LONG BEACH, California – Kroger Co. will close two Southern California supermarkets in response to a local law that requires extra payment for certain grocery workers who worked during the pandemic.
The decision announced by the company on Monday follows a unanimous vote last month by the Long Beach City Council ordering an increase of $ 4 an hour in 120 days for supermarket employees with at least 300 employees across the country and more than 15 in Long Beach.
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said it will close a Ralphs market and a Food 4 Less on April 17, Press-Telegram reported.
“As a result of the City of Long Beach’s decision to pass a decree determining the extra payment for grocery workers, we made the difficult decision to permanently close stores in Long Beach,” the company said in a statement.
The statement added: “This erroneous action by the Long Beach City Council goes beyond the traditional bargaining process and applies to some, but not all, grocery workers in the city.”
A city statement characterized Kroger’s decision as “unfortunate for workers, buyers and the company”.
A similar risk wage increase has been approved by the city of Montebello and is being considered in Los Angeles and Pomona. Further north, Oakland approved the hazard pay for grocery workers on Tuesday, while other Bay Area cities, including San Jose and Berkeley, were considering similar decrees.
A lawsuit filed by the California Grocers Association claims that the Long Beach law interferes with the collective bargaining process between supermarkets and unions representing workers.
An association official said on Monday that an increase of $ 4 an hour represents an increase of about 28% in labor costs.
“There is no way that grocery stores can absorb a huge cost increase without compensation elsewhere, considering that grocery stores operate with minimal margins and many stores already operate in the red,” said the association’s president and CEO, Ron Fong, in a communicated.
The Long Beach decree was passed during a January 19 meeting at which board members and Mayor Robert Garcia said that many supermarkets gave employees compensation for danger during the early stages of the pandemic, but then gradually eliminated it.
“These people who work in these markets and supermarkets are heroes,” said Garcia at the time. “This is nothing new. They received this type of additional payment in the past and if they deserved it in the past, they deserve it today. “
The Los Angeles proposal moved forward on Tuesday with a City Council vote in favor of the city attorney drafting a decree calling for $ 5 an hour in additional hazard pay for workers in large supermarkets and drug retail chains . The council asked that the bill be presented as soon as possible for a final vote.