people were killed during demonstrations across the country on Sunday, including 10 protesters outside the US consulate in Karachi. US Marines reportedly opened fire on a crowd of people who attempted to storm the facility. Eleven others were killed in the northern city of Skardu, where people set a United Nations office ablaze. Two people were also slain in capital Islamabad.
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Hundreds of people had gathered to protest the killing of Iran’s Supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes on Tehran.
Clashes… pic.twitter.com/1QIeRjhL8M
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The Progressive International (PI) cabinet published a statement condemning the war "in the strongest possible terms."
"The assault once again exposes the true character of US diplomacy," the group said. "Indirect talks between Tehran and Washington—mediated by Oman—were little more than a screen behind which the Trump administration coordinated an agenda of [a] 'major combat operation' under the banner of ‘Operation Epic Fury.’"
"Trump has been clear: This is a regime change offensive—devoid of any legal justification let alone authorization," the PI cabinet continued. "Trump has framed these strikes as 'preemptive,' necessary to eliminate 'imminent threats' and to defend national security. Yet Iran has made no immediate threats to the US. On the contrary, it is a long-standing ambition of the US and Israel to wage war on Iran—the lethal consequences of which will be borne by its people."
"Imperialist war does not liberate peoples—it subjugates them," the group added. "The evidence is found in the ruins of Gaza, Baghdad, and Tripoli, where bombs leveled cities and 'democracy promotion' left ashes in its wake."
Siphamandla Zondi, a professor of politics at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, told the Guardian that “this is a war of domination and subordination, therefore it has imperialist undertones and motives" and "makes the world unsafe for all of us.”
The International Migrants Alliance (IMA) issued a statement Monday calling the attack "against international law."
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Protests across India against Khamenei’s killing https://aje.news/nbir8t
[image or embed]
— Al Jazeera English (@aljazeera.com) March 2, 2026 at 12:00 PM
That sentiment was echoed across the developing world. In Brazil, the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) said: "Trump is a threat to the world. This is a criminal violation of Iranian sovereignty and international law."
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As the families of an estimated 180 schoolchildren and staff members killed in an Israeli attack on a girls' school in southern Iran mourned on Monday, first lady Melania Trump presided over a United Nations Security Council meeting where the impact her husband's military operations in the Middle East was briefly addressed—but only in regard to the first lady's pet cause, children and technology.
Trump spoke generally about children living in or fleeing conflict as she opened a meeting on "Children, Technology, and Education in Conflict," saying the US "stands with all children throughout the world."
But the meeting was held as the US Department of Defense and Israeli officials refused to acknowledge what had been widely reported: On Saturday, as the US and Israel began launching airstrikes across Iran despite diplomatic talks that had recently been making progress, Israel struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school in Minab as children gathered there for the school day.
The building was destroyed and the roof collapsed, killing at least 180 people, according to PBS NewsHour correspondent Leila Molana-Allen—the majority of whom were girls between the ages of 7 and 12. Nearly 100 people were also injured.
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The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor emphasized in a statement that "allegations regarding the presence of military facilities elsewhere in Hormozgan Province do not alter the school’s civilian character or justify targeting it."
"Any deliberate attack on a school or on civilians, as well as any indiscriminate or disproportionate attack that violates the principles of distinction and proportionality, constitutes a grave breach and may amount to a war crime where intent to target the school is established or where the attack is indiscriminate or disproportionate," said the group on Sunday. "The military attack on Iran constitutes an act of aggression and violates the UN Charter, which prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state."
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) also said the bombing "constitutes a grave violation of the protection afforded to schools under international humanitarian law."
"Attacks against educational institutions endanger students and teachers and undermine the right to education," said the agency.
Ahead of the UN Security Council meeting led by the first lady, Iranian Ambassador to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani said it was "deeply shameful and hypocritical" for the US to convene a summit on protecting children in conflict as its joint strikes with Israel have killed close to 800 civilians across Iran in recent days.
“For the United States, ‘protecting children’ and ‘maintaining international peace and security’ clearly mean something very different from what the UN Charter provides,” said Iravani.
During the meeting, Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN undersecretary for political and peacebuilding affairs, noted that the attacks on Iran have underscored how children are impacted by conflict, specifically pointing to the shifts to remote learning that have been made in countries where US military bases are located, such as Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Oman.
About the strike on the school in Minab, DiCarlo said, “United States authorities have announced that they are looking into these reports.”
The stated goal of the meeting—protecting children's access to education in conflict zones—has also been undermined by President Donald Trump.
As the Associated Press reported, the UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children in Armed Conflict was among the UN offices that have suffered funding cuts under the Trump administration, with the White House withdrawing US support for its work in January.
UNESCO and the UN Children's Fund have also faced drastic funding reductions.
The first lady's status as chair of the meeting on children in conflict, said UN diplomat Mohamad Safa, "while the US and Israel killing children in Lebanon and Gaza, and murdered 165 schoolgirls in Iran, is the most hypocritical thing we have seen in the history of the Security Council."
Trump led the session the same day that Democracy for the Arab World Now called for an emergency General Assembly session to "declare the assault a war of aggression in violation of the UN Charter and to demand the immediate cessation of all hostilities.”
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