By Niki Cervantes
Staff Writer

December 28, 2015 -- A new group is launching an 11th-hour petition drive to end an exemption for unions in Santa Monica's proposed minimum wage law set to go to the City Council January 12, the Lookout has learned.

The One Fair Wage Coalition collected nearly 6,000 petition signatures in a few weeks to end the exemption, which is backed by local organized labor, said Ruben Gonzalez, a spokesman for the group.

The union exemption from the proposed law -- which would raise Santa Monica's minimum wage to $15-an-hour by 2020 -- is strictly a way to pressure companies into unionizing, he said.

“The City of Santa Monica should treat all employees fairly and without loopholes for the unions,” said Gonzalez, a former vice-president for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, which fought L.A.’s new $15-an-hour minimum wage law this spring.

Unionized workers could end up being paid less than the new minimum wage if the exception is allowed, he said.

“The minimum should be the minimum,” Gonzalez said. “There shouldn’t be sub-minimum wages. The workers who unions are meant to help could actually be hurt.”

A representative of UNITE HERE Local 11 -- which represents some 1,000 hotel and restaurant workers in Santa Monica –- could not be reached for comment. One of Santa Monica’s most active labor unions, Local 11 is largely supportive of the new wage law.

Council member Kevin McKeown said the Council already has unanimoussly voted to include the union exemption in the proposed law.

“We in Santa Monica believe the rights of workers to negotiate a mutually satisfactory contract with their employer should never be abridged by our minimum wage actions," McKeown told the Lookout.

"Our insistence that workers be allowed to form collective bargaining units and decide their own contracts is the heart of worker empowerment," he said.

McKeown called the Coalition's arguments "spurious."

"National anti-union forces are jumping into our local affairs with a postcard petition based on a spurious argument that somehow we are being unfair to workers," he said.

So far, the union exemption hasn’t been a flashpoint in the debate over a higher new minimum wage for Santa Monica, as was the case in Los Angeles City this spring ("Santa Monica Council Sends Minimum Wage Law Back for Tweaking," September 30, 2015).

Santa Monica –- much smaller than L.A. and more uniformly politically progressive –- is particularly well known for its strong support of unions.

Members of the City Council say they are aware that push back is beginning against the law and anticipate facing a business-backed referendum on the November 2016 ballot.

In an interview with the Lookout, Gonzalez would not reveal who created the coalition -- only that it became active after the Santa Monica City Council delayed action on September 29 to allow for more study on issues related to the minimum wage law.

So far, the coalition has sent three direct mailers to 38,000 voter-occupied households in Santa Monica, Gonzalez said. Another is due to come out the first week of January.

The group also has been knocking on doors and has posted UTube messages against the union exception, he said.

“Eliminating a group of people is not the American way,” a woman says in one of the videos by Fair Wage Santa Monica.

The same issue was at the heart of a fight this spring between unions and businesses as the Los Angeles City Council put final touches on its own $15-an-hour minimum wage law.

Business leaders accused organized labor of pushing the exemption as a way to attract businesses who don’t want to pay the higher minimum wage, pumping up flagging membership in private-sector unions.

Labor leaders dismiss the accusations as union busting. They note that unions can use the exemptions to negotiate better benefits for members.

Still, the exemption is increasingly unpopular with the business community, including the hoteliers and restaurants owners that are at the heart of Santa Monica's booming tourism industry.

They worry that unions will convince businesses to unionize if owners aren’t legally required to meet the $15-an-hour minimum wage.

Gonzalez called it an unfair advantage to unions and “a gun to the heart” for businesses already struggling financially to deal with local hikes in the minimum wage.

“No one is against collective bargaining,” he said. “But it should be the same floor for everyone.”

In the end, Los Angeles City did not include the union exemption. A similar law adopted by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for unincorporated areas at the end of September also included unionized workers.

Gonzalez said polling results of 500 Santa Monica this fall showed 70 percent agreed there should be one hourly minimum wage of $15.

The poll also showed that 40 percent would be “less likely to vote for a City Council member who supported a wage increase that included loopholes and exemptions,” he said.

“The message is clear Santa Monicans are not at all happy with union members being left out,” Gonzalez said.