Wages
Minimum Wage – Nearly two dozen states and localities are increasing their respective minimum wages effective July 1, 2022. Mandated hikes will take place in Connecticut, Nevada and Oregon as well as Washington, DC, Chicago and numerous municipalities in California. More details.
Portland, ME – Proponents of a proposed November ballot initiative to mandate an $18/hr local minimum wage turned in 2,000 signatures supporting the measure, well in excess of the 1,500 necessary to qualify. The city is in the process of finalizing the signature counts, according to the city clerk’s office. More details.
Labor Policy
U.S. House – The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a bill to fund the Labor Department for fiscal year 2023. The 34-32 vote sends the measure to the house floor, where lawmakers expect to consider it sometime in July. Included in the language is a measure that would allow the agency to spend at least $1 million developing a way to allow workers to cast ballots online, rather than on paper ballots delivered in person or via the mail. Unions and labor community activists have long advocated electronic voting saying it would make elections more efficient to administer and workers more comfortable to vote. The move is opposed by Republicans, who see it as a way for unions to gain greater control over the process. It is unclear whether the provision will survive the senate’s appropriation process. More details.
NLRB – The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo has asked the Board to disincentivize employers who illegally delay or refuse bargaining a labor contract with unionized workers. Abruzzo wants to require them to pay what workers would have gotten otherwise, in her determination. The agency’s existing practice is to order employers to the negotiating table, which they are bound to do under current law. Abruzzo argues that there currently exist incentives for employers to drag their feet, as they can sap union support and put off potentially having to pay workers higher wages and benefits, potentially for years. Abruzzo wants to institute a “make-whole remedy” that would “reasonably approximate the value of the additional compensation that the employer avoided paying” that would be determined at a compliance hearing. More details.
California – The second of three senate committees advanced the Fast Food Accountability and Standards (FAST) Recovery Act with no amendments. The bill now advances to its third and final committee, Senate Appropriations, which will take up the bill in Aug. following the July recess. The franchisee community again showed up in large numbers to demonstrate opposition to the bill. A number of senators, including those that voted to advance the bill, noted in their public comments that the legislation still needed work. Among other provisions, the legislation would create a Fast Food Sector Council that would establish wage and benefit rates and other workplace standards for quick service restaurants. This concept – often referred to as sectoral bargaining – is popular among labor advocates. The legislation still has an additional committee stop before proceeding to the senate floor. More details.
DoorDash – This week, the app-based delivery platform became the latest restaurant industry player to announce travel-related benefits for workers seeking abortion or other reproductive-related health services. They join a growing list of hospitality companies including Starbucks, Uber, Yelp, Impossible Foods and Union Square Hospitality Group to offer similar benefits. More details.
Labor Activism
Apple – The NLRB certified the results of last week’s vote by Apple workers in Towson, Maryland. The workers voted overwhelmingly to unionize by a margin of 65-33. This store is the first to unionize in the history of the company. The company subsequently announced it intends to bargain in good faith. Workers at a number of other Apple retail locations, particularly in the New York City area, are collecting signatures for their own unionization efforts. More stores are likely to attempt to organize in the coming months. More details.
Medieval Times – A union organizing election will be conducted July 15 by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for 40 employees of the dinner theater company who are “intending to unionize to address compensation, job requirements, and concerns about work conditions and safety”. They seek to be represented by the American Guild of Variety Artists, which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, and represents live act performances at theaters and theme parks across the country. Notable performers they represent include entertainers at Disneyland and the Radio City Rockettes. More details.
Trader Joe’s – A second unit of the national grocery chain, this one in Minneapolis, MN, has filed a petition for an organizing election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Earlier this month a unit in Hadley, MA began the organizing process as well. Once certified by the NLRB, an election process covering many weeks will begin. More details.
Sustainability
California – The governor signed legislation that targets the production of single-use plastic packaging and food ware in the state over the next decade. Under the terms of SB-54, plastic manufacturers will create their own “producer responsibility organization” to achieve reductions in single-use plastic of 25 percent by 2032. Producers will also put $500 million a year for 10 years beginning in 2027 into a plastic waste mitigation fund. The organization will operate under an advisory board made up of environmentalists and representatives from California cities, waste management companies, recycling advocates, disadvantaged communities and rural associations. The California Department of Recycling will regulate and monitor the producer group. The bill also bans polystyrene food ware by Jan. 2025 unless manufacturers demonstrate that they can recycle 25 percent of it. Its passage is intended to avert a plastics fee ballot initiative pending for this Nov. More details.
Key Takeaways
- Predictably, there is growing conservative backlash focused on companies who have announced plans to provide abortion-related travel benefits for employees. Several national antiabortion groups and their allies in Republican-led state legislatures are considering model legislation to stop people in states where abortion is banned from seeking the procedure elsewhere, according to people involved in the discussions. Many of these same groups have turned their attention to corporate brands and many conservative attorneys general are facing increased pressure to pursue legal action against companies offering these benefits. This issue will get increasingly complicated in the weeks and months ahead and corporate leaders will have to be careful in assessing their business, legal and reputational risks for both action and inaction in this space.
- The proponents of sectoral bargaining had a big week. Not only did the FAST Act easily clear an additional committee hurdle this week in the California senate, but much more importantly, Uber came to a landmark agreement in Australia with the country’s transportation unions to create an all-new, government-funded independent regulatory body, which would be responsible for rolling out a new minimum wage “safety net” for gig economy workers and offer them a framework to launch workplace disputes. Additionally, the company agreed to recognize the unionization efforts of its more than 100,000-strong Australian workforce. Uber’s American-based CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, was effusive in his praise for the deal. Uber will now come under intense pressure to replicate the deal in the U.S. and when and if it does, it will dramatically and immediately change the hourly employment marketplace with regard to gig workers and overtime with regard to all other entry-level employees.
Podcast
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