The California Fast Food Council hasn’t met in over a year

from Levi SumagasaiCalMatters

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California’s first-in-the-nation fast-food council — created to give workers a voice on wages, safety and working conditions — hasn’t met in more than a year and is without a chairman.

Now the workers the council was created to protect, organized by the Service Employees International Union, are taking their concerns directly to the state, demanding that Gov. Gavin Newsom appoint a chairman so the council can do its job as required by law.

Luna Mondragon, who works at Carl’s Jr. in Milpitas, told CalMatters through an interpreter that she started out as a cook, but held many other duties during her five years there. After joining the fast-food workers union, she said she started speaking up, especially when she started experiencing aches and pains from her job. Since then, she said, she has been retaliated against, including with fewer shifts.

“If we don’t have our health, we can’t achieve anything,” she said, her voice choked with emotion. “It’s so important for them to appoint a chairman. We need the council.”

The council was created as part of the 2023 compromise, which also set a $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers. It has the power to set standards for wages, health, safety and working conditions — and to raise the minimum wage annually for hundreds of thousands of workers at fast-food chains with 60 or more locations nationwide.

The council – consisting of four members representing business, four members representing labor and a chairman who is an “independent” member of the public – must, under state law, hold at least two meetings per year, although the law does not specify who should enforce this provision.

The Council only held these meetings in 2024; last year, he held two subcommittee meetings, the last in February 2025. Shortly thereafter, Council President Nick Hardeman resigned when Newsom appointed him to another state job. When contacted by CalMatters, Hardeman said he didn’t want to speak officially about a board he hasn’t chaired in a while.

In 2022, the Legislature raised the minimum wage for fast food workers to $22 an hour. The industry fought back, gathering signatures to repeal the law. Workers across the state went on strike. In late 2023, SEIU and industry reached a last-minute compromise: workers gave up the vote in exchange for a $20 minimum wage and the creation of the council. The SEIU-affiliated California Fast Food Workers Union launched the following year — without the collective bargaining rights of a traditional union, but acting as a worker advocacy and membership group.

Tara Gallegos, a spokeswoman for the governor, did not respond to questions about the council, instead referring CalMatters to the state’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency. Crystal Young, a spokeswoman for the agency, confirmed there is no chairman and council meetings have been postponed. The four council officers continue to respond to inquiries and prepare for future meetings, she said.

On April 16, marking about two years since the council first met, workers delivered a 96-page book to the governor’s office detailing more than 100 complaints filed with CalOSHA, the state Department of Labor and various city agencies since the council was formed, alleging wage theft and poor working conditions. The union estimates there are about 630,000 fast-food workers in the state, about 75 percent of whom are people of color and 20 percent of whom are immigrants.

“Employers feel empowered to threaten us with calling ICE when we ask questions about paid sick leave or (workers’ compensation) or report health and safety hazards,” Angelica Hernandez, a McDonald’s employee who sits on the fast-food board, said in the book.

Rich Rainis, a council member who represents the employers and is a former franchise owner, said he doesn’t know when meetings will resume and is waiting. According to him, the council should have discussed “fire and ice”. The phrase refers to the effects of last year’s fires in Los Angeles County on the fast-food industry and its workers, some of whom lost their homes, and what businesses and workers need to know about immigration enforcement.

Raineys also wants the council to order a study of the effects of the wage increase on prices and employment. Competitive studies from UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz came to opposite conclusions, and the issue of affordability remains unresolved, he said.

A Los Angeles Times columnist who analyzed competing studies concluded that the debate over wage effects is likely to continue. Hernandez, the council member, rejected the industry’s claims that the wage increase has hurt business. “The sky did not fall on the fast food industry in California,” she said.

The council is also required to submit a performance review to the legislature every three years — a deadline looming without a single full meeting in the past year. Before resigning, Hardeman, the former chairman, said it was difficult for the council to make decisions.

“The staff will have to write a report without having meetings,” Rainis said. “How the hell are we supposed to do this?”

Chris Holden, a former California assemblyman who authored the law that raised worker wages and created the council, told CalMatters that the council is “innovative” and “needs to address the challenges that were the genesis of the council in the first place.” He said he hopes the governor does his due diligence to find a new chairman.

“I want to tell (the governor) to finish the job that he started,” Julieta Garcia, a cook at Pizza Hut in Los Angeles, told CalMatters through an interpreter. “Leave a good legacy for this generation and future generations so you can be recognized as a leader who gave fast food workers a chance.”

Young, a spokesman for the Labor and Workforce Development Agency who spoke on behalf of the governor, confirmed that Newsom’s office had received the employment record.

The governor’s office has not said when — or if — Newsom plans to appoint a council chairman.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.