Minimum Wage: Emeryville Businesses Flee Former Hard Positions

Now Business Seems To Love Our Progressive Minimum Wage Ordinance

News Analysis/Opinion
If you listen to a growing chorus of Emeryville's businesses, the proposed minimum wage hike, set for July 1st, has gone from being a destructive force ready to be loosed on our town to an acceptable, even desirable policy of a responsible government.  It's the latest mood swing in the schizophrenic, some might say infantile shifting narrative expressed by the business community here since the City Council began talking about raising the minimum wage last summer.

Black Bear Diner on Christie Avenue
They led the drive to stop the minimum wage ordinance
in the beginning.  Now they support the wage increase,
"All members of the community will benefit" they say.

With the final 'high noon' second reading of the wage ordinance looming May 19th, the latest turnaround in attitudes has been as remarkable as it has been rapid.  Only two weeks ago small businesses were set to descend on City Hall, pitchforks and torches at the ready with whisperings of recall campaigns directed against some Council members, now they seem to be quietly resigned or more remarkably, publicly extolling the virtues of what will be the highest minimum wage in the nation.
At this point we imagine most business owners in town seeing the minimum wage rise as inevitable, would rather not further damage their public relations in a losing battle by continuing to agitate against increasing the wages of the working poor.

Angry Business Community: Total Collapse
An angry mob that was supposed to fill the Council Chambers at the first reading of the new ordinance on May 5th never materialized.  As witnesses at that meeting heard actual minimum wage workers tell their stories of needless suffering and of the daily indignities they suffer, speaker after speaker, it became clear the business community would not say a peep.  In fact several business supporters showed up, filled out speaker cards but declined to speak.

E'Ville Eye Editor Rob Arias
He used his blog to pitch the
petition for a moratorium on
the minimum wage ordinance
but he failed to present it
to the City Council.

Most surprising was when the Mayor called out for one such speaker, "Rob Arias...Rob Arias.... is Rob Arias still in the building?"   Mr Arias, the editor of the pro-business right wing opinion blog the E'Ville Eye, slinked out of the building moments before his time to speak arrived, taking his minimum wage moratorium petition with him.  Many attendees expressed surprise Mr Arias left without speaking because he has been using his blog as a platform for business discontent over the minimum wage for months.  That blog was the entrance portal to the petition Mr Arias was pitching to try to turn the tide against the City Council majority and their minimum wage vote.  The petition, signed by many businesses, was meant to serve as a cudgel against the Council members intent on raising the wage.  But in the end, the City Council never even received the petition, Mr Arias didn't present it to the Council.
 Tellingly, Mr Arias who had earlier in the year publicly repudiated academic studies as untrustworthy for information about the minimum wage ordinance later reversed himself and demanded a new study be conducted as a pretext for the minimum wage moratorium petition.

While Mr Arias' E'Ville Eye has been busy trying to gin up sentiment against the minimum wage ordinance, businesses are stating to embrace it, even those whom had earlier signed Mr Arias' moratorium petition.  Perhaps the most surprising of the turn-arounds is the Black Bear Diner.  Credited with starting the fight against the minimum wage last March, they now back the ordinance.   In a May 4th letter to Councilwoman Dianne Martinez since made public, Black Bear's owners have reversed themselves, "we are comfortable with proposed resolutions [sic] that the City Mayor and Council members have reached" they said.


Businesses Flee The E'Ville Eye Blog
In anticipation of the epic May 5th meeting, the E'Ville Eye started lining up the business community against the wage ordinance.  The Editor put up a graphic portraying many logos of Emeryville businesses, highlighting their disdain for the minimum wage ordinance in an April 29th story.  But even before the meeting, several businesses demanded Mr Arias take down their logos.  Rotten City Pizza on Hollis Street was one, "We support the minimum wage ordinance" the owner told the Tattler.  "We did not give Rob permission to use our logo" he added.  The Area Director of I-HOP, Gary Marquez also told the Tattler the E'Ville Eye used their logo without permission, "I don't want our logo on anything we didn't pre-approve" he said.  Mr Marquez also said he now likes the minimum wage ordinance the way it has been crafted, a 'good compromise' he said of it and he volunteered that he values all his employees, even the one's earning the minimum wage, "Our employees are our number one asset" he said.

