Franchise Restaurant Owners Lies Make the Case for AB 257
Companies That Treat Workers Like Crap Proclaim their Innocence, Call Reforms a 'Food Tax'
Above: Header for ads appearing in newspapers in California. Don’t fall for this.
California’s legislature has passed a pared down version of AB 257, legislation bound to have a huge impact nationally. The days of a fast food franchise agreement being the sole arbiter of how employees are treated are numbered, as a labor model similar to that used in European countries and some domestic industries like auto manufacturing will be put in place.
The bill represents an important step toward sectoral bargaining, in which workers and employers negotiate compensation and working conditions on an industry wide basis, as opposed to enterprise bargaining, in which workers negotiate with individual companies at individual locations.
A 10-member council including worker and employer representatives and two state officials would review pay and safety standards across applicable parts of the restaurant industry.
It could issue health, safety and anti-discrimination regulations and set an industrywide minimum wage, subject to review and potentially vetoes by the state legislature. The council and its mandates sunset after six years unless further authorized by the legislature.
Now the fast food industry is buying ads to persuade Gov. Newsom not to sign the bill. They are continuing to make the claim that the legislation amounts to a “food tax” on restaurants, and including small business owners saying the law could put them out of business.
That’s mostly a lie, since the final version of AB 257 exempts bakeries, grocery store fast food counters, and chains with fewer than 100 locations nationally. Only 84 chains operating in California meet that threshold.
Industry representatives are also lying when they claim the protections included in the legislation are unnecessary because fast-food restaurants account for only 1.6% of labor violations across all sectors. They know that the reality of restaurant employment is that most workers don’t know that they even have rights, and that churn in the industry is a barrier to groups advocating for workers rights.
Speaking with the people working at fast food franchises tells a completely different story. From the Los Angeles Times:
Fast-food workers across California have rallied in support of the bill, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has given service industry workers new frustration and visibility as they continue to operate in grueling, sometimes hazardous conditions.
A study by the UCLA and UC Berkeley labor centers found almost two-thirds of fast-food workers have experienced wage theft, and more than half have faced health and safety hazards on the job. Of the workers who raised concerns with their employers, about a third reported that their employer did nothing to resolve the issue, while 25% experienced retaliation, the study found.
“We’re not trying to tell these franchisees and corporations how to run their business. We just want them to listen to some of our ideas, that’s it,” said Anneisha Williams, who works part time at a Jack in the Box at Slauson and Arlington avenues in South Los Angeles.
From the New York Times:
Ingrid Vilorio, who works at a Jack in the Box franchise near Oakland, Calif., and who pressed legislators to back the bill during several trips to Sacramento, the state capital, said she believed the measure would lead to improvements in safety — for example, through rules that require employers to quickly repair or replace broken equipment like grills and fryers, which can cause burns.
Ms. Vilorio said she also hoped the council would crack down on problems like sexual harassment, wage theft and denial of paid sick leave. She said she and her co-workers went on strike last year to demand masks, hand sanitizer and the Covid-19 sick pay they were entitled to receive.
California has the most fast food workers in the country. More than 725,000 workers are employed in the state’s limited-service food industry, which includes fast food workers as well as those who work in fast casual establishments, pizzerias and cafes.
The legislature has paved the way for those workers to have a say in how they are treated. The fact that the industry’s marketing & lobbying sectors feel the need to lie about working conditions (and sexual harassment in particular) is perhaps the best argument for the necessity of AB 257.
Email me at: WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com