Political Unions, Free Speech, and the Death of Voluntarism: Why Exclusive Representation Violates the First Amendment
Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employee’s International Union (SEIU), was fired up. In May 2023, she gave an interview to Restaurant Dive.1 Her union was then embroiled in a fight over AB 257, a California law that created a labor council for fast-food workers.2 The union had sponsored the law and helped steer it to passage.3 The union had also invested years into the process, and along the way made significant concessions.4 For example, it agreed to drop a provision that would have held fast-food franchisors liable for their franchisees’ labor violations.5 The union gave up that provision because, it hoped, the franchisors would drop their objections to the bill—or at least cool their opposition to a low boil.6
But that didn’t happen. Only days after the governor signed the bill, a franchisor coalition announced that it would run an opposing referendum.7 It would ask voters to repeal the law.8
So predictably, Kay Henry was agitated. She didn’t hesitate to share her thoughts on the referendum. “The question for California voters,” she said, “is ‘are we going to continue to allow corporations to override what our democratically elected state legislature and governor are trying to do to improve the lives of all Californians?’”9
Continue ReadingSee Aneurin Canham-Clyne, How the Biggest Private Sector Union Wants to Transform the Restaurant Workforce, RESTAURANT DIVE (May 1, 2023), https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/how-labor-union-seiu-wants-to-transform-the-restaurant-workforce/648986/ (https://perma.cc/YW5A-8LNN) (interviewing SEIU President Mary Kay Henry).
Assemb. B. 257, 2021–2022 Leg., Reg. Sess. (Cal. 2022).
See A.B. 257 Is a Big Step Forward for California Fast-Food Workers, AFL-CIO (Sept. 7, 2022), https://aflcio.org/2022/9/7/ab-257-big-step-forward-california-fast-food-workers#::text¼The%20passage%20of%20A.B.,fast%2Dfood%20workers%20in%20California [https://perma.cc/DF4D-PQJ7] (crediting the SEIU with steering the bill to passage).
See id. (describing the SEIU’s efforts over “a decade of perseverance and tireless organizing”).
Canham-Clyne, supra note 1 (“The governor’s office thought that if they compromised joint liability out, that it would keep the owners from putting it up for a referendum.”) (quoting Henry).
6. See id.
See Memorandum from Shirley N. Weber, Cal. Sec’y of State, Referendum 1939: Related to Food Facilities and Employment (Jan. 24, 2023), https://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/ccrov/2023/january/23012jh.pdf [https://perma.cc/VC4Q-HX8N] (announcing referendum to challenge A.B. 227). See also Nathaniel Meyersohn, McDonald’s, In-N-Out, and Chipotle Are Spending Millions to Block Raises for Their Workers, CNN BUSINESS (Jan. 26, 2023, 3:28 AM), https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/25/business/california-fast-food-law-workers/index.html [https://perma.cc/ZGS7-XAJH] (reporting that Chipotle, Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, In-N-Out Burger, and Yum! Brands contributed more than $1 million each to fund the referendum).
See Meyersohn, supra note 7 (reporting that referendum, if successful, would “overturn” A.B. 257).
Canham-Clyne, supra note 1 (quoting Henry).