Wages
Nebraska – The secretary of state’s office announced that it had verified enough signatures to place a minimum wage ballot initiative before voters in the general election. The measure would ratchet up the minimum wage to $15/hr by 2026. The first incremental increase would bump it to $10.50/hr in January 2023. The state’s current minimum wage is $9/hr. Petition organizers have said the measure would raise wages for an estimated 150,000 workers in the state. More details.
U.S. Bank – The company announced it will raise the minimum wage for its employees to $20/hr later this year. The bank said all employees in the U.S. and Canada would make at least $20/hr, effective in early Nov. In June, the company increased its minimum wage from $15/hr to $18/hr, with the latest hike coming amid increasingly intense competition to hire workers. The bank will also give a base pay increase of 3 percent to 35,000 hourly and salaried employees. More details.
Paid Leave
California – Legislation is on its way to the governor prohibiting employers from refusing an eligible employee’s request to take up to five days of bereavement leave in the event of a family member’s death. The new law would require leave be taken within three months of the date of death and would require leave be taken pursuant to any existing bereavement leave policy of the employer. However, if the employer does not have a policy in place, the new law would authorize an employee to use leave balances (i.e., accrued and available paid sick leave) or otherwise take unpaid bereavement leave. The governor is expected to sign the bill. More details.
Labor Policy
California – A coalition of restaurants, known as the Protect Neighborhood Restaurants, filed the necessary paperwork to begin gathering more than 600,000 signatures (roughly 5 percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2018 election) to refer the recently-signed FAST Act to the 2024 ballot. The signatures must be gathered and submitted prior to Dec. 4. If successful, the law will be suspended until voters can decide on the measure. The coalition, which is supported by the International Franchise Association, the National Restaurant Association, and numerous other small businesses and organizations, spoke out against the bill during their referendum announcement. The new law establishes a panel with members appointed by the governor and legislative leaders composed of workers, union representatives, employers, and business advocates. Among many powers related to setting workplace standards, the panel will be able to set hourly wages of up to $22/hr for fast food workers starting next year and can increase them annually by the same rate as the consumer price index (up to a maximum of 3.5 percent). More details.
NLRB – The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) released its highly-anticipated, proposed joint employer rule which would establish two or more employers as joint employers if they “share or codetermine” key employment conditions such as pay, scheduling, workplace safety, and employee discipline policies. That includes indirect and reserved authority over those terms and conditions. The NLRB proposal would overturn the Trump-era effort to enshrine a stricter “substantial, direct and immediate” control over employment conditions in order to qualify as a joint employer. Public comments on this proposed rule must be received by the Board on, or before, Nov. 7, 2022. More details.
NLRB – The agency struck down a Trump-era ruling that gave companies more leeway to block union button-wearing at work. It marks the first reversal of a significant Trump-era precedent since Democratic members gained the majority on the five-member board 11 months ago. In the decision, the Biden NLRB said previous Trump-era decisions on the issue were fundamentally flawed because those rulings treated the display of union emblems as a privilege granted by employers, rather than a labor law right that must be accommodated unless there are special circumstances. Tesla could appeal the decision to federal circuit court, as the company did with the NLRB’s ruling that CEO Elon Musk illegally threatened workers via a tweet with the loss of stock options if they formed a union. More details.
Starbucks – The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection is suing the company over allegations that they wrongfully terminated a barista and union organizer. It’s the first lawsuit under the city’s new “just cause” law. Under city law, the company is not allowed to fire a worker who has completed a 30 day probation or reduce his/her hours by more than 15 percent without just cause or an economic justification. The worker alleges retaliation for his union activities. The company said that the employee was fired for failing to fill out a COVID-19 questionnaire and falsely reporting that a supervisor made physical contact with him, according to the city’s lawsuit. The missteps were reportedly confirmed by surveillance footage, but the suit states that the employee’s district and store manager did not let him see that footage and his shifts were subsequently canceled. More details.
Labor Activism
Heine Brothers Coffee – Workers at a Louisville, KY location have voted to unionize, making Heine Brothers the latest independent chain to do so. The company is a small regional chain with around 250 workers. The new union has chosen to affiliate with the SEIU. More details.
Starbucks – On Labor Day, union supporters held “sip-ins” at over 100 company locations. The sip-ins are modeled after sit-ins. In this case, patrons come in, order cheap drinks or water, and leave large tips. The sip-ins are aimed at demonstrating solidarity with the unions currently organizing stores throughout the chain. Members of other unions, elected officials, and other community leaders participated in many of the events. In other news, the company lost its appeal of a federal judge’s order to reinstate seven employees at a Memphis store after finding the company illegally retaliated against them for helping organize a union. The employees, known as the “Memphis Seven,” were fired on Feb. 8 for previously violating its safety policies, sparking a complaint from the NLRB. The terminations included five of the store’s six union organizing committee members and two others involved in the efforts. More details.
Key Takeaways
- The Starbucks “sip-ins” over Labor Day, among other things, served as a test run for a future National Day of Action. Previously, strikes and actions have been in reaction to local events, and not coordinated nationally. As negotiations intensify, expect coordinated national strikes and protests (almost certainly at these locations again, with new ones as well). As we saw with Fight for $15 actions, protest days are likely to spill over and impact nearby employers.
- The FAST Act being signed into law the same week that the NLRB released its proposed joint-employer rule is the starkest statement to date that the industry’s business model is under assault at all levels of government. The industry is entering a critical period where decisions by brands (and local operators) over the next 6-18 months could impact the regulatory environment for decades. A year from now, we could have some version of the FAST Act in four or five large states, and a slew of new federal regulations. Or we could be successful in blunting the union’s momentum in state capitols and D.C. Some of it will be determined by luck and circumstance, but a lot of it will be determined by how / if the industry, collectively, rises to the occasion.
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.