Kroger closes two California supermarkets because it refuses to give workers ‘hero pay’

In the early days of the pandemic, people across the country flocked to supermarkets for supplies, fearing the worst. I remember taking my cart to my local Ralph’s on the east side of Long Beach, California, and the store was seriously compromised. The paper product aisle looked like a ghost town, and all shoppers looked a thousand meters away.

Everyone looked at each other, apparently thinking, “Do they have the virus?”

My heart sank when I reached the checkout aisle and saw the checker in a mask with black gloves. There was a newly installed transparent shield between us.

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I remember thinking to myself, “All these workers are going to get sick. Some are going to die.” I can’t imagine the stress and anxiety these people on the front lines felt, especially in the early days of the pandemic. The worst is that the majority had no choice. You can’t just quit in the middle of a pandemic and hope to find a new job.

They were all sitting ducks.

My experience at Ralph’s, on Los Coyotes Boulevard, inspired me to write an article on Upworthy proposing the idea that we should have tipped jars in our supermarkets. In this way, we can all thank employees for the extreme risk they are taking so that we can feed our families.

Tod Perry photo

Eleven months later, my local Ralph’s is being closed by its parent company, Kroger, because it refuses to pay $ 4 an hour in citywide “hero pay”. Long Beach, the second most populous city in Los Angeles County, is the first in America to give a mandatory raise to employees at its supermarkets who risked everything for their jobs.

Kroger is also closing a Food for Less in North Long Beach, a low-income neighborhood where discounted food is a necessity, especially at this time.

On January 19, the City Council unanimously approved the decree-law on the payment of 120 days for heroes. It applies to store chains with 300 or more employees across the country and with 15 employees per store in the city, who dedicate 70% or more of their business to retailing food products.

It was sanctioned the next day by Mayor Robert Garcia.

The decree comes at a time when supermarkets are making record profits due to the pandemic.

“Grocery workers come in every day and risk their lives by being exposed to the virus,” said adviser Mary Zendejas. “Food companies are experiencing a boom in their industry, are making profits, record profits, on the shoulders of their employees and are not willing to share the profits with them.”

Kroger said its sales increased by 30% in March and increased by more than 20% in April and May. He also reported a 92% increase in online sales in the first quarter of 2020.

The company offered a $ 2 an hour bonus to its employees at the start of the pandemic, but it was extinguished.

“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,” a company spokesman said in a press release. “This erroneous action by the Long Beach City Council goes beyond the traditional negotiation process and applies to some, but not all, grocery workers in the city.”

What’s even more irritating is that the stores are scheduled to close on April 17, 89 days after the 120-day period. Why not wait another month?

Garcia promises to fight Kroger’s closings because he believes he has a responsibility to compensate his workers for the extra danger they faced while the company was making record profits.

“You have a company that, according to the Brookings Institute, is earning twice what it normally earns, is escaping the pandemic. And it is earning on the back of these workers,” said Garcia at a news conference at the Food 4 Less site scheduled to be closed.

“I don’t think anyone who has shopped in the past six months to a year can look into the eyes of one of these workers and tell them that they don’t deserve a few extra dollars an hour for the incredible work they’ve been doing during this pandemic. “he continued.

The pandemic is a serious matter for Garcia, who lost his mother and stepfather last year due to COVID-19. His work to launch the vaccine in the city of 467,000 was applauded by Governor Gavin Newsom and was called a “model for the state” by The New York Times.

Kroger is within its rights to close stores to avoid paying its employees a state-determined bonus. But it is cruel for the company to thank its employees – who heroically managed to overcome the pandemic – putting their jobs at risk.

A Safety and Health report found that “grocery workers who interact with customers may be five times more likely to hire COVID-19 than their colleagues who have no direct contact with customers.”

He also found that 24% of supermarket employees experienced at least mild anxiety associated with work.

“After all the hard work I did to feed needy families and everything and risk my life and my family’s life at home and they don’t want to pay an extra $ 4 an hour for four months,” said Robert Gonzales, who works in the sector for 26 years, and currently works at Food 4 Less with a forecast of closing.

“And then it was over. What is the reason for this? You will hurt the elderly, the homeless. We make donations every week to the homeless and needy families and they want to take them away, ”he added.

“Ask the North Long Beach community to make a choice: jobs with dignity or food at the table. This is an unfair choice that the Kroger company is issuing to our community, ”said Rex Richardson, deputy mayor of Long Beach.

Garcia says the city will fight Kroger in court, but it is unclear what the legal system can do to prevent a company from deciding to close its doors.

In the coming months, as the number of vaccinations increases and the number of cases decreases, we will all be happy to put the pandemic era behind us. I hope I can take my cart and stop at my local Ralph one day this summer and watch them drop the protective shields between me and the checker, as well as the stickers on the floor that say, “keep your distance”

But I’m looking forward to seeing the smiles on the faces of the checkers because, for the first time in a long time, they won’t be wearing masks. I will tell them, “Thank you, we couldn’t have done this without you.” Let’s hope that Kroger comes to the same conclusion too.