Grocery workers to get ‘hazard pay’ raise

Despite store owner opposition, city follows trend of other councils

ALAMEDA » Employees of large grocery stores are set to get a $5 an hour pay raise while the COVID-19 pandemic continues after the City Council decided they deserve “hazard pay.”

Other cities, including Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro and San Jose, have adopted similar ordinances, which grocery store owners are challenging in court.

“Really, what this is about is recognizing the work that has been performed by our front-line workers,” said Vice Mayor Malia Vella, who along with Councilman John Knox White put the temporary ordinance on the council agenda’s last week.

The raise will be given to workers at Nob Hill in the Bridgeside Shopping Center, Albertsons in Marina Village, and those at the Safeway stores at Alameda Landing, on Bay Farm Island and at Alameda South Shore Center, according to City Manager Eric Levitt.

To fall under the ordinance, a business must employ 500 or more people nationwide, regardless of where they work, and the store’s location within Alameda must be at least 15,000 square feet and primarily sell food.

Councilmembers Trish Herrera Spencer and Tony Daysog voted against it.

Spencer said she was concerned about the city getting mixed up with businesses and employees who may have negotiated contracts, plus she questioned why other workers who interact with the public through their jobs amid the pandemic will not be covered by it, citing Amazon delivery drivers, bank

employees and postal workers as examples.

Daysog said he feared the financial impact of the raise could cