A fast-food law that Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted last week sets a dangerous precedent for unions to manipulate and use to decimate small businesses, according to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).
“It's basically instituting a specific panel made up of mostly pro-union advocates and workers and with very little small business voices involved to determine wages, benefits, and other circumstances for employees of fast food enterprises,” said John Kabateck, NFIB’s California state director.
AB 257, also known as the Fast-Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act, was sponsored by Assemblymember Chris Holden (D-Pasadena) and empowers a government-appointed council called the Fast Food Council to increase minimum wages to $22 an hour and set workplace standards for fast food workers.
“We're very concerned because we clearly see this is just going to be a slippery slope and just the beginning, we fear, of retail, other restaurants, and manufacturing following suit,” Kabateck told the Southern California Record. “They will not leave a stone unturned until they unionize every business and every sector in the Golden State. That should be alarming to all of us.”
The Fast Food Council will be part of the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR). Its member will include fast food workers, advocates, franchisees, franchisors, representatives from the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, and the DIR.
“Minimum wage will probably continue to rise based on its tie to inflation anyway,” Kabateck said. “What's more problematic here is that it's opening the door for any and every industry to be dictated by non-elected officials, bureaucrats, political appointees, and not the very people who started the business and pursued their entrepreneurial dream. That's concerning.”
Gov. Newsom argued in a statement online that fast-food workers have helped build the state’s world-class economy and should share in the resulting prosperity.
However, the NFIB foresees that the new law could eventually lead to hamburgers costing $22.
“Small business owners will be facing the very concerning political crossroad of either raising prices on things like hamburgers, movie theater admission, and other costs of vital goods in stores and the more likely decision of scaling back wages, benefits, or hours, and the very positions of entry-level workers,” Kabateck added.