On Tuesday, February 16, the owner of the QFC grocery store announced it would close two stores in Seattle this spring: one in Wedgewood and one on Capitol Hill (the location of 15th Avenue East). ONE grocer owner’s statement says the decision was “hastened” by the recent hazard law passed by the city council, although QFC also noted that the two stores were “underperforming”. The venues will remain open for the next 60 days, until April 24.
“When you take into account the increased operating costs during COVID-19, together with the consistent financial losses in these two locations, and this new extra payment mandate, it becomes impossible to operate a financially sustainable business,” says the statement from company: in part.
As for what will happen to employees at these locations, corporate affairs manager Tiffany Sanders told Eater Seattle: “We are working with our associates on the details of these two locations and will do our best to move when possible. We will honor all contractual commitments. “
The Seattle risk payment order is an increase of $ 4 an hour that applies to those covered by the minimum wage law who work in supermarkets with more than 500 employees worldwide and in stores over 10,000 square feet. The businesses affected by the rule include stores with a broader presence in addition to Seattle. QFC’s parent company is supermarket giant Kroger, which announced the next closure of two of its stores in Long Beach, California, after the approval of a similar dangerousness bill in the city.
The new announcement also follows on from a dispute between PCC Community Markets and the local union UFCW 21, representing Washington’s retail workers. Not long after the Seattle board passed its new law on January 25, PCC CEO Suzy Monford released a letter alleging that the project would unfairly harm the cooperative’s business, since it lacked the resources or margins profit of larger networks.
Moford’s letter was met with reaction from PCC employees and customers, and the PCC eventually agreed to give the $ 4 hourly increase not only to Seattle workers, but to all of its nearly 1,500 employees represented by union at 15 locations across the Puget Sound region. I was not alone. Trader Joe’s also recently decided to extend the hazard pay to all of its workers in the United States, although the supermarket chain is canceling mid-year increases.
Meanwhile, two industry groups – the Northwest Grocery Association and the Washington Food Industry Association – also recently filed a lawsuit against Seattle, claiming that the hazard pay order was unconstitutionally inserted into collective bargaining agreements and showed favoritism over workers. larger chain employees, rather than helping all grocery workers.
The fate of the process is not yet clear, but it did not appear to prevent local lawmakers from considering policies along the same lines. On Friday, February 12, King County council members introduced another piece of legislation that would basically extend the temporary increase to eligible grocery workers in a much broader area: all unincorporated counties in King County.
As for the QFC decision, UFCW 21 did not measure the words in its blunt statement: “Today’s announcement by Kroger to close these two Seattle QFCs is a case of exaggerated greed and intimidation, and shows how out of reach Kroger is with our community. The public overwhelmingly supports the payment of dangerousness and supports our grocery workers ”.