Labor advocates have a list of demands for Congress. Photo: Shutterstock
Labor unions, which hold four of the nine seats on the California Fast Food Council, revealed what workplace concessions they will seek in addition to a 3.5 percent increase in the fast-food industry’s minimum wage when the quasi-regulatory body meets Wednesday.
The list includes further restrictions on changes to fast food work schedules, ensuring fast food workers receive their fair wages if their employer sells or closes the business, cracking down on employers who breach current workplace rules including safety measures, and codifying ways for fast food workers to contact the council more easily.
The list was compiled by the California Fast Food Workers Union, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the industry’s largest union and a key force in founding the council.
The commission has the power to reset wages in fast-food restaurants every January. The industry’s current minimum wage is $20 an hour, which went into effect on April 1 under the law that created the commission.
“Previously, we were looking at more than $20 an hour, but we’re just getting started,” the union said in announcing the list.
As part of the compromise that led to the creation of the commission, it was stripped of its power to set working conditions for most fast-food workers in California. The law that created the commission gives it a path to recommend changes to workplace standards directly to state regulators, but its recommendations are not binding.
The union said in March it intended to ask for a 3.5 percent increase in the minimum wage for fast-food workers, the maximum allowed by law, at the council’s second meeting, which was most recently scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Two union members and two SEIU representatives occupy seats on the committee. Four seats are held by fast food employers, and the ninth seat is held by Nick Hardeman, a state legislative aide appointed by Governor Newsom to serve as committee chair.
The committee will have the power to review wages at fast-food restaurants at least once a year and set raises of up to 3.5 percent. Approval of a raise requires a majority of council members to vote in favor, after which it becomes mandatory.
Speaking to various council members in recent months made it clear that representatives from both labor and management expected a more confrontational meeting than the group’s first meeting in March, which participants agreed was more of a get-together, as members were legally prohibited from even holding informal meetings beforehand.
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Peter Romeo has covered the restaurant industry for a variety of media outlets since 1984. As editor-in-chief of Restaurant Business magazine, he currently covers government relations, labor and family dining, and is the magazine’s unofficial historian.
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