California union alleges that fast-food effort to block new labor law is ‘willfully misleading voters’
The Service Employees International Union, one of the unions that sued to block the fast-food industry’s campaign to make workers sign an agreement that would give workers more security and a bigger share of their income, is making itself into the target of an investigation by the state attorney general. Attorney General Kamala Harris’ office is looking into whether SEIU’s unionization campaign may have violated the so-called “Laffer Curve” of tax and budget increases required to boost growth. The “Laffer Curve” suggests that when tax rates rise, it has the effect of boosting growth.
SEIU, one of the main unions that have been resisting the growth of fast-food restaurants as a growth industry, recently joined with the California Chamber of Commerce to launch a “Fair Pay Pledge” campaign, which would deny the right of workers to join a union. And on April 19, SEIU joined a coalition of other unions in a lawsuit against McDonald’s and Wendy’s that could threaten the fast-food restaurant industry, and more generally, unions in California.
According to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle, the SEIU-backed “Fair Pay Pledge” campaign is not just about the fact that workers at fast-food restaurants get paid more than their counterparts in other industries. The pledge would deny workers at fast-food restaurants the right to unionize. The San Francisco Chronicle’s report claims that the National Labor Relations Board has already ordered the Golden State’s attorney general to launch an investigation into the SEIU’s unionization campaign.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s report says that SEIU’s leadership made SEIU a target for its contract with the city of San Francisco. SEIU’s contract with the city requires that the city provide workers at both union and non-union companies with the same rights. But according to the Chronicle, the SEIU “Fair Pay Pledge” would require non-union workers at fast-food restaurants to pay a higher share of their income in dues than workers working at unionized fast-food restaurants.
“I can’t tell you what I am going to do, but I am going to do it,” Steve Hill, the state director of SEIU
