Despite pushback from the business community, the Sunnyvale City Council remained determined to pursue an ordinance designed to protect contracted food-service workers.
At its most recent meeting, Sept. 30, the council voted unanimously to continue studying the issue despite a recommendation from city employees that they kill it.
The topic originally came up after Santa Clara passed regulations in 2017 that put guardrails to protect hotel and food-service workers when a business switches vendors.
At the behest of Unite Here Local 19, a food-service worker union, the council considered a similar ordinance — one requiring businesses with 25 or more employees or contracting for $25,000 or more to retain employees for three months, only lay off employees for cause and do so by seniority.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic waylaid the effort until late last year.
Connie Verceles, deputy city manager, told the council that after much outreach, city employees determined such an ordinance was not tenable. Typically, she said, such ordinances are more necessary when a city has large event venues, such as Levi’s Stadium or a convention center, where the city is a party to the contract.
Further, not only does Sunnyvale already have a multitude of worker protections — a high minimum wage, a wage theft prevention policy and encouragement of hiring local labor — but it also lacks the capacity to enforce such a regulation, Verceles said.
Local businesses also strongly opposed it. Members of the Sunnyvale Downtown Association, Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce, Intuitive Surgical and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group spoke during public comments to oppose the ordinance.
Many said such protections were unnecessary since the problems they aimed to address were not an issue in Sunnyvale.
“We don’t have them because our employers value the workers they have that work for them,” said Michael Klein, with the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce.
As well-meaning as such an ordinance is, Klein said it would disadvantage businesses trying to grow. He implored the council to avoid “creating solutions to problems we don’t have.”
But organized labor disagreed. Representatives from Unite Here Local 19, The South Bay Labor Council and Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West (SEIU-USWW) commented on the need for the ordinance.
“This worker retention ordinance will provide Sunnyvale workers with security that they currently lack,” said Sarah Julian, financial secretary treasurer and food service director at Unite Here Local 19.
Council Member Murali Srinivasan proposed closing the study issue as recommended by the city employees, but that motion was defeated in a 2-3 vote, with only him and Mayor Larry Klein supporting it.
Both Klein and Srinivasan cited the burden on city employees to continue exploring the matter. Klein also noted that he worried about the “unintended consequences.”
After the motion failed, Council Member Alysa Cisneros proposed continuing the pursuit of an ordinance. She amended the initial proposal, upping the number of employees and contract amount to 50 and $50,000, respectively, calling for a clarification on “for-cause” termination and additional outreach. She specified that city employees return within a year.
She challenged the idea that the city knows the scope of the problem.
“We are talking about a problem that hasn’t been brought into the spotlight until now,” she said.
“I don’t believe we are immune to bad actors who do something that would jeopardize the stability of people who are our neighbors, our friends and who have a lot of responsibilities in their lives to take care of,” she later added.
Her motion passed unanimously.
Consent Calendar Spending
The council approved the following spending via the consent calendar:
- A $3.73 million, ten-year contract Catalyst Consulting Group for the purchase, licensing, installation, maintenance and support of Salesforce constituent relations management (CRM).
- A $597,099.63 contract with FBD Vanguard Construction, Inc. for Murphy Avenue pedestrian mall improvement.
Council Members Richard Mehlinger and Eileen Le were absent. The council meets again at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 21 in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 456 W. Olive Ave. in Sunnyvale.
To submit public comments ahead of the meeting, visit http://Sunnyvale.ca.gov/PublicComments; Meeting online link: https://sunnyvale-ca-gov.zoom.us/j/96111580540; meeting call-in telephone number: 833-548-0276, meeting ID: 961 1158 0540
Contact David Alexander at d.todd.alexander@gmail.com
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