A customer gets assistance at the In-N-Out Burger in Santa Ana, Calif., April 1, 2021.
Photo:
Leonard Ortiz/Zuma Press
The early 20th-century era of progressive government gave birth to California’s referendum process. Fast forward 111 years, and California’s progressive leaders are vitiating the right of voters to overturn state laws. Businesses are going to court to stop them.
On Thursday the group Save Local Restaurants sued in state court to block the state from implementing a destructive new law on Jan. 1. The law creates a state council to dictate wages, working conditions and benefits, among other things, for fast-food workers who aren’t unionized. The law is intended to coerce fast-food franchises to surrender to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Save Local Restaurants has filed a referendum petition with more than one million signatures, which far exceeds the 623,212 required to qualify for the November 2024 ballot. Under the state constitution, a law is required to be put on hold once a referendum petition with enough signatures is filed.
But Democratic state officials say the law will take effect on Jan. 1 until all the signatures are verified, which could take months. Meantime, the state council could issue edicts such as raising the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $22 a hour. While the council’s mandates couldn’t go into effect until Oct. 15, employers would have to prepare to comply.
Employers could also get blitzed with lawsuits since the law creates a private right of action for fast-food workers that lets them sue if they claim to have been discriminated against for making workplace complaints. Workers would be entitled to treble damages for lost wages and benefits, plus attorneys’ fees.
Union president
Mary Kay Henry
called the referendum “nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to silence more than half a million fast-food workers in California and intimidate…
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