Labor advocates outline demands they will impose on California fast-food restaurants

Workers’ advocates have already prepared their list of demands to address to the Council. | Photo: Shutterstock

Unions controlling four of the nine seats on the California Fast Food Council have revealed what workplace concessions they will seek, in addition to a 3.5 percent increase in the fast-food minimum wage, when the quasi-regulatory agency meets Wednesday.

The list includes more restrictions on changing work schedules in fast food restaurants; guarantees that fast food workers will receive the wages they are owed if their employer sells or closes the business; a crackdown on employers who violate current workplace regulations, including safety measures; and systematizing a way for fast food workers to communicate more easily with the council.

The list comes from the California Fast Food Workers Union, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the industry’s largest labor group and a key force in creating the council.

The board has the authority to review fast-food wages every January. The current minimum wage for the industry is $20 an hour, a rate that went into effect April 1 under the law that established the board.

“It’s always been about more than $20 an hour, and we’re just getting started,” the workers’ union said in releasing the list.

As part of the compromise that led to its creation, the council was stripped of the power to set working conditions for most fast-food workers in California. The law that created the committee provides the ability to propose changes in workplace standards directly to state regulators, but the recommendations are not binding.

The workers’ union had indicated in March that it would push for a 3.5 percent increase in the minimum wage for fast-food workers — the highest allowed by law — when the council meets for the second time. That meeting was recently set for Wednesday morning.

Two union members sit on the panel, along with two SEIU representatives. Four seats are held by fast food employers, with the ninth vote controlled by Nick Hardeman, a state legislative aide who was appointed chair by Gov. Newsom.

The committee is empowered to review fast food wages at least once a year and set an increase of up to 3.5%. A simple majority of the Council members is required to approve the increase, which then becomes mandatory.

Conversations with various council members over the past few months revealed that labor and management representatives expected a more confrontational meeting than the group’s first meeting in March. Participants agreed that this session was more of an informal gathering, as the law prohibited members from holding even informal meetings beforehand.

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