March 30, 2023

LAWT News Service

 

Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles) joined the California Labor Federation, Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), unions and community-based organizations at a press conference on March 28 at Starbucks to announce their support of SB 627 – the Displaced Worker Transfer Rights Act. Authored by Senator Smallwood-Cuevas, the bill will hold corporate chain employers accountable for using store closures in a discriminatory or retaliatory manner and give the workers preferential transfer options to other store locations.

“Not only do corporate chains use store closures to deter workers from advocating for their rights, but they disproportionately close stores in low-income and communities of color,” said Smallwood-Cuevas, author of SB 627.

“Store closures are devastating to workers and communities. My bill will make sure workers have time to prepare for a store closure and can keep their jobs and transfer to another location.”

There has been a historic surge in worker organizing at corporate chains, including Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, Chipotle, and REI. Meanwhile, those chains have closed stores across the country in direct response to unionization efforts. In July, Starbucks announced that they were closing 16 stores nationally, including six in Los Angeles.

The chain closed more stores in the fall, with Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz warning in a Twitter video that there would be many more closures to come. Trader Joe’s and Chipotle, where workers are also advocating for their rights, have closed stores as well. 

Store closures and the loss of jobs are devastating to workers, their families and communities. Workers are left without a paycheck, and they and their co-workers must scramble to find a new job with little warning.

SB 627 will ensure workers’ lives aren’t upended when they lose their jobs because their employer closed the store where they work. It requires chain employers to give advance notice of a store closure and give workers the right to transfer to a location within 25 miles when a position becomes open. The bill would only apply to large corporate chains with 100 locations nationally.

Category: News