Heralds changing of the guard at NLRB, welcomes opportunity to work alongside new administration on a pro-worker agenda that prioritizes a commonsense, permanent definition of joint employer that will preserve the franchise model for generations to come 

WASHINGTON – Today, the International Franchise Association (IFA) issued the following statement after President Donald Trump named Marvin Kaplan the next chairman of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB):

“Congratulations to Marvin Kaplan on ascending to NLRB Chairman,” said Michael Layman, IFA’s Chief Advocacy Officer. “During his tenure at the NLRB, Chair Kaplan has proven himself as an impartial arbiter of labor law who provides legal clarity to the 830,000 small businesses and 9 million workers our model supports. We stand ready to work with Chair Kaplan and the entire Administration toward rebalancing federal policies to meet the needs of both small businesses and workers, including preserving the previous Trump Administration’s commonsense standard of joint employment that will protect the franchise model for generations to come.”

As a member of the NLRB, Kaplan dissented from the October 2023 final rule on joint employer. In March 2024, an IFA-led lawsuit defeated the previous NLRB’s joint employer rule, which when implemented from 2015-2020, cost franchises $33.3 billion per year, eliminated hundreds of thousands of jobs, and increased lawsuits by 93 percent.

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