some big news today. the struggle of low wage workers to get a decent wage and to bargain collectively got a big boost thanks to a brand new ruling from the national labor relations board. the nlrb said that contract workers can bargain with a parent company. here's why that is so important. big fast food companies like mcdonald's repeatedly claim that fast food workers cannot bargain with them because the individual franchise owners were really those workers' employers. now, if fast food workers are forced to negotiate with every individual franchise, that obviously gives those workers much less leverage. the ruling by the nlrb dealt with the recycling center, not a fast food restaurant, but legal experts are expecting the ruling to be applied to various kinds of fights between fast food workers and their parent companies. appeals to this huge ruling are also expected, but it's still good. the potential bargaining power of people that work hard looking to make a wage that they and their families can live on. .bec.