Is Assembly Bill 257 covertly unionizing fast food workers?

AB 257, currently being considered in the Senate, purports to protect fast food employees by guaranteeing fair wages. However, the California Policy Center team claims that by capitalizing on workers’ rights platforms, the bill distracts attention from its end result: unionizing statewide fast food restaurants. CPC argues the dangers of AB 257 for businesses, workers, and California’s already-precarious economy. To receive daily updates of new Opp Now stories, click here.

Despite their loss on CalCare, unions are celebrating a big Assembly win on AB257 – the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act, or “FAST Recovery Act.” Sponsored by SEIU, AB257 would create a government council that would take over labor “negotiations” with fast-food businesses, setting statewide minimums for wages, working hours, and working conditions for restaurants and workers in the state.

As Assemblyman Kelly Seyarto (R-Murrieta) correctly observed, the bill’s state-imposed contract would “just drive entire franchises and franchise brands away from California.” And while the unions are using McDonald’s as the face of the “evil corporation” they are up against, the reality is the bill, if it becomes law, will punish existing and potential minority owners of franchises as well as the low-income communities that rely on fast-food restaurants for food and jobs.

In fact, the greedy villain in this story isn’t fast-food chains. It’s the labor unions that are pouring buckets of cash into a bill they don’t actually want to pass. The unions’ real strategy is to use AB257 to strong-arm fast-food restaurants into unionizing.

The payoff? Over a half a million fast-food workers that union leaders hope will soon pay union dues in the hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

This article originally appeared in the California Policy Center. Read the whole thing here.

Follow Opportunity Now on Twitter @svopportunity

Image by Maria Lindsey