Great News! This afternoon, Los Angeles’ City Attorney was instructed to draft an ordinance instituting a $5 Hazard Pay for all grocery and drug retail workers in the City of LA! Members flooded Council with postcards helping to achieve this important first step toward Hazard Pay. Things are moving quickly! Stay tuned for more updates on this important issue!!
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage our communities and put the safety and lives and working families at risk. Since the start of the pandemic, over 5,335 of our members have become infected with Covid 19. Twelve of our members have passed away, including a member who passed this weekend. In December and January alone, over 2,740 of our members have become infected. These numbers are horrifying. Your courage and commitment deserve just compensation.
To make this happen we need to all stand up and make our voices heard. You can still get involved by going to
http://bit.ly/HazardPayCard to sign in support of Hazard Pay for essential workers like you!
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This letter follows the recent announcement from Kroger that it would close two Long Beach grocery stores as a result of the city’s temporary required hazard pay for employees.
Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) and Assemblymember Mike A. Gipson (D-Carson) issued statements in response to Kroger’s decision:
“In difficult times, our obligation is to protect those most at risk. In this pandemic that includes frontline workers and low-income communities,” said Rendon. “The grocery workers who encounter hundreds of potentially infected customers every day deserve temporary hazard pay. The low-income communities served by these stores deserve access to healthy foods. The nation’s largest supermarket chain is the one least deserving of protection.”
“Kroger has put profit over people while sending out mixed messages of helping the Black and Brown communities. On February 1, 2021, Kroger announced that they awarded $1 million from their new Racial Equity Fund to Los Angeles-based Everytable because of the ‘extreme scarcity of health food options,’ stated Assemblymember Gipson. “Their two markets targeted for closure are located in ‘food deserts’ where residents experience the same ‘extreme scarcity’ of healthy foods that Kroger portends to address.
“At the same time that Kroger announced their philanthropic efforts, they also released news of the closure of two Long Beach markets in Black and Brown communities alleging that adding an additional $4 per hour to the salaries of their frontline grocery workers would bankrupt them. Kroger’s reported sales revealed a 9% increase in 2019 with profits doubling to $2.66 billion from $1.33 billion a year earlier,” said Gipson. “Shame on you for jeopardizing the jobs of these courageous and loyal employees during this crisis. I am prepared to support a boycott of Kroger throughout California if this action is not reversed.”
https://t.co/glFEYohZW8
America’s Largest Food and Retail Union Condemns Kroger Move to Close Grocery Stores to After Long Beach Mandates Hazard Pay
Lila Downs pays tribute to all essential workers who have kept us safe. This song reminds us that our essential work has value and that as frontline workers, we’re connected as brothers and sisters. Enjoy and stay strong!!
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage our communities and put the safety and lives and working families at risk. Since the start of the pandemic, over 5,335 of our members have become infected with Covid 19. Twelve of our members have passed away, including a member who passed this weekend. In December and January alone, over 2,740 of our members have become infected. These numbers are horrifying. Your courage and commitment deserve just compensation.
To make this happen we need to all stand up and make our voices heard. You can still get involved by going to http://bit.ly/HazardPayCard to sign in support of Hazard Pay for essential workers like you!
“We’re just at the front line,” said Wheeler, who has worked at the supermarket for 14 years. “We’re ground zero.”
He said he and his co-workers in the meat department are working longer hours to fill in for their colleagues who are out sick with COVID-19 or exhibiting symptoms of the disease. He said he’s in favor of a company-wide vaccine mandate to bolster the health and safety of workers.
“That’s how it’s been spread — employee to employee,” Wheeler said.
Susan Hernandez has been away from her job at a Food 4 Less grocery store in North Hollywood, California, for almost two months. In mid-November, she came down with COVID-19 and is still recovering.
“My scariest moments were at night when I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “It felt like there were sharp, icicle pains being shot into my lungs, and I just didn’t know if I was going to make it.”
She lives with her husband and two older children, who also fell ill. She’s convinced she contracted the virus at work, where she said a customer without a mask had yelled in her face just days before.
Members of the community stood in solidarity with Food 4 Less workers by holding a car caravan outside the store to show their support while Food 4 Less workers delivered a petition to store management.
Holguin, who has worked for CVS since 1986, said because her store offers COVID-19 testing, customers who might be positive for the coronavirus often come inside the store when they’re supposed to only go through the drive-through for testing. This puts her and other workers at a much higher risk, she said.
“We’re putting our lives at risk to make so much money for this company benefiting off of us,” she said. “The miniscule hazard pay they’ve given us so far, literally I want to throw this back in their faces.”
Workers distributed flyers calling out “Grinch” wages from Kroger, the parent company of Food 4 Less, amid skyrocketing profits during the pandemic. Despite the 15.8% increase in sales, Food 4 Less’ parent company, Kroger, eliminated hazard pay and has failed to enforce basic workplace protections to keep workers, their families, and customers safe.
Barbara Hughes, a cashier with Food 4 Less for 26 years, stood outside the Palmdale store demanding hazard pay and a temporary store closure at that location for deep cleaning and testing for all employees.
Read more: https://ufcw770.org/food-4-less-grocery-workers-raise-alarms-around-palmdale-covid-19-outbreak-call-for-temporary-store-closure-and-increased-protections/#esp
View Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ufcw770/albums/72157717407590787
The proposal, in response to calls from grocery store workers and their union, UFCW 770, was co-sponsored by Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez, Councilmembers Mitch O’Farrell, Paul Koretz, and Curren D. Price, and seconded by Councilmembers Mark Ridley-Thomas and Gil Cedillo."
Requests for application packets MUST be received via online form by April 2, 2021. If you have any questions, please email Scholarship Coordinator Jennifer at scholarship@ufcw770.org
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