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| Photo Credit: AP. |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Restaurant owners moved Wednesday to at least temporarily block a nation-leading new California law giving more power to fast food workers.
The owners
want the state’s voters to ultimately decide the law’s fate.
A coalition
calling itself Protect Neighborhood Restaurants filed a referendum request with
the state attorney general, the first step before the law’s opponents can begin
gathering signatures. If they get enough, the law that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed
on Monday, Labor Day, wouldn’t take effect unless it’s supported by a majority
of voters.
If it
stands, the law will create a 10-member Fast Food Council with equal numbers of
workers’ delegates and employers’ representatives, along with two state
officials, who will be empowered to set minimum standards for wages, hours and
working conditions in California.
The law will
raise consumer costs, isn’t needed, and will create “a fractured economy” with
different regulations for different types of restaurants, objected the
coalition. The coalition is co-chaired by the International Franchise
Association and the National Restaurant Association, but organizers said it
includes small business owners, restaurateurs, franchisees, employees,
consumers, and community-based organizations.
“As a result of backroom politicking, Governor
Newsom has signed a lie into law and maligned all of California’s quick service
small businesses and local franchisees as bad employers,” the group said.
It said
Newsom, a Democrat, signed the bill against the advice of his own Department of
Finance “to curry favor with special interest groups and organized labor.”
Newsom’s
office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
“It is
saddening that the industry is looking for a way out of providing a seat at the
table amongst all stakeholders,” said the bill’s author, Democratic Assemblyman
Chris Holden. He said the workers “make the multi-billion fast food industry
possible” and that “giving equal representation of employees and employers is
the recipe for sustainable, long-term growth in an inclusive manner.”
Service
Employees International Union California President David Huerta said the
restaurant chains “are attempting to overthrow cooks and cashiers’ historic
victory.”
“Instead of pouring money to suppress the
voices of Black and Latino cooks and cashiers, fast-food corporations should
sit down and listen to them.” he said.
The
opponents would not immediately say if they are shooting for this November’s
ballot or for the 2024 election.
Rules are
different for referenda, which seek to overturn laws, than for ballot
initiatives that seek to enact them. They can go on the ballot with an
expedited process, as little as a month before the election. That compares to
initiatives, which must qualify 131 days before.
But to
qualify for this November’s ballot the opponents would have to gather more than
600,000 signatures within a few weeks, or 5% of the votes cast for all
candidates for governor in the 2018 election. That makes it far more likely the
referendum would go before voters in November 2024 if opponents take the full
90 days they are allotted to gather signatures, with the law on hold until
voters weigh in.