Fast food workers in California are demanding employers sign a pledge reaffirming workers’ rights amid Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids at workplaces across the US.
The California Fast Food Workers Union, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, drafted a Constitutional Pledge to California Workers’ Rights for workplaces to sign that affirms a commitment to protecting workers and “keep ICE from going where they are not allowed”.
The pledge includes a list of actions that would protect vulnerable workers, such as making sure workers have access to private, protected areas in the workplace and ensuring that enforcement officers aren’t entering these spaces without a judicial warrant.
In San Jose, workers at a McDonald’s franchise walked out earlier this month after management declined to affirm they would help employees if ICE showed up, telling workers to instead hide in their cars should enforcement arrive.
“McDonald’s has the legal right to deny [immigration enforcement officers] entry to private areas of the store if they don’t present a warrant signed by a federal judge,” wrote the California Fast Food Workers Union in response to the strike, adding that other “businesses have put up signs as well as trained their staff to enforce that right”.
Candida Masin, a McDonald’s worker in Los Angeles, told the Guardian that as immigration enforcement ramped up over last summer, co-workers started calling out of work.
“They say that they are not going to come to work because ICE is close and they are afraid to leave their home. That impacts us because we have to take on their workload,” Masin said, adding that it has also affected the number of customers visiting her store. “ICE agents were raiding areas just two blocks from where I was and I saw my co-workers crying, I saw customers that were really scared. I had to take on double duty to help calm their nerves because I could see how this fear really impacts people.”
Masin said she and other fast food workers have visited dozens of different franchise locations to push them to sign on to and post the pledge, which outlines how workplaces can keep “ICE and other federal agents from going where they are legally not allowed, protect workers’ privacy and ensure workers’ safety”.
Though the immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles have calmed since last summer, ICE continues to conduct raids and arrests across the city, which is home to an estimated 3.5 million immigrants. Of the more than 630,000 fast food workers in California, over a quarter are immigrants.
Fast food workers in Los Angeles and Santa Clarita counties in California have also been pushing for a fast food fair work ordinance, which would provide paid trainings for workers to learn about their rights on the job.
Masin argued it’s important for employers to educate workers and affirm their rights in the workplace to mitigate the anxiety they have when showing up to work.
“The fear is there and if people don’t know their rights, the fear will always be there in their minds,” added Masin. “It helps when you know your rights. If you don’t, then you won’t feel a difference in your workplace.”
McDonald’s and the California Restaurant Association did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Donald Trump’s ramped up immigration enforcement in California has resulted in a downturn in private sector jobs throughout the state and economic losses for businesses.
Following Trump’s deployment of the national guard to Los Angeles last summer, private sector jobs recorded a 5% decline in June and July, according to a recent study by the University of California Merced’s Community and Labor Center. A Los Angeles county report found that 82% of local businesses reported negative impacts from the immigration raids and 44% reported losses of greater than half their normal revenue.
“Working people across Los Angeles are demanding global fast food employers sign the constitutional pledge to declare they are choosing courage over silence and dignity over fear,” said David Green, president and executive director of SEIU Local 721 in Los Angeles. “Fast-food companies must stand with cooks and cashiers in this moment, and do their part in building workplaces and communities where all of us can thrive together, stronger and unafraid.”
