In the penultimate episode of Years and Years, a dark futuristic HBO miniseries that's like Black Mirror only better, a British family matriarch delivers a lecture to her grandchildren about the myriad ways everyday people are complicit in society's ills. To illustrate her point, she references grocery store self-checkout machines.

"I saw it all going wrong when it began, in the supermarkets, when they replaced the women on the till with those automatic checkouts," she said.

Her offspring protest—they all hate those machines, they say—but she doesn't buy it.

"Yes, but you didn't do anything, did you?" she asks. "Now all those women are gone, and we let it happen. Because we can stroll through, do our shopping, and don't have to look that woman in the eye."

The authors of one voter initiative headed toward the Oregon 2020 ballot would likely agree with that sentiment. Titled the "Grocery Store Service and Community Protection Act," the union-backed measure would limit all Oregon grocers to operating just two self-checkout machines per store at any given time.

The Oregon AFL-CIO, which sponsors the measure, announced Wednesday that has 1,500 signatures, more than enough to begin the process of putting it on the ballot. The organization argues that the measure is necessary to protect both workers and customers at Oregon grocery stores.

Grocery stores use self-checkout machines because they save money and are thought to be more efficient; according to one study, it requires just one employee to oversee four self-check out machines. But with those cost savings come an increased pressure on Oregon grocery store employees, many of whom already make wages low enough to quality for food stamps. (In Oregon, a single person qualifies for food stamps if they make $16,000 a year or less.)

"Self-service checkouts allow grocery stores to rely more heavily on part-time employees, positions which do not provide retail workers with a living wage or access to benefits," reads the ballot measure. "Because people of color are overrepresented in cashier position, which is the lowest paid position in retail businesses, the increasing use of self-service checkouts has a disproportionate negative impact on people of color."

Beyond the threat self-checkout machines pose for grocery store employees, they also can be difficult for some shoppers to navigate, especially those who are elderly or have disabilities. That's also addressed in the ballot measure.

"The increasing use of self-service checkouts—where the customer does not interact with a human— contributes to social isolation and related negative health consequences," it reads. "Elderly costumers and customers with disabilities often lack the confidence or ability to use self-service checkouts."

It doesn't appear that Oregon's major grocery store chains have weighed in on this ballot measure yet, though that group has flexed its political muscle in other recent campaigns. But the Freedom Foundation, a West Coast conservative non-profit and think tank, was critical of the measure in a recent blog post:

"If successful, the so-called 'Grocery Store Service and Community Protection Act' would force retailers across Oregon to downsize their self-service checkout areas to no more than two kiosks per store.

Self-checkout kiosks often help cut back on time spent in a grocery store for those not getting many items. This leads to shorter lines and streamlines the process of customers paying for their groceries.

...[T]he main push for this government regulation on the private sector is undoubtedly the union’s insatiable desire to collect dues. Several popular grocery store chains in Oregon are unionized and restricting self-checkout would create an increase in union-represented cashiers."

If this measure makes it onto the ballot, Oregonians will be able to vote on the issue in November 2020.