With the holidays approaching – usually the busiest time of the year for US retailers – supermarket employees say they are afraid to go to work. Cases of corona virus Skyscraper.
Rachel Fornier, a cashier and beggar for 16 years at Ralph’s in Los Angeles, said, “Cavid’s cases are spreading in California and across the country. Everyone who works in my store is at risk of infection.” United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) on Monday. “Despite the increased risk, sometimes it takes us two weeks to say a peer-tested positive.”
At least 350 UFCW members have died of Covid-19, including 109 grocery workers, representing 835,000 grocery store workers on key chains, including Ahold Delhais, Albertson and Kroger, according to the union. More than 17,400 grocery workers have been infected or infected with the virus, the union added.
“The fixed number is undoubtedly too high,” said Mark Perone, the UFCW’s international president. He said the big retailers refused to disclose how many of their workers fell ill or died.
“We’ve already had one worker killed and two in the ICU,” said Janet Wainwright, who has worked for Kroger for five years in Yorktown, Virginia.
Wainwright said store managers instruct workers not to harass customers who are not wearing face masks, and now store masks behind service counters instead of offering at the store entrance because they “worry customers who take too many masks.” “Kroger is prioritizing pennies over the lives of workers and consumers.”
He said Kroger no longer provides payment time to employees who test positive for coronavirus or who are infected and need to be isolated, they said.
Although Kroger disputed the statement, a spokesman told CBS Moneywatch that the company continues to give its workers a paid emergency leave.
“It’s scary”
Another concern for those who work in retail – the virus grows – is congestion. “The stores are getting more crowded as people stock up before the holidays or customers prepare for shutdowns,” said Fornier, a worker at Ralph’s, a supermarket chain owned by Kroger in California. There is no attempt to make sure. “
“We have three cases so far in our store,” said Lisa Harris, a cashier at Kroger outside Richmond. It’s scary. He encourages people to come – not wanting to give up their time for so little money. “There was a time when the only thing we were seeing was the kind of numbers if the weather was coming, or the holidays,” Virginia said in a separate briefing by the Brookings Institution on Monday. And now it’s every day, ”said Harris, who said less. $ 15 an hour
Kroger said in an email that his “most urgent priority during this epidemic is to provide a safe environment for our partners and customers while meeting our social responsibility to provide open stores, ecommerce solutions and effectively managed supply chains to access our communities.” Fresh, affordable food and essentials. “
Since March, the company has invested more than 1 1 billion in additional pay for its workers and implemented safety measures, a spokesman for Crowe said. The spokesman said Kroger’s “total COVID-19 incidence rate continues to meaningfully track lower rates than in the surrounding communities where we’re operating,” the spokesman said.
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