Kroger grants hazard raise to employees
The largest grocery chain in the U.S., Kroger granted its workers a $2 per hour hazard pay increase late Tuesday — less than a week after an employee at the company’s Memphis warehouse tested positive for COVID-19, causing distribution to slow across the mid-south.
The Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. announced the pay increase the same day the chain disclosed it saw a 30% surge in sales, not including fuel, in March.
The news comes amid a growing chorus of demands, for better health protections and pay, made by grocery and supply chain workers at multiple national companies, including Whole Foods, Amazon and Instacart.
The pay raise applies to Kroger’s workers in distribution, manufacturing, call centers and stores. Other changes announced Tuesday include the installation of plexiglass partitions at registers; shortened store hours to provide ample time for restocking, cleaning and rest; and the addition of floor decals in stores to promote physical distancing, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers union, known as UFCW, which represents in-store employees.
According to Maurice Wiggins, a Teamsters union steward and fork-lift operator at Kroger’s Delta Distribution Center in Memphis, warehouse workers will also now have one day off per week and their shifts will be capped at 12 hours, whether the warehouse is caught up on shipping and receiving at the time.
Workers at the 400-person warehouse, which supplies 100 Mid-south stores, previously worked mandatory seven-day weeks of shifts up to 16 hours per day.
Wiggins, who said he logged a 97hour week his last pay period, said he’s seen workers take to the warehouse floor to sleep when too tired to operate equipment.
Now, he said, “Everybody’s in good spirits out here working.”
Wiggins said he salutes Kroger for implementing the pay increase, to which the company has committed through April 18, and for bringing on a new cleaning crew whose sole job is to disinfect the 24-hour site around the clock.
“They really helping out and I’m proud of them for that. But I hate that we had to go through these measures to get here,” Wiggins said.
“It’s a time of crisis and these billion dollar companies need to take it more serious. They need to appreciate their employees. They benefit from us so much and this is the time they need us the most. They need to step in and actually show that,” Wiggins said of major employers who have yet to better compensate and protect their workers.
Notices of a ‘Hero Bonus’
Of Kroger’s 460,000 workers across the country, 5,000 are employed in the Mid-south, according to a company spokesperson.
Notices of a “Hero Bonus” went up around the Memphis warehouse last night, workers and their representatives with the Teamsters union, said.
Kroger CEO Rodney Mcmullen said in a written statement, “Our associates have displayed the true actions of a hero, working tirelessly on the frontlines to ensure everyone has access to affordable, fresh food and essentials during this national emergency.”
Mcmullen continued: “The Hero Bonus is just one more way we continue to convey our thanks and gratitude not only to our existing associates but also to the more than 30,000 new hires who have joined in the past two weeks and those who will soon join the Kroger Family of Companies.”
Previously, the sole reward offered Kroger’s store and warehouse employees facing higher risk of exposure while working long hours during the coronavirus crisis, was a one-time bonus of $150 for part-time employees and $300 for those working full-time.
The company, which posted a $2.3 billion operating profit for 2019, announced Kroger’s one-time bonus March 21, on the heels of decisions by other major grocers, Giant Eagle and H.E.B., to increase their workers base pay by $2 per hour.
More transparency demanded, ‘for everybody’
Aaron Washington has worked at the Memphis warehouse for 17 years. Since the coronavirus crisis spiked the demand for groceries and supplies, he said he’s had scarce opportunity to buy groceries himself — until Kroger’s recent announcement.
“It’s good news,” Washington said. He’d recently returned home from a 12hour shift and grocery-store run.
“They came through,” he said of Kroger. Washington expects the company to continue to do so after April 18.
A press release sent by UFCW said the union and the company will revisit hazard pay discussions in three weeks.
“If this continues and goes on for an unforeseen time,” he said of the coronavirus crisis, “then of course [hazard pay] needs to continue. We can’t go back on that if we’re still dealing with this crisis.”
Kroger also said the company would begin providing mental health services and make a $5 million fund available for workers “facing hardship, including lack of access to childcare and for those considered higher-risk, due to COVID-19.”
In the meanwhile, Teamsters Local 667, which represents the Memphis warehouse workers, has submitted a formal letter to Kroger seeking increased transparency from the company.
The letter demands:
❚ The plan, in writing, Kroger has put into place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, as well as the specifics of how management will monitor and enforce the implementation of new safety measures; and the dissemination of that information to employees
❚ The names and addresses of workers who’ve been brought into the facility from out of town in the past 90 days and whether those new employees have filled out a Covid-related questionnaire, had a temperature check or been tested
❚ Anonymous details regarding the shift details of any and all employees who have reported symptoms or tested positive for COVID-19
❚ The inclusion of managers in the company’s newly implemented temperature checks upon entry policy; and the ability of workers to check their temperature at other points throughout the day
❚ Requirement that drivers must stay inside their vehicles to limit contact
❚ Cleaning supplies to be provided each employee
❚ The staggering of breaks to limit contact
❚ A presentation for employee on the company’s new, paid sick leave policy
❚ The public posting of Center for Disease Control guidelines on site
James Jones, president of Teamsters Local 667, wrote the letter and provided it to The Commercial Appeal.
He said the letter was submitted as much in the interest of workplace conditions everywhere as it was on behalf of his union’s members.
“It’s not something that we’re trying to do for unionized folks. It’s something we’re doing for everybody,” Jones said. “This virus doesn’t pick and choose who gets affected. It goes to anybody and everybody. If we can help any company, that’s what we’re here to do.”
He said he hopes the letter will help shift the company’s focal point during the pandemic. “The gist of it should be about people and the community and the society and not just about money all the time,” Jones said.
As the union awaits a response, Maurice Wiggins said he’s looking forward to the same simple things most people enjoy during time off.
“Probably sleep,” Wiggins said of what he’ll be doing with the first day in weeks in which he won’t be reporting to work.
“The barbershop, everybody closed. I guess I’ll just take a day off to catch up on some Netflix movies and get me some home-cooked food, help my Mama cook and just chill out,” he said.
Sarah Macaraeg is an award-winning journalist who writes investigations, features and the occasional news story for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at sarah.macaraeg@commercialappeal.com, 901-5292889 or on Twitter @seramak.
Of Kroger’s 460,000 workers across the country, 5,000 are employed in the Mid-south.