My deepest thanks to mt41w for waking me up yesterday with their diary. I’ve been conveniently shopping at Fred Meyer, thinking “well, the workers there are unionized so they probably have good conditions”.
Without realizing Kroger had stopped paying pandemic hazard pay, or any other bonus, in May 2020.And they are the only chain in this Brookings chart that didn’t even add any bonus since May. They have been the stingiest Scrooges, while I have been foolishly and narrow-mindedly lining their pockets.
And, as mt41w brought the news here, now once cities have started mandating hazard pay — Kroger has gone to war with those cities over its “right” to hoard its windfall while putting their least-paid employees in harm’s way.
So I just submitted this through their customer complaint portal. I’ve got choices, and I won’t be shopping there till they change their ways.
Hi,
Fred Meyer's and QFC are two of our closest supermarkets. During the pandemic, Fred Meyer's in particular has become a favorite grocery source for me, with great produce and prices.
I have been particularly grateful to your heroic essential workers continuing to provide us with food at personal risk to themselves, and cashiers most of all - being within transmission distance with so many people each shift, while standing on their feet the entire time.
Somehow you've managed to pull the wool over my eyes: I haven't realized that you've stopped paying them any sort of hazard pay, way back in May. Meanwhile, your owners and management have been raking in the billions due to increased grocery shopping.
Meaning workers and in particular cashiers have been working way harder, at potentially life-threatening risk to them and their households, for the same pay.
I have now learned that when local governments including my own city of Seattle have tried to help make it right by mandating hazard pay as long as the pandemic is still raging - you have gone to war, closing stores in California, and filing a lawsuit against Seattle.
Well, I've got choices and I'm making them. Until you change your ways, I won't be stepping inside a Fred Meyer's or a QFC. That's close to $1000/month of groceries I'm moving elsewhere.
Expecting better citizenship,
Assaf
Feel free to copy, paste, edit, comment, etc.
Thank you.