At a press conference held on Wednesday, D.A. candidate Steve Mulroy coupled two of his current concerns: his support for the striking “Starbucks Seven,” whose unionizing efforts led to their firing, and his campaign for District Attorney General.
Backed by the Starbucks workers and Jeremy Tallent of the Carpenter’s Local Union 345, Mulroy, a Democrat, promised to use his office to defend workers’ rights if elected D.A.
“Not enough attention is being paid to worker exploitation,” Mulroy said. “If you look at the studies, wage theft is rampant. Job misclassification when employers falsely say people are independent contractors when they’re really employees in order to avoid paying benefits, paying into the unemployment compensation fund, paying taxes: [all] that is rampant.”
And, he contended, “retaliation by employers for either unionizing, or protesting wage and hour violations, or protesting any kind of job mistreatment is also rampant, and there are real gaps in enforcement [against] retaliation by employers for either unionizing or protesting. Wage and hour violations or protesting any kind of job mistreatment is also rampant, and there are real gaps in enforcement.”
The Department of Labor was ill-equipped to deal with these violations, Mulroy said. “The number of people that they’re responsible for inspecting has tripled over the years. They’re overworked.”
Besides, he continued, “more and more workers are being forced to sign arbitration clauses, which preclude civil remedies. And even when you do get civil remedies, usually the most you can get is restitution. So there’s really no incentive for the employer not to violate the law, because basically, they’re getting a zero interest free loan.”
Mulroy warmed to his point: “in the last decade or so, progressive prosecutors have been using ordinary theft and fraud laws, both criminal and civil,” in order to combat these violations. “And that’s one of the things that I would do, if I were to be so fortunate enough to become District Attorney.”