jake – Fast Food Justice Ahora

With fast-food bill, California could help all essential workers

jake — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 17:09:32 +0000

Amid what looks like the largest labor organizing movement since the Great Depression, California lawmakers are considering legislation that would bolster protections for hundreds of thousands of the state’s front-line workers — and set a national standard for how our government advocates for the working class.

The Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act, or the Fast Recovery Act, would create a state-appointed council of workers, employers and state agencies that would collaborate to improve working conditions, benefits and wages for California’s 550,000 fast-food workers. The measure passed the state Assembly earlier this year (by one vote!), and appears likely to clear the Senate and reach Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) desk.

Led by the Service Employees International Union and Fight for $15 and a Union, more than 100 organizations and unions have endorsed the legislation. So have five cities and counties, including Los Angeles and San Francisco. Earlier this month, Rep. Ro Khanna (D) and seven of his colleagues in the California delegation in the U.S. House urged Newsom to support the act.

California could transform how fast food workers are treated

jake — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 17:07:28 +0000

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Ten years after the launch of the Fight for $15, fast-food workers nationwide are still grappling with low and stolen wages, unsafe workplaces, and rampant sexual harassment. California lawmakers now are considering a bill to address those problems, aimed at improving conditions for the more than 550,000 fast-food workers in the state.

The bill, known as AB 257 or the FAST Recovery Act, passed the California Assembly in January, and is coming up for a full vote in the state Senate this month. “There may be no more consequential measure for labor rights in Sacramento this session,” said LA Times columnist Michael Hiltzik. Its impact though, might not be limited to California.

5 policies that will test Gavin Newsom’s national dreams

jake — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 17:19:25 +0000

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom wanted the national spotlight. Now he’s got it. And with it comes heightened scrutiny just as he’s about to make some tough decisions.

California Fast Food Workers Demand a Seat at the Table

jake — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 16:03:25 +0000

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After over 20 years in the fast food industry, Evelyn Barillas says she’s seen it all.

“I’ve seen a lot of harassment, I’ve seen people get hit,” she said. “A person doesn’t like what you’re handing them and they’ll throw it at your face.”

Barillas is a single mom of four from East Los Angeles and works at a Subway in Reseda making $15 an hour. Prior to that she said she worked for McDonalds, Jack in the Box and Starbucks.

She said she’s even faced sexual harassment, saying one manager at a previous fast food job cut her hours after she refused to go out with him.

Achon Hightower’s Testimony on hearing

jake — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 16:15:13 +0000

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We must do more to empower and protect California’s fast food workers

jake — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 20:14:26 +0000

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Take our home state of California for example. It has the fifth largest economy in the world and is the birthplace of some of the greatest innovations of this generation. California’s 17th Congressional District alone, which encompasses Silicon Valley, has $11 trillion in market cap wealth. But even in a state like California that consistently leads the nation on progress and prosperity, too many working families are being left behind.

This is the reality for many workers in California’s fast food industry. The industry employs more than half a million workers in the state. Eighty percent of these workers are people of color and of that 80%, 60% are Latino. Despite working for massive global corporations, California fast-food workers are more than twice as likely to live in poverty than the overall workforce, and the vast majority rely on social safety nets to get by. Often when individuals speak up to report unsafe or discriminatory work conditions and demand improvements at work, they are disregarded or face retaliation.

U.S. Rep. Khanna hosts roundtable with fast food workers in support of state legislation

jake — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 20:08:34 +0000

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(BCN) — U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Fremont, hosted a roundtable with fast-food workers and the Service Employees International Union Local 521 in San Jose on Friday afternoon to discuss the fight to pass Assembly Bill 257 in California. The legislation, which passed through the state Assembly and is awaiting a vote in the state Senate, would bring together a council of fast-food workers and restaurant franchisees to discuss and address issues facing workers such as health and safety standards, wage theft and other workers’ rights.

Khanna, who represents the 17th congressional district covering parts of Alameda and Santa Clara counties, attended the roundtable at the SEIU Local 521 office, where fast-food workers from across California spoke out about their experience in the industry. AB 257, also called the Fast Food Accountability and Standards (FAST) Recovery Act, is also being supported by Fight for 15, an organization started nearly a decade ago that championed the increase to a $15 minimum wage in California six years ago.

McDonald’s franchises planned to pay tens of millions in PPP loan dollars to corporate HQ

jake — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 12:34:19 +0000

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The Covid relief loans were designed to keep workers employed, but fast-food franchises allocated money to their landlord, the McDonald’s corporate office.

The Fight for $15 Is Moving Beyond the Minimum Wage With a Bold New Idea

jake — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 20:12:23 +0000

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“While groundbreaking in national terms, a council to police the fast-food industry wouldn’t be completely out of the norm in technocratic California.”

