LOS ANGELES – Grocery and drug retail workers will receive a $5 hazard pay increase as members of the Los Angeles City Council passed, 14 to 1, an ordinance giving the temporary pay to grocery and pharmacy workers in the City of Los Angeles.
The measure, which will be effective for 120 days, will lift pay for over 26,000 grocery and drug retail workers and only awaits a final signature by Mayor Garcetti.
The employees and their union UFCW 770 have been fighting for hazard pay for essential workers since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the virus enters its second year, grocery and drug retail workers are still getting infected and even dying.
Dozens of community organizations have shown their support for essential workers to receive hazard pay.
Major grocers, including Kroger, which owns Food 4 Less and Ralphs, agreed to pay Los Angeles grocery store workers a $2 an hour hazard pay increase in March 2020, only to end it six weeks later. Meanwhile grocery store companies have seen their net earnings skyrocket in the last year, with Kroger reporting a 15.8% increase in sales and net earnings increase of just under 100% in the first three quarters of 2020 as compared to the first three quarters in 2019.
Grocery store and pharmacy workers continue to face the risk of infection. To date, over 5,800 UFCW 770 members have contracted COVID-19.
At the end of February, workers won hazard pay in unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County.