Highest In The Nation:
Badge Of Honor or Mark Of Shame?
Arguably it's the most righteous piece of civic legislation in Emeryville history, the raise of our minimum wage to the highest in the nation.  It's a powerful and demonstrative opening salvo in an Emeryville City Hall eager to change it's long time pro-developer, pro-business reputation to one representing the people's interests, the interests of social and economic justice.  They have a lot to make up for.  After all, this same City Hall has for a generation delivered to our town many development projects stuffed with tons of low paying service sector jobs.
After July 1st, when the national media starts reporting on what Emeryville has done, those among us who don't want our city to continue to be a locus for poverty, those who value human dignity and an honest paycheck for an honest day's work will take pride in our local government and this City Council majority's work.
Shockingly, what we who value these virtues consider honorable, is the same thing some business hold-outs and dead-enders like the E'Ville Eye consider a mark of shame.  When that blog tells its readers Emeryville is to have the highest minimum wage in the nation, it's meant to be seen as an outrage even as it appropriates progressive language to feign a progressive outlook.  But this is the same sort of talk we have heard before whenever real progressives move to increase the minimum wage.  That blog and its hangers on may use progressive language but theirs is a dark vision of our town.  The true progressives, the ones moving Emeryville forward, can be found among our Emeryville City Council majority, performing the work local government is supposed to do.  We expect them to complete this vital and meaningful work they've taken up on Tuesday.

Logos of Businesses Against the Minimum Wage
Screen shot of E'Ville Eye April 29th story.

Logos Missing: Later E'Ville Eye Screen Shot
Without fanfare, the Editor has been quietly 
removing logos from the story as businesses say 
no thanks to the dark anti-minimum wage, anti-progressive 
vision promulgated by that blog.

Follow the Money: Emeryville Minimum Wage Debate Draws Sacramento Lobbying Group

Out-Of-Town Business Interests Clandestinely Move into Emeryville: Minimum Wage Targeted 

Powerful Restaurant Lobbying Association Money Dump

Behind the Scenes Interests Work to Nix Local Control 

A powerful and deep pocketed lobbying group, the National Restaurant Association (NRA) and its subsidiary the California Restaurant Association (CRA) have clandestinely moved into our town, operating in the shadows, spending money and working to effect the outcome of the minimum wage policy now being publicly debated at City Hall the Tattler has learned.

A group comprised of Emeryville businesses funded by these out-of-town lobbying groups has formed to fight the minimum wage proposal, agitating to petition the City Council for a moratorium on implementing any proposal and demanding the Council pay for a study, ostensibly to find out more about the effects increasing the minimum wage would have on businesses.  The group calling itself the Emeryville Small Business and Resident Alliance (strangely no mention of the big business connection in the title) will not reveal how they are funded but it has been learned the California Restaurant Association is providing money to the group as well as strategy expertise, work self described as directly in the CRA wheelhouse.

Bruce Dean
Chief Operating Officer Black Bear Diner
and Chairman of the Board of Directors of
the California Restaurant Association.
Money is pouring into Emeryville.
He wants to influence our town's policy.

Public Fight, Hidden Money
A restaurant on Christie Avenue, the Black Bear Diner, has served as the point business in town fighting the minimum wage ordinance.  They have secured a conference room for meetings at the Four Points Sheridan Hotel and sent expensive flyers to virtually every business in town requesting their presence at the strategy meetings.
Emeryville's Black Bear Diner is one of 64 corporate and franchise owned locations and corporate Chief Operating Officer,  Bruce Dean is also the Chairman of the Board of the California Restaurant Association, the source of the Emeryville business group's clandestine money.

The NRA & CRA work to protect the interests of restaurants at the expense of their workers, providing lobbying efforts to quash minimum wage laws and other worker protections.  The lobby group's Political Action Committees provides money for political battles like Emeryville's minimum wage ordinance.  As a service to members, they also lobby for pro-restaurant regulation, commonly at the expense of workers as well.  In other states, the NRA (sometimes called the other NRA) has lobbied extensively to keep restaurant workers pay at $2.13 per hour.
In Emeryville, the minimum wage debate has caught the attention of the CRA and they have joined the fight.  With the Chairman of the Board's Black Bear Diner connection, Emeryville has been on the CRA's radar since at least last year.

The Tattler has previously reported on the CRA working to kill our minimum wage ordinance by actively lobbying our City Council members HERE and HERE.