“As A.B. 257’s backers point out, the state has maintained other councils to monitor threats to coastal waters and guide its energy planning since the 1970s.”

“Giving workers a place to negotiate with the industry would mean they could effectively demand the kinds of basic necessities they are typically denied, such as more security cameras in crime-prone stores and high-quality masks.”

Read more here: https://newrepublic.com/article/165114/fight-for-15-fast-food-mcdonalds-california-minimum-wage

FAST FOOD – WORKER HEALTH AND SAFETY COMPLAINT – COVID from Jack in the Box Fast Food Workers

jake — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 18:19:48 +0000

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CalOSHA
Sacramento District Office
Vacant, District Manager
1750 Howe Ave. Suite 430
Sacramento, CA 95825
phone:(916) 263-2800
fax:(916) 263-2798
Via email: DOSHSAC@dir.ca.gov
January 21, 2022

RE: Jack In The Box, 8655 Auburn Blvd, Roseville CA 95661

We are Ana Leticia Nande, Maria Miguel, Eloisa De La Cruz, Herminia Farias, Estrella Starbina Cross, Bladimir Granados, Tallon Ralston and Gonzalo Espinoza, seven current and one former worker at the Jack In The Box at 8655 Auburn Blvd in Roseville.
We are writing to ask you to require Jack In The Box to comply with COVID-19 safety standards. We are concerned that management understands what they are required to do to meet safety standards, but applies these standards selectively, based on race. Please inspect the store where we work. Please interview us to establish the facts and determine what can be done to require our employer to protect us, regardless of our race.
Management showed their true colors this week. On Tuesday (January 18), when a worker complained of COVID-like symptoms, management did what they are supposed to do. They sent him home. But what the Jack In The Box District Manager (Mercedes) said tells you what we want you to understand and help us address. She said, “We need to send him home because he is white.”
Unfortunately, Jack In The Box managements’ actions match their words. In August of last year, one of us (Herminia) told the same District Manager that her husband was sick with COVID, that she was unvaccinated at that time and needed to quarantine. The Jack In The Box District Manager told Herminia no, that she had to work until she was sick. So she worked for two days. On day three she was sick, and on day four she tested positive for COVID. During that time Herminia worked very closely with Gonzalo. Gonzalo was not quarantined either and also became sick with COVID, impacting his entire family.
Black and Latino workers should be protected under the law, just as white workers should also be protected. Please use the enforcement authority of CalOSHA to require this Jack In The Box to comply with the Revised CalOSHA COVID Emergency Temporary Standards and public health guidance to stop and prevent the spread of COVID, including:
• Exclude workers from the workplace who are sick with COVID-like symptoms or exposed to COVID, as required
• When there is a case of COVID, notify coworkers and quarantine close contacts as required
2
Here is more information about COVID safety at this Jack In The Box store:
STATEMENT OF GONZALO ESPINOZA
In August 2021 Herminia told Mercedes, the District Manager, that her husband was sick with COVID and that she was unvaccinated at that time and needed to quarantine, and Mercedes told her she had to work until she was sick. Herminia worked for two days, on day three she was sick and on day four she tested positive for COVID. During that time I worked closely with Herminia. I started having COVID symptoms on the same day Herminia tested positive, I told Mercedes he had COVID symptoms, and she threatened to fire me if I didn’t keep the store open 24 hours, and she said I had to work until I showed a positive COVID test. I was not vaccinated at the time, and I should have been quarantined as a close contact. I took an over-the-counter COVID test and came out positive, and Mercedes did not accept the test and required me to get another COVID test, and again it came out positive for COVID. I became very sick, I could not breathe or eat or taste or smell and I was very weak. All the adults in my household got sick with COVID right after I did, including my wife, sister-in-law and brother-in-law.
DESIGNATION OF EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATIVE
We designate Fight for $15 California as the designated employee representative in all contacts with CalOSHA and the company for this Complaint. We also designate Maria Maldonado from Fight for $15 California as our designated employee representative, she can be reached at 408 477- 5180, maria.maldonado@thefightfor15.org.
Ms. Maldonado will be happy to provide you with any information which will assist you in investigating this case and arrange for your inspector to meet privately, at a site away from the workplace, with workers to discuss the hazards at this site. Such a meeting can be held either before or after the physical inspection of the worksite.
We worked with the Fight for $15 staff to translate and transcribe this statement.

Sincerely,
Ana Leticia Nande
Maria Miguel
Eloisa De La Curz
Herminia Farias
Estrella Starbina Cross
Bladimir Granados
Tallon Ralston
Gonzalo Espinoza