OPINION:
Labor unions are entitled to their opinions on public policy, but not their own facts.
In California right now, the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, is using bogus data and false claims to enhance its efforts to organize restaurant workers. Congress needs to pay attention because what happens in California doesn’t stay there for long.
Last year, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 257, an SEIU-backed scheme to create an unelected council of union appointees to regulate workplace standards for fast-food outlets. The union justified its proposal with a report claiming that these businesses were uniquely bad violators of state labor law.
Yet data from the state’s own Department of Industrial Relations debunked this argument. According to an analysis of the data by the Employment Policies Institute (EPI is managed by Berman and Co.), fast-food businesses account for just 1.6% of all reported wage violations, up to five times lower than other industries.
That inconvenient truth didn’t keep the Legislature from passing AB257, but their constituents may have other ideas: This past fall, over a million California voters signed petitions to halt the law and place it on the ballot as a referendum in 2024.
Instead of listening to the reasonable voices of voters, the SEIU ignored them.
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