Essential workers at Giant demand hazard pay
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| Union members speak out for extra pay for working in during the pandemic. [John Lee] |
Workers at Giant and Safeway are demanding hazard pay for the extra risks they’re taking as essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Giant has refused to open negotiations over hazard pay with United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400 and instead offered a one-time “appreciation bonus” of $300 for full-time and $150 for part-time workers.
“This is an outrage,” says Mark Federici, president of UFCW Local 400. In a Sept. 25 letter to Giant CEO Ira Kress, Federici called that payment “an insult to the men and women who are serving, getting sick, and dying on the frontlines.”
“While other businesses have shuttered, Giant has thrived during this pandemic,” Federici says. Kress has not yet responded.
A 10 percent pay increase to Giant store associates ended on May 30 and the chain had paid a bonus to employees on July 1.
“Grocery workers “are risking their lives to be at work,” said Local 400 spokesperson Jonathan Williams. “As much as wish to get back to normal, the risks are still here and people are still dying from this disease. As long as there is a hazard, there should be hazard pay.”
So far there have been 650 COVID cases among Local 400 members in the five states the union represents, including 344 cases in Virginia, and 228 at Giant.
The COVID memorial page on the union’s website lists six workers who died from COVID, although Williams said there are others whose families didn’t want them to be listed.
Ricky Taylor, had worked at the Annandale Giant on Columbia Pike for six days a week for decades before succumbing to COVID on May 24 at age 59. He spent the last two weeks of his life in a hospital on a ventilator in a medically induced coma, states a GoFundMe page put up by his family
“The family has lost such a beloved man,” the website states. “Taylor was a selfless man with a big heart for all people and animals alike. He was dedicated to his family, dedicated to his dogs, and dedicated to his work.”
Local 400 has held Days of Action protests at Giant and Safeway stores in the region and more are planned.
5 responses to “Essential workers at Giant demand hazard pay”
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These people realize self check out is already a thing that could be put to wider use don't they? Wouldn't push it…
Grocery stores employ more than just checkout clerks.
The article seems to imply the deceased workers got the virus while on the job. Is there any proof of that? Obviously they could've contracted it just about anywhere, especially if any of them were in the high risk category.
I was thinking the same thing.
The staff of each store is what kept them open and serving the rest of the local population. There is to be compassion for this sort of selfless willingness to work when many would not take up call for being on the job. Their union is there to help them weather the storm and be prepared for the continuation of this pandemic. Give these folks your thanks and support.