Wages
California – Last Friday, a Superior Court judge granted a preliminary injunction that keeps the controversial FAST Act on hold, at least a bit longer. In the ruling, the judge said the FAST Act should remain on hold until industry-gathered petition signatures (which triggers a referendum) can be verified. Once those signatures are verified (which is expected by Jan. 27 but it could take at the most until March 13), then the FAST Act will be paused until Nov. 2024, when the referendum is scheduled to go before voters. More details.
Washington, D.C. – The city council unanimously approved emergency legislation postponing the implementation of the voter-approved Initiative 82. D.C. employers are now required to raise the wages of their tipped workers from $5.35/hr to $6/hr beginning in May. Tipped workers will then see their wages rise again in July to $8/hr. In Nov., D.C. residents voted to eliminate the tipped minimum by 2027. The city’s Home Rule Act requires every bill passed by the council and signed by the mayor to be transmitted to Congress for a 30-day review period. But because of a leadership vacuum in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this month, this and many other pieces of legislation were delayed. More details.
Paid Leave
U.S. Congress – There was significant activity on the issue this week including more than 80 House Democrats pressuring the Administration to include 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave in their fiscal 2024 budget request. The letter was authored by the ranking members of both the House Ways & Means Committee as well as the Appropriations Committee. Additionally, a bipartisan group of house lawmakers plan to announce the formation of a new task force that will include Republican Reps. Stephanie Bice (OK), Julia Letlow (LA), and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA), and Democratic Reps. Chrissy Houlahan (PA), Haley Stevens (MI), and Colin Allred (TX). More details.
Minnesota – The Senate Jobs and Economic Development Committee approved a measure that would give Minnesota workers up to 12 weeks paid family leave and up to an additional 12 weeks paid sick leave if it’s eventually signed into law. The bill now moves to the Labor Committee. Additionally, similar language is being inserted into the state budget proposal. More details.
Labor Policy
NLRB – An appellate court in D.C. ruled that the Trump-era National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) violated federal rulemaking procedures for parts of its changes to union elections. At the time, the revamp outraged organized labor, which felt that they wiped away progress made by a 2014 update to how unionization votes were held, and the AFL-CIO sued to invalidate several of the rules approved by the Trump-era Board. Then-U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson threw out the changes, ruling that they should have been subject to the public comment process. In a divided ruling, an appellate panel ruled that three parts of the NLRB’s changes did violate rulemaking requirements but reinstated two other components that dealt with internal agency procedures. The ruling may not have an immediate impact on how the board conducts union elections and both sides can ask the full DC Circuit to consider the case and then seek review from the U.S. Supreme Court. More details.
Labor Activism
BLS – The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released data this week showing that union membership hit an all-time low in 2022 despite a surge in organizing efforts that emerged during the pandemic. The percentage of U.S. workers who belong to a union dropped from 10.3 percent to 10.1 percent because the job market added non-unionized workers at a faster rate than unionized workers. That’s the lowest the figure has been since the agency first started tracking comparable data nearly four decades ago. The decline comes despite the highest union approval rate in decades and a pro-union administration and supports earlier findings that while many workers view organized labor favorably, that doesn’t always mean they want to join its ranks. Gallup reported earlier this year that while 71 percent of Americans view unions favorably, 58 percent of non-unionized workers say they are “not interested at all” in joining a union. More details.
Peet’s Coffee – A unit in Davis, CA is set to vote in the next few days to unionize and affiliate with the local Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Another unit in the same city had also arranged to vote on unionization, but the group withdrew its petition. Increased activity all across the city comes against the backdrop of a major unionization effort by professors at nearby University of California – Davis. More details.
Sunergos – Workers at a unit in Louisville, KY voted to unionize, affiliating with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). About 57 baristas, shift leads, delivery, bakery workers, among others who were employed by the company as of early Dec. were eligible to vote in the election. The workers will join NCFO 32BJ SEIU, the same union that employees of the 17-unit Heine Brothers Coffee chain voted to join last year. More details.
Starbucks – Despite the company winning a union election by nearly a two-to-one margin, an NLRB Regional Director is asking the Board to issue a “bargaining order” forcing Starbucks to recognize and bargain with the union at a Florida location. The NLRB only issues bargaining orders in cases where it finds severe misconduct that cannot be addressed by traditional remedies, such as requiring employers to post notices of violations. If the Board agrees with the Regional Director the union will, in effect, become the bargaining representative for workers in that unit. The company will almost certainly continue to litigate the issue. More details.
Key Takeaways
- This week’s New York Times piece alleging that the National Restaurant Association’s Serv-Safe program is little more than a funding mechanism for its political activities is disturbing on many levels. Putting aside the fact that it was a poorly-researched hit piece and apparently timed in concert with One Fair Wage’s newly-announced food handler certification program, there could be significant legislative and regulatory implications across the country. There is a legitimate concern that the SEIU and their activist partners will advocate One Fair Wage’s program in lieu of Serv-Safe in friendly venues similar to those targeted for FAST Act copycats. This could be both a serious reputational and political challenge for the industry as the two issues could split priorities between both leading industry members and key industry trade associations. Brands need to pay close attention to this space.
- Discussion of a potential federal ban on natural gas stoves became a political flashpoint last week. The prospect drew such widespread condemnation that even the White House was put in the position of publicly announcing their opposition to any such efforts. While this was an important development in the arc of this issue, it is not the end of the conversation. The environmental community will continue in its efforts at the state and local level to chip away at the utilization of natural gas as a cooking and heating source. It will remain an issue with which the industry will continue to grapple.
Podcast
Check out our Working Lunch podcast each week that includes further analysis into these legislative issues, policy, politics and much more. You can find Working Lunch on the Restaurant Business online website, SoundCloud, iTunes and Spotify.