Posts Categorized: Grocery

On June 8, the UFCW applauded California leaders on the Oxnard City Council for becoming the first city in the nation to utilize American Rescue Plan funds to provide COVID premium pay to essential workers. The UFCW called on governors and local leaders in all 50 states to enact similar measures for frontline workers.

UFCW Local 770 and its members played a leading role in advocating for this action by the Oxnard City Council to provide the COVID premium pay these workers have earned and deserve. UFCW Local 770 held meetings with the Oxnard City Council, participated in public comment sessions, and wrote a letter in partnership with the Central Coast Labor Council calling for this action.

The Oxnard City Council will do the following to help essential workers:

• Allocate $2.5 million of the city’s $59 million from its American Rescue Plan funds on essential worker COVID premium pay for retail grocery and drug store workers.
• Provide $2.5 million of COVID premium pay for retail grocery and drug store workers. Both full- time and part-time workers qualify. 
• Provide a one-time payout to workers who qualify. Current estimates indicate that roughly 2,000 essential workers in Oxnard would be eligible for the COVID premium pay, including about 450 Oxnard essential workers represented by UFCW Local 770.
• The Oxnard City Council measure would give anyone who worked at least three months in a grocery store or pharmacy during the first 12 months of the coronavirus pandemic a $1,000 bonus.

“Essential workers in grocery stores and pharmacies have bravely put their health at risk daily throughout the pandemic to ensure our families have the food, essential supplies, and vaccine access we need,” said UFCW International President Marc Perrone in a statement. “Oxnard is making history as the first city in the nation to use American Rescue Plan funds to provide these essential workers with the COVID premium pay they have earned and deserve. The UFCW is urging all governors and local leaders in all 50 states to follow Oxnard’s lead by ensuring this state pandemic aid is used to provide COVID premium pay and recognize the extraordinary sacrifices made by those on the front lines.”

“Essential food and drug retail employees are the lifeline that sustained our communities and kept us afloat during the Covid pandemic,” said UFCW Local 770 President John Grant. “Frontline workers continue to make sure our communities have the food, essential supplies, medications, and lifesaving vaccines needed. UFCW 770 members worked tirelessly with the Oxnard City Council to achieve this Gratitude Pay for union and non-union workers alike. We commend the City of Oxnard for doing the right thing and urge other cities to follow suit by allocating their funds from the American Rescue Plan to essential worker COVID premium pay.”

“I think this is awesome what the City Council of Oxnard is doing for the grocery workers, the frontline workers, and everybody who has been risking their lives every day to go to work,” said UFCW Local 770 member and Vons grocery worker Lucy Gilbertson. “This shows us gratitude at a time when it feels like we’ve been forgotten. Grocery workers have been through so much this past year and I hope more cities provide this pay to these workers still facing risks as the pandemic continues.”

Last week, the UFCW condemned Instacart’s new automation plan that threatens the jobs of the company’s 500,000 grocery delivery workers across the country. Instacart workers in Chicago made history by becoming the first at the company to unionize when they joined the UFCW in February 2020. As part of its ruthless cost-cutting, anti-worker playbook, Instacart fired 2,000 workers who had been on the front lines protecting food access during COVID-19, including the Instacart workers who joined the UFCW. Instacart’s new automation push is the latest in a growing industry trend to replace workers with technology, including Amazon’s recent cashierless grocery store expansion.

“Instacart grocery delivery workers have been bravely serving on the front lines since the pandemic began, putting their own health at risk to ensure Americans have the food they need during this crisis,” said UFCW International President Marc Perrone in a statement. “After our country called them ‘essential workers,’ it is outrageous that Instacart is now pushing job-killing automation that would wipe out the jobs of these hard-working men and women who have been a crucial lifeline providing food access to some of the most vulnerable Americans.”

“Instacart’s plan to fire its nearly 500,000 grocery delivery workers would devastate families across the country who depend on this income,” Perrone said. “With the aggressive expansion of Amazon’s cashierless grocery stores and similar automation moves at other companies, it is clear that CEOs across the industry are racing to squeeze more profits by wiping out grocery jobs that are vital to local economies nationwide. At a time when millions of Americans are still struggling and most Americans are one paycheck away from disaster, what does it say that companies like Instacart want to eliminate the jobs real people need?”

“As the union that proudly represented the first unionized Instacart grocery workers ever at the company, the UFCW is calling on CEO Apoorva Mehta to immediately stop this dangerous job-killing automation initiative,” Perrone added. “Handing out pink slips is no way to thank the brave men and women who have been keeping our food supply secure throughout this health crisis.”