L.A. fast food workers call on city officials to approve 'fair work week' law
A group of Los Angeles fast food workers walked off the job Tuesday to urge city officials to approve a law that would give them more control over their work schedules.
Fast food workers have long complained of unstable schedules that make it difficult to plan their finances, child care, medical appointments and other obligations.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez introduced an ordinance last year that aims to give these workers more stability and consistency in scheduling, but the council has yet to vote on the measure.
The proposal would expand the reach of the city's existing Fair Work Week law — which requires that employers give retail workers their schedules in advance — to include some 2,500 large chain fast food restaurants that employ roughly 50,000 workers.
More than 60 fast food workers rallied outside City Hall at around 11 a.m. Tuesday sporting purple union T-shirts and carrying "on strike" signs printed in Spanish and English.
The rally was planned by California's statewide union of fast food workers, which formed last year. The California Fast Food Workers Union is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, which for years has helped to organize fast food employee walkouts over wage theft, safety and pay.
Lizzet Aguilar, 44, a cashier at a McDonald's in the downtown L.A. area, said she was scheduled for a three-hour shift Tuesday that she skipped to join the rally.
Aguilar said she was scheduled to work only two days this week, with each shift just three hours long.
Having so few hours, she said, makes it difficult to contribute to her household finances and care for her 10-year-old son, whom she brought with her to the rally.
"This isn't fair. We can't survive on this," she said.
Several workers from a Wingstop in Westwood also participated in the rally.
Edgar Recinos, 32, a cook at the Wingstop who earns $20 an hour, said he struggles to pay his rent when his schedule and hours change weekly.
Recinos said he was scheduled last week for 30 hours, but this week he's scheduled for 17 hours, he said, adding that he works a second job at a smoothie store.
"It makes no sense," Recinos said. "It's an unstable situation."
The tentative ordinance also includes an annual mandatory six-hour paid training to help educate workers on their rights. And it would require that fast food workers accrue an hour of paid time off for every 30 hours they work — on top of paid sick leave to which they are already entitled.
The Fast Food Workers Union cited a recent report published by labor researchers at Northwestern and Rutgers that found 1 in 4 fast food workers were illegally paid below the minimum wage. Additionally, these workers lose almost $3,500 a year, or about 16% of their income, because of this persistent wage theft in the industry, the report said.
Legislation related to boosting worker protections typically doesn't face substantial opposition from the L.A. City Council. However, the process can take time and the matter must first be heard by the council's economic development and jobs committee before going to the full city council for a vote.
A measure to boost wages for hotel and airport workers, for example, was introduced by city councilmembers in April 2023 and was finally approved more than a year and a half later, in December 2024.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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