California fast-food workers launch new union: ‘They have to listen to us’
www.theguardian.com
Move builds on victory in late 2023 to boost pay of more than half a million workers in sector to $20 an hour
  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    The new union comes in the wake of a victory at the end of 2023 to boost pay for California’s more than 500,000-strong fast-food workforce to $20 an hour.

    The fast-food industry responded by blocking the measure from going into effect by gathering signatures for a 2024 ballot initiative to repeal the law.

    A settlement was reached between labor and industry groups in September 2023 to avoid what was anticipated to be a very expensive, hotly contested ballot measure in November 2024.

    The settlement included raising the minimum wage for fast-food workers at chains with more than 60 locations to $20 an hour in California, which is set to go into effect on 1 April this year.

    “These efforts have been led in California over the last decade by primarily Black and Latino cooks and cashiers who have been fighting and have been able to show when they come together what kind of power they can have to really take on massive corporations like Starbucks, McDonald’s and Burger King, which have done everything to crush their workers and crush the idea of them pulling together a union,” said Joseph Bryant, international executive vice-president of the Service Employees International Union.

    Monroe argued the opposition to the Fight for $15 movement and legislative efforts from the fast-food industry and wealthy corporations were indicative of the power workers have in joining together, learning their rights at work, and speaking up to enforce them so abuses against workers aren’t left unchallenged and allowed to perpetuate as standards in the industry.

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