This month, Emeryville – a city known for its robust retail economy in the California Bay Area – became the third city in the country to advance comprehensive fair workweek policy. The unanimous vote will guarantee 4,000 people working in retail and fast food more input into their work hours, two weeks’ advance notice of their schedules, more opportunity for full-time work and an end to mandatory clopens – exhausting back-to-back closing and opening shifts.

This major step forward in the movement for a fair workweek was led by CPD affiliate Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) and Partnership for Working Families member the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE). At the center of the campaign, were working parents and students from Emeryville’s retail centers.

One working mom and ACCE member, Moriah Larkins, describes the importance of this policy change, “When I didn’t have a regular schedule, my supervisor would put me down for only 16 hours and then schedule me last minute. I had to scramble to find childcare for my baby, and I sometimes worked six days a week and didn’t see him. But now I work for a different company, have regular hours, can spend time with my son, and finish my nursing degree.”

Congratulations to working people in Emeryville who will now have wages and hours they can count on to plan ahead to pay the bills on time, care for their children, work a second job, attend college classes, and even rest.