Planned Ralphs, Food 4 Less closings highlight issue of pandemic compensation for frontline grocery workers
The Kroger Co. is closing two supermarkets in Long Beach, Calif., because of a new municipal law that mandates hazard pay to grocery workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Plans call for the Ralphs store at 3380 N. Los Coyotes Diagonal and the Food 4 Less store at 2185 E. South St. in Long Beach to close on April 17, the two Kroger divisions said yesterday. The chains said the two locations represent 25% of their Long Beach stores.
The Long Beach ordinance (Ord-27), passed by the city council in December and enacted Jan. 19, requires grocery retailers to establish “premium pay” of an extra $4 per hour to wage-earning store associates for a period of at least 120 days. Store managers or supervisors aren’t covered by the mandate, which applies to companies with at least 15 grocery workers for each store in Long Beach and with at least 300 grocery workers overall.
The Ralphs supermarket on the corner of Wardlow Road and Los Coyotes Diagonal in Long Beach looks like so many other suburban grocery stores.
But it has become an unlikely flashpoint in the heated battle over whether grocery workers deserve “hero pay” for their work during the pandemic.
Ralphs now plans to close the location after Long Beach approved a hazard wage. And the industry has warned that more stores will close if the such pay rules expand. That has outraged some officials.
Here is a look at the hero pay issue:
Q: So what is hero pay?
The concept is that grocery store workers who have put their lives at risk during the pandemic would get extra pay.
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Instacart is cutting almost 2,000 jobs including a group of employees who formed the first union at the company
Instacart is cutting almost 2,000 jobs including a group of employees who formed the first union at the company
Natasha DaileyJan 22, 2021, 03:23 IST
Instacart is slashing about 2,000 jobs.Photo by Nick Otto for the Washington Post/Getty Images
Instacart plans to cut 1,877
jobs no sooner than March, Bloomberg reported.
The move includes the only unionized Instacart workers in the US.
The delivery platform is looking to hand its technology off to grocery stores to prepare orders.
Online grocery delivery platform Instacart said it will slash almost 2,000 jobs, including its only unionized workers, in an effort to shift to new models in which grocery store workers will help fill customer orders, Bloomberg reported.
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Two crossed lines that form an X . It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification. Instacart is slashing about 2,000 jobs. Photo by Nick Otto for the Washington Post/Getty Images
Instacart plans to cut 1,877 jobs no sooner than March, Bloomberg reported.
The move includes the only unionized Instacart workers in the US.
The delivery platform is looking to hand its technology off to grocery stores to prepare orders.
Online grocery delivery platform Instacart said it will slash almost 2,000 jobs, including its only unionized workers, in an effort to shift to new models in which grocery store workers will help fill customer orders, Bloomberg reported.