McDonald’s employee Nidia Torres (right) speaks at a rally of fast-food workers and supporters for passage of AB 257, a fast-food worker health and safety bill, on April 16, 2021, in Los Angeles.Mario Tama/Getty
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Mysheka Ronquillo usually gets up around 6 in the morning to provide in-home care to two clients in Los Angeles. In the afternoon, Ronquillo then doubles back south to her second job at a Carl’s Jr. in Long Beach. After what can be an hours-long trek on public transit, her managers at the fast-food chain sometimes send her home without pay because there’s not enough work to do.
“They look at us like we’re just a number,” Ronquillo says. “We don’t have feelings. We’re not human. We don’t have children and bills.” The indignities of being one of California’s more than 500,000 fast-food workers have led her to organize in support of a new bill that would establish a statewide council tasked with setting minimum conditions and wages for the industry. The legislation has the potential to serve as a model for states seeking to help a wide range of workers at a time when labor law reform is stalled in Congress.
AB 257—the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act—passed the California Assembly by a wide margin in January. The state Senate’s appropriations committee backed the legislation last week by a 5-2 margin, and supporters are cautiously optimistic...
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