State and local strategies for building worker power: Can California’s FAST Recovery Act transform fast food jobs and be a model for the nation?

Date: August 18, 2022

Fast food workers are organizing to raise wages and standards in an industry known for wage theft and other widespread worker rights violations. The California FAST Recovery Act (AB 257) would establish a statewide Fast Food Sector Council made up of workers, employers, and state officials that would meet regularly to set industry standards on wages, work hours, and other conditions for fast-food workers.

On August 18th EPI experts, fast food workers, union leaders, and state legislators, came together for a discussion about how proposed sectoral councils could work to set industry-wide standards, and the potential for standards boards to change the balance of power between workers and employers in fast food and beyond.

Who:

  • Joseph Bryant, Executive Vice President, SEIU 
  • Jennifer Sherer, Senior State Policy Coordinator, EARN Worker Power Project, Economic Policy Institute
  • Angelica Hernandez, Los Angeles McDonald’s worker
  • Moderator: Naomi Walker, Vice President, Economic Policy Institute

When: Thursday, August 18, 2022, 4:00–5:00 p.m. ET, 1:00–2:00 p.m. PT

Where: YouTube, Zoom