One of the funniest moments in Brandon’s disaster of a State of the Union address came when he claimed (and was quite wrong in claiming) that fast food workers have to sign non-compete agreements and that those contracts are keeping them from getting jobs.
In fact, the line was so ridiculous and funny in its ridiculousness that Republicans broke into laughter as he said it, unable to contain themselves as Brandon went on one of his gaffe stories. That line about non-competes came when Biden was rambling about workers “getting stiffed.”
He was saying: “Americans are tired of being played for suckers. Pass the Junk Fee Prevention Act so companies stop ripping us off. For too long, workers have been getting stiffed. Not anymore. We’re beginning to restore the dignity of work.”
Continuing, he gave a patently false example, saying, “For example, 30 million workers had to sign non-compete agreements when they took a job. So a cashier at a burger place can’t cross the street to take the same job at another burger place to make a couple bucks more. Not anymore. We’re banning those agreements so companies have to compete for workers and pay them what they’re worth.:
Well, Republicans knew the burger thing to be ridiculous. In fact, as soon as Biden started spewing his nonsense in one of his typical gaffes, McCarthy and other Republicans started roaring with laughter. While non-competes are certainly a real problem for some Americans, generally they’re not an issue for low-level fast food employees.
PolitiFact admitted as much in its report on the matter. Posting about the issue in a tweet, Politifact said, “In the #StateOfTheUnion, Biden said “30 million workers had to sign non-compete agreements when they took a job. So a cashier at a burger place can’t cross the street to take the same job at another burger place to make a couple bucks more.” False.”
Watch Biden make his ridiculous claim here:
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In its article on Biden’s claim, PolitiFact ripped into Biden for the remark and explained why it is completely untrue. To do so, it noted that there is a large difference between a non-compete, which is what Biden was talking about, and a non-poaching provision, which is what used to exist for McDonald’s, saying:
Biden said McDonald’s workers sign employment contracts with language that blocks them for working for a competing fast food chain such as Burger King.
They don’t. A noncompete agreement prevents someone from working for a competitor. That was not the case. Any McDonald’s worker who quit to work at a Burger King is free to do that.
There was a time when they faced a different hurdle. They were blocked from moving from one McDonald’s franchise to another McDonald’s franchise. That is what economists have dubbed a no-poaching clause, and it applies only among franchises within the same chain.
Until 2017, that was part of the agreement between the local franchise owners and McDonald’s Corp., the franchiser. The local owners could not lure workers away from each other.
Though McCarthy and the Republicans breaking into laughter at Biden and one of his typical gaffes was perhaps the best moment of the night, Biden bickering with the crowd was nearly as entertaining. Watch that here:
Featured image credit: screenshot from embedded video