62 Business View - March 2015
er percentage of franchise businesses are owned by
women, minorities and veterans than non-franchised
businesses.
In addition to pushing for pro-growth legislation, the
delegation cautioned lawmakers about supporting leg-
islation that would hamper franchise business growth,
such as bills that were passed in previous assemblies
and vetoed by Gov. Brown.
“We are opposing any efforts to attempt to fix a system
that simply is not broken,” said Saunda Kitchen, Mr.
Rooter Plumbing franchise owner in Sonoma County.
“Due to existing federal and state disclosure require-
ments, local small business franchise owners like my-
self and brand companies like my parent company, are
acutely aware of our respective obligations. Legislation
that changes the terms of contracts in the middle of
the game threatens our industry, will hurt jobs, small
businesses and undermine California’s economy re-
covery.”
IFA Seeks Injunction to Halt Seattle’s Discrimination
The International Franchise Association has asked the
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washing-
ton to issue a preliminary injunction preventing the city
of Seattle from discriminating against local franchise
business owners as part of the city’s new minimum
wage law.
IFA and five Seattle franchisees sued Seattle in June
2014 seeking to block portions of the city’s recently
enacted law to increase the city’s minimum wage to
$15 an hour. The plaintiffs asked the court to enjoin
the city from treating small franchisees as large, na-
tional companies rather than the small, locally-owned
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