Newsom signs big legislative win for California fast-food workers

That day, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB257, a landmark labor measure establishing a state board, with enforcement powers, to impose minimum wages and working conditions for the state’s 550,000 fast food workers. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Now here’s a real way to celebrate Labor Day: A big win in your state legislature—in this case, California.

That day, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB257, a landmark labor measure establishing a state board, with enforcement powers, to impose minimum wages and working conditions for the state’s 550,000 fast food workers.

Fight For 15, the Service Employees, and other unions lobbied the heavily Democratic, mostly pro-worker legislature to approve the measure, overcoming strong corporate capitalist lobbying. And not all the Democrats were gung-ho about it, forcing several compromises.

The State Assembly approved AB257 47-19, with one Republican joining all 46 voting Democrats for it. One unaffiliated assembly member and 18 Republicans voted “no.” Thirteen Democrats were absent.

The State Senate vote was touch and go: 21-12, the bare minimum the measure needed. Democrats backed it 20-3, while all eight Republicans voted “no,” and the three unaffiliated members split: One “yes,” one “no” and one absent. Both votes were on August 29.

Senate passage also occurred only after fast food workers walked out from 350 eateries statewide the week before.

To woo reluctant solons, sponsors had to “remove liability for fast food chains” as joint employers with their franchises, in obeying labor laws, the summary adds. And the state council can’t require new paid leave for workers or mandate workers’ schedules.

“HUGE NEWS!” Service Employees President Mary Kay Henry led off her tweets. “This landmark bill will be the most important piece of labor law to pass in decades. It will give 550,000 fast-food workers a chance to sit down with government and their employers to decide wages and working conditions.

By contrast, McDonald’s threatened to pull out of California if AB257 passed. Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Sara Nelson called their bluff.

“There are nearly 1200 McDonald’s stores in CA, almost 10% of the total stores in the US. They’re not going to leave. It’s just a desperate attempt by corporate goons to bully the state so they can keep exploiting workers. Nope! #AB257!” Nelson tweeted.

“It took the courage and commitment of fast food workers across the state to bring us one step closer to making #AB257 a game-changer that sets the bar for the nation to empower workers,” the California Coalition for Worker Power tweeted.

AB257 establishes a joint labor-management-government 10-member Fast Food Council through Jan. 1, 2029. It can set and enforce “minimum standards on wages, working hours, and other working conditions related to the health, safety, and welfare of, and supplying the necessary cost of proper living to, fast food restaurant workers, as well as effecting interagency coordination and prompt agency responses” against lawbreakers, a bill summary says. The measure applies to local franchises, too.

It defines fast food restaurants in California as businesses with at least 100 eateries nationwide, with a common brand and standardized operations. And any city of at least 200,000 could establish its own fast food council, too.

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CONTRIBUTOR

Mark Gruenberg

Award-winning journalist Mark Gruenberg is head of the Washington, D.C., bureau of People's World. He is also the editor of the union news service Press Associates Inc. (PAI). Known for his reporting skills, sharp wit, and voluminous knowledge of history, Mark is a compassionate interviewer but tough when going after big corporations and their billionaire owners.