Grocery Store Workers and Community in Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Seattle Call Out Kroger for Bullying and Store Closures
On Thursday, April 8, 2021, Essential frontline grocery workers, community members, and supporters in California and Washington hosted a symbolic “donation collection” in front of stores set to close, to help raise funds for the top supermarket chain in the country to pay its workers temporary hazard pay and call on Kroger Co. to keep stores open.
The simultaneous demonstrations in Los Angeles, Long Beach & Seattle were organized by workers and their Local Unions, UFCW 770, 324 & 21 respectively. The workers and community members impacted by the store closures called out Kroger’s bullying and the greed that is driving their retaliatory actions closing stores that workers and communities depend on.
Kroger owns the California Ralphs and Food 4 Less stores and Washington QFC stores slated to shut down. The corporation falsely claims that these supermarkets are closing as a result of hazard pay when in reality it was a clear effort to intimidate workers, the community, and elected officials in an attempt to discourage any additional hazard pay ordinances from passing.
Thursday’s actions symbolize the extreme disparity between the company’s windfall COVID profits and its decision to cut workers’ pay since May 2020, despite persistent elevated sales and risk to employees.
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UFCW members or their immediate family are eligible.
For more information, visit: http://ufcwcharityfoundation.org/scholarship
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On Thursday, April 8, 2021, Essential frontline grocery workers, community members, and supporters in California and Washington hosted a symbolic “donation collection” in front of stores set to close, to help raise funds for the top supermarket chain in the country to pay its workers temporary hazard pay and call on Kroger Co. to keep stores open.
The simultaneous demonstrations in Los Angeles, Long Beach & Seattle were organized by workers and their Local Unions, UFCW 770, 324 & 21 respectively. The workers and community members impacted by the store closures called out Kroger’s bullying and the greed that is driving their retaliatory actions closing stores that workers and communities depend on.
Kroger owns the California Ralphs and Food 4 Less stores and Washington QFC stores slated to shut down. The corporation falsely claims that these supermarkets are closing as a result of hazard pay when in reality it was a clear effort to intimidate workers, the community, and elected officials in an attempt to discourage any additional hazard pay ordinances from passing.
Thursday’s actions symbolize the extreme disparity between the company’s windfall COVID profits and its decision to cut workers’ pay since May 2020, despite persistent elevated sales and risk to employees.
View more photos at https://flic.kr/s/aHsmVd4pic
⏱️Will you take 5 minutes and make the call? #1u
Click here: go.aflcio.org/call
“People are feeling cheated, and shorted and undervalued.”
During this pandemic Kroger has made obscene amounts of profit. In 2020 they made 2.6 billion in profit which is more than 50%, more than the previous year, so their profits have grown tremendously. They've spent 2 billion on stock buybacks and dividends for investors and just a small part of that would make a huge difference in the lives of their workers, but they are not right now sharing any of it.
https://ufcw770.org/la-city-hazard-pay/
L.A. County is now expanding its COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to food and agriculture workers.
"Our members, and I would say all grocery workers, all essential workers are very excited to receive it," she said. "I think there has been this underlying assumption that once the vaccine is open people would not get it --that's far from the truth."
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