Even though these powerful special interest groups and their cash have heretofore been hidden from the public in Emeryville, look to the Tattler to report on how they use their influence to craft public policy in our town to their liking.

Check out one of the flyers (below) paid for by the Sacramento lobbying group CRA sent out to Emeryville businesses (and the School District inadvertently) in early April.  It's filled with hyperbole like we heard from opponents of the last  Emeryville minimum wage increase aka Measure C 'the living wage for hotel workers'..."Emeryville's hospitality industry will be kaput"!

Minimum Wage Letter 2015 

Restaurant Lobby Puts Emeryville Minimum Wage in Crosshairs

NRA Comes to Town to Kill Emeryville's Minimum Wage

Among the most powerful lobbying groups in the United States, the National Restaurant Association (NRA) and its subsidiary, the California Restaurant Association (CRA) have descended on Emeryville, applying their money and influence to try to stop the City Council from voting to institute an increase in the minimum wage.
The NRA/CRA conducted a meeting to strategize talking points at Christie Avenue's Black Bear Diner on March 25th.  The pressure has been brought to bare on the City Council and the City Staff; Council members have received many e-mails and they've been actually visited at their homes by paid CRA lobbyists from Sacramento.  Perhaps in response, City Hall has shown they are not immune to such lobbying efforts and they have elected to spend taxpayer money to contact every business in town with a letter notifying them of the minimum wage public discussions and encourage their feedback.  It's noteworthy that no such letters have been sent to Emeryville residents or the workers that would be affected by a minimum wage increase. Perhaps an oversight on the part of City Hall.

The meeting at the Black Bear Diner was a private closed door affair but it would appear by events transpiring since that meeting, one of the stratagems brought by the lobbyists is for Emeryville's big business to hide behind small business.  Big businesses have been consistently quiet while the small businesses have been demonstrably vocal in their appeals to the City Council to rein in the minimum wage.  This is probably a good strategy given the fondness Emeryville residents have for small locally serving business and the less than enthusiastic support they have shown for Burger King,  I-HOP, Target, Home Depot and such.

In addition to the lobbying by NRA/CRA, the City Council has also received sample legislation crafted to kill the Emeryville minimum wage by the wealthy and powerful Washington DC based American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), known by some as America's premier right wing free market think tank.  For years, ALEC has directly written legislation meant to disempower working people for the United States Congress, a cause heartily taken up by the Republican Party across the nation.  Much of this legislation has become law.  

The City Council will discuss the minimum wage proposal on Tuesday night at 6:30 at City Hall.

The following is a piece on the NRA (sometimes referred to as the other NRA) by the Center for Media and Democracy:

Mary Bottari Become a fan 

The Center for Media and Democracy/ALEC Exposed

The National Restaurant Association Spends Big to Keep Wages Low

Posted: 05/13/2014 11:49 am EDT Updated: 07/13/2014 5:59 am EDT

A majority of the Senate recently voted to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour recently, yet the bill failed to clear the 60-vote hurdle necessary for passage -- thanks in no small part to the political power of the National Restaurant Association, the restaurant industry's trade association.

For years, the "Other NRA" has flexed its political muscle to keep wages low and to freeze the tipped minimum wage at just $2.13 per hour.  Plus, thanks to non-stop NRA lobbying, the House last month passed a bill changing the threshold for employer-provided coverage under the Affordable Care Act to deny health care to employees who work 30 hours per week.

This is thanks in no small part to the Other NRA's super-sized political giving. According to an analysis by the Restaurant Opportunities Center United, the $683 billion industry's trade association itself has poured $12.6 million directly into federal politicians' campaign coffers since 1989.  NRA member organizations have chipped-in around $51 million more: McDonald's, for example, has given $5.8 million to federal politicians, Darden (parent company of Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Capitol Grille) $5.6 million, and Wendy's $2.3 million.  The biggest spender is NRA member Walt Disney; the creator of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck disclosed $14.1 million in contributions since 1989.

The NRA has also spent millions on the state level.  It has worked with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to quash local efforts to enact paid sick leave ordinances -- in Oklahoma, for example, the state NRA affiliate worked with Governor Mary Fallin (an ALEC alum) to crush both paid sick leave ordinances and minimum wage ordinances in one fell swoop.

Notably, as the restaurant industry pours tens of millions into politics and fights to keep wages low, it has seen five solid years of record-breaking profits and growth: The industry is expected to increase its profits by $24 billion in 2014, and hit $683 billion in sales.

