by Robert Brownlee
Unionized grocery workers have spoken frequently about the risks facing them during the worst months of the COVID-19 pandemic, but now there’s a more in-depth and analytical look according to a new study from the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) and the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
For one, the hospitalization rate of the workers in the study – covering UFCW workers in a range of industries – ran three times higher than the nationwide rate of two percent. Four percent of workers surveyed by the researchers have been unable to return to work since contracting COVID.
The rate of reported infections during the survey also rose from two percent to 15% as the Omicron variant surged, 10 times higher than the general population, and those who had reported being infected before were more than twice as likely to get infected again. Twenty percent of everyone infected reported visiting an emergency room because of it.
“This difference due to public-facing roles may help explain how grocery workers were at higher risk in December [2021], indicating the relaxation in preventative measures like masks, an increase in public facing, and overall weariness of the pandemic right when the Omicron variant was arriving,” the University of Nebraska researchers wrote.
Half of the 17,600 UFCW essential workers surveyed said their lives were significantly impacted by the pandemic. The UFCW Essential Worker Health Report is one of the largest surveys on union members during the pandemic. “These essential workers paid a hefty price for continuing to do their jobs, which kept food on American families’ tables and our economy moving throughout the pandemic,” UFCW Pres. Marc Perrone said.
The researchers found that women in particular were more likely to catch COVID, but don’t know why. One possibility is that the women in the survey were disproportionately represented in public-facing roles at grocery stores than men, or are more likely to seek out health care when showing symptoms. Surveyed union members were also generally supportive of vaccination mandates, with vaccination rates among surveyed UFCW members running at 88 percent.
However, the researchers had no doubts that workers are tired, stressed out, angry and underpaid. Turnover – the rate at which workers leave their jobs – increased four-fold during the pandemic. The most common stated reasons were low wages, excessive workload and irregular work schedules. Workers frequently made calls for hazard pay, wanted increased intervention to ensure that customers adhered to safety guidelines, and expressed frustration with management. The most frequent problems were with customers who refused to wear masks, maintain social distancing or were abusive. A quarter of Kroger workers say they had been threatened with violence.
Workers at supermarket chains such as Kroger covered under UFCW contracts realized the pandemic gave them leverage. In January, thousands of Denver-area workers at Kroger subsidiaries King Soopers and City Market walked out over pay and working conditions. During the previous two years, Kroger’s operating profits soared from $2.9 billion to $4.15 billion.
“The companies were thriving, but our workers didn’t thrive,” UFCW Local 7 Pres. Kim Cordova said. “Know what our workers got? Covid. Attacked. Beat up. Spit on. Slapped. Overworked. And the company? They did great. They did absolutely great, sitting behind their desk doing their job by Zoom.”
Just as the national UFCW was researching the effects of COVID on the workforce, the UFCW 7 and locals 21, 324 and 770 commissioned a massive study of 36,800 Kroger workers through the non-profit research group Economic Roundtable on working conditions more generally. Their conclusion: the working conditions of Kroger workers has “declined markedly over the past 20 years.”
The rate of food insecurity among these grocery workers – defined as being unable to reliably afford balanced and healthy food – runs to around 75 percent, seven times higher than the U.S. average, and 14 percent said they had experienced homelessness in the past year. Food clerks have seen a significant drop in their real wages compared to 30 years ago, and all of this has occurred as Kroger’s books recorded booming revenues, profits and executive compensation – resulting in one of the highest CEO-worker pay gaps anywhere. Then there’s the company’s stock buyback practices resulting in higher and higher returns for shareholders.
“The data demonstrate that workers’ financial distress, housing insecurity and food insecurity are not resulting from their personal failures but rather, from Kroger’s companywide policies for cutting costs and increasing profits,” the Economic Roundtable concluded.
Additional pay kept workers going during the first two months of the pandemic, but Kroger withdrew the extra cash, and sent lobbyists to elected officials’ offices, urging them to vote against proposals for governments to mandate “hazard pay,” the Economic Roundtable noted.
Fortunately, during the King Soopers strike, workers on the picket line found support among customers who they knew well. “A lot of [customers] said that we got them through the COVID lockdown so they had our backs in the strike effort,” one Local 7 member told the Kroger Workers’ Voice. “Times like this really show the sort of mutual dependence that really makes a community.”
Local 7 won its strike.