Mysheka Ronquillo works as a cashier and cook at a Carl’s Jr. in Long Beach, earning $16 an hour. She’s looking forward to a raise to $20 an hour in April, thanks to a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last fall.
The higher wages will help her pay for school for her 19-year-old daughter, but keeping up with her bills still will be hard because of an unstable schedule that has her working 30 hours some weeks and 24 hours other weeks, she said.
“Gas isn’t going down, rent isn’t going down,” said Ronquillo, 41, who joined an estimated 350 other fast-food workers at a rally at a Watts community center to inaugurate the state’s newest labor organization, the California Fast Food Workers Union.
The union is a unique effort that will pave the way for more than half a million workers at fast-food chains across the state to bargain as a single sector — and could chart a course for other industries across the United States.
Backed by the powerful Service Employees International Union, the California Fast Food Workers Union is the culmination of years of employee walkouts over issues including the handling of sexual harassment claims, wage theft, safety and pay, such as the Fight for $15 movement to increase the minimum wage, organized by SEIU in 2012.