Super-Sized Political Giving

For decades, the NRA's political spending has bought it mountains of influence.

In the 1990s, it served up enough campaign contributions to persuade Congress to set the minimum wage for tipped workers at just $2.13 an hour.  This archaic provision means that big restaurant chains have managed to shift responsibility for paying their workers onto us, the consumers.

That's not the only avenue through which the NRA's political spending leads to a public dunning. Thanks to an abysmally low minimum wage for tipped workers at restaurants like Olive Garden and non-tipped workers at McDonald's and Wendy's, nearly 60 percent of the $600 billion restaurant industry's employees are low-wage workers -- meaning they are twice as likely to be on public assistance as the rest of the population.  The National Employment Law Project estimates that the public assistance provided to fast-food workers costs taxpayers at least $3.8 billion a year.  Taxpayers fund McDonald's employees to the tune of $1.2 billion a year in public assistance.  The majority of restaurant workers are adult women, many with kids to support.

While moms and kids are struggling, restaurant CEOs are enjoying eye-popping salaries subsidized by the taxpayers. According to a report from the Institute for Policy Studies, big restaurants have exploited a tax loophole to write off more than $200 million in executive "performance pay" over just the past two years.   In other words, we as consumers are not only stuck with paying restaurant workers' wages, but we as taxpayers are stuck subsidizing the industry's profits with public assistance programs for their underpaid employees and corporate welfare for their overpaid CEOs.

A Side of Revolving-Door Lobbying and a Dash of Front Groups

The NRA's political giving is served with a side of influence-peddling. Between 2008 and 2013, the NRA more than doubled its count of registered lobbyists, from 15 to 37. At least 27 of the NRA's lobbyists have come through the "revolving door," meaning they jumped from Congressional jobs to lobbying gigs, and then play off their contacts inside the government to advance the restaurant industry's interests. What's more, the NRA's top member companies -- Darden, YUM! Brands (parent of Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut), Walt Disney, McDonald's, Marriott, Sodexo, Aramark, Starbucks, and Coca-Cola -- added another 127 registered lobbyists last year. That's a lot of lobbying power.

In addition to its own paid lobbyists, the industry employs a crew of surrogates to do its dirty work in the public sphere. Salon just reported that the NRA is meticulously tracking the activities of fast food worker advocates and worker advocacy organizations. Salon reports that the Other NRA approved an "additional" $600K to attack ROC United, a small, New York based nonprofit ROC. The Other NRA also appears to back groups like ROCexposed.org (a front group linked to notorious astroturf flak Richard Berman), as well as prominent economists like Douglas Holtz-Eakin who push anti-minimum wage rhetoric.

Another example of restaurant industry astroturf is the Employment Policies Institute, which poses as a "think tank" and commissions reports and runs ads and op-eds opposing minimum wage hikes.  But EPI is run out of the offices of Berman & Co., Berman's PR firm, which represents the restaurant industry -- although over 80 percent of journalists fail to disclose those ties. Other Berman projects also advance the restaurant industry's agenda: front groups like the "Center for Consumer Freedom" have fought for years against indoor smoking bans and nutrition labeling requirements, which the industry has long opposed.

NRA "Made a Huge Difference" In Blocking State Minimum Wage Increases

And that's just on the federal level. The NRA and its state chapters have given millions more to state and local candidates, and spent countless millions more on state-level lobbying.  And in recent years, the NRA has been at the forefront of the push back against state and municipal efforts to enact their own minimum wage increases and paid sick day requirements.

Last June, the NRA boasted that its state chapters "made a huge difference" and "played an active role" in blocking higher wage laws in over a dozen states.  And, it has been the biggest opponent of paid sick day laws in states across the country -- it has even pushed a bill at ALEC to prohibit local governments from requiring employers provide paid sick days to their workers, which has since spread across the country.

Most recently, the Oklahoma NRA affiliate helped push SB 1023 to crush local efforts to guarantee a fair wage and paid sick days in that state; it was signed into law in April by Governor Mary Fallin, an ALEC alumni who gave the keynote at ALEC's Spring meeting last year.

Despite broad popular support for an increase in the minimum wage among both Democrats and Republicans, the Other NRA has managed to stick a fork in the measure in the U.S. Senate for now.  Stay tuned, however.  Advocates are planning more street heat this summer and during the fall election cycle to convince Congress that America needs a raise.