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The fast-food model lets corporations escape liability. California might chart a new course
AB 257, a proposed law that would establish a statewide Fast Food Sector Council made up of workers, corporate representatives, franchisees and state officials that would meet every three years to negotiate industry standards on wages, work hours and other conditions for fast-food workers.
The bill would hold fast-food corporations responsible for ensuring their franchisees comply with a variety of employment and public health and safety orders, including those related to unfair business practices, employment discrimination, the California Retail Food Code, as well as new standards issued by the council. The bill would make franchisee violations of employment laws enforceable against franchiser and franchisee equally.
Studies
State and Local Policies and Sectoral Labor Standards: From Individual Rights to Collective Power
Ken Jacobs, Rebecca Smith, and Justin McBride
UC Berkeley, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (July 2021)
Fiscal Effects of the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act, AB 257
Ken Jacobs
UC Labor Center (May 2021)
COVID-19 Hazards Among California Fast-Food Workers
Rajiv Bhatia and Martha Dina Arguello
Physicians for Social Responsibility, Los Angeles (April 2021)
Few Options, Many Risks: Low Wage Asian and Latinx Workers in the COVID-19 Pandemic
Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus and University of California, Berkeley Labor and Occupational Health Program (April 2021)
Raising Standards for Fast-Food Workers in California: The Powerful Role of a Sectoral Council
David Madland
Center for American Progress (April 2021)
Strategies to Improve the Franchise Model: Preventing Unfair and Deceptive Franchise Practices
Report from the Office of Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (April 2021)
Wage Theft in Silicon Valley: Building Worker Powers
Michael Tayag, Ruth Silver Taube, Felwina Mondina, Katherine Nasol, and Forest Peterson
Santa Clara County Wage Theft Coalition (April 2021)
The Fast-Food Industry and COVID-19 in Los Angeles
Kuochih Huang, Ken Jacobs, Tia Koonse, Ian Eve Perry, Kevin Riley, Laura Stock and Saba Waheed
UCLA Labor Center, UC Berkeley Labor Center, UCLA Labor Occupational Health and Safety Program, and the UC Berkeley Labor Occupational Health Program (March 2021)
Yea-Hung Chen, Maria Glymour, Alicia Riley, John Balmes, Kate Duchowny, Robert Harrison, Ellicott Matthay, Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo
Institute for Global Health Sciences, UC San Francisco, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, UC San Francisco, Department of Medicine, UC San Francisco (January 2021)
News
November 2020 – 8507 Pearblossom Hwy McDonald’s:
As cases of COVID-19 began to spike heading into the winter, a Littlerock McDonald’s store was devastated after at...
May 17, 2023 – Violence, Jack in the Box, Inglewood AD-61 Tina McKinnor ; SD-35 Steven Bradford
An employee at this Jack in the Box location in Inglewood has had frequent interactions with violent customers who...
May 17, 2023 – Burn, Popeyes, Citrus Heights AD- 7 Josh Hoover; SD-6 Roger W. Niello
A Popeyes worker was severely burned by hot water over her entire arm on April 10, 2023. In her CalOSHA complaint, the...
June 2020 – 6623 San Pablo Ave McDonald’s:
A 19-year-old McDonald’s worker in Oakland was attacked and subject to a racist tirade by a customer after asking the...
June 2020 – 1716 Marengo St. McDonald’s:
Beginning in June 2020, Boyle Heights McDonald’s workers have waged several weeks-long health and safety strikes,...
May 17, 2023 – Child Labor, Violence, Wage Theft, Popeyes, Oakland AD-18, Mia Bonta; SD-9, Nancy Skinner
At a Popeyes in Oakland a 13-year-old was working until midnight on school nights and 17-year-old workers were working...
With fast-food bill, California could help all essential workers
Back to News Amid what looks like the largest labor organizing movement since the Great Depression, California...
California could transform how fast food workers are treated
Back to News Ten years after the launch of the Fight for $15, fast-food workers nationwide are still grappling with...
5 policies that will test Gavin Newsom’s national dreams
Back to News SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom wanted the national spotlight. Now he’s got it. And...
California Fast Food Workers Demand a Seat at the Table
Back to News After over 20 years in the fast food industry, Evelyn Barillas says she’s seen it all. “I’ve seen a lot...
Achon Hightower’s Testimony on hearing
Back to News
We must do more to empower and protect California’s fast food workers
Back to News Take our home state of California for example. It has the fifth largest economy in the world and is the...