Monthly Archives: June 2020

On June 10, UFCW International President Marc Perrone testified at a U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing about the importance of protecting America’s frontline workers and food supply. In his testimony, Perrone called on Congress to pass legislation to ensure that adequate protections are provided for workers in grocery stores, meatpacking plants and all essential businesses.

At the hearing, titled “No Worker Left Behind: Supporting Essential Workers,” Perrone called on Congress to protect, support and compensate essential workers by passing legislation that:

• Compensates the families of essential workers who die as a result of COVID-19 or related complications.
• Provides a cash benefit to essential workers who are hospitalized due to COVID-19 and recover.
• Expands the paid sick days and paid family leave benefit that was included in the second stimulus bill, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (H.R. 6201).
• Requires companies to prioritize meatpacking and food processing for COVID-19 testing; provide personal protective equipment free of charge; and protect workers from retaliation for speaking out about safety issues.

“All across this country, our health care, food, and retail workers are risking their health and safety to ensure that the American people have the food, supplies, and medical care they need during this crisis,” Perrone said during his testimony. “Essential workers – as so many of you have called them – have earned essential protections. Jobs that face high risk, as these do in the COVID-19 world we are living in, must be provided the protections, benefits, and wages that reflect that high health risk.”

“Our internal estimates have confirmed 225 of our members have tragically died and over 29,000 have been sick or been exposed,” Perrone added. “Some responsible employers like Cargill have done what is right. Others, including Amazon, Walmart, and even union employers like Kroger, have decided to put profits over people. The brutal reality is that far too many companies are failing to protect workers – and it is time that Democrats and Republicans step up and work together to do more. Millions of workers who lack access to paid sick days and paid family and medical leave are facing the devastating choice between risking their own health or risking the loss of a paycheck or job. Strong, anti-retaliation protections must be in place in order to ensure that workers who feel ill or who are suffering from COVID-19 can remain at home in quarantine for the full period of time recommended by the CDC until it is safe to return to work. Without these actions, I can promise you that more Americans will needlessly get sick and die.”

You can view Perrone’s testimony here.

On June 10, UFCW locals that represent approximately 15,000 meatpacking workers in Iowa announced their strong opposition to new state legislation that would offer coronavirus liability waivers to irresponsible companies and allow them to ignore critical worker safety issues.

UFCW Locals 6, 222, 230, 431, 440, 617 and 1149 released the following joint statement from their presidents that called on Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and state legislators to reject the bill:

“Iowa meatpacking workers across our state have been putting their lives on the line every day to ensure that our families have the food we need during this pandemic. Keeping our communities safe and food supply secure starts with protecting these brave frontline workers.”

“With Iowa meatpacking workers continuing to die and become infected by COVID-19 every week, it is shocking to see state leaders push such a dangerous bill that will allow giant companies to abandon their responsibility to keep these Iowa workers safe. This legislation is a threat not only to these workers, but to our food supply and the millions of Iowa families these workers proudly serve. Governor Reynolds and state legislators must immediately reject this corporate giveaway and put the safety of hard-working Iowa families first above all else.”

Some of our members in Iowa who work in meatpacking plants also spoke out against the legislation.

“For 31 years, I’ve proudly worked in Marshalltown to help families across Iowa put food on the table. This has always been a good job that’s helped me support my family, but with the coronavirus outbreak, I worry every day about getting sick. The last thing we need is a law that gives companies a free pass to ignore safety at a time when we need the strongest worker protections possible,” said Sherry Hart, a member of UFCW Local 1149 who works at JBS. “Our leaders should be standing up for Iowa meatpacking workers, not covering for big companies that fail to keep their employees from getting sick.”

“As long as Iowa meatpacking workers like me are getting sick and coronavirus continues to put us at risk, our leaders should be focused on keeping us and our communities safe. I was shocked when I heard that Governor Reynolds is considering letting companies off the hook for protecting workers,” said Memori Cleveland, a member of UFCW Local 222 who works at Seaboard Triumph. “In a crisis like this, our families deserve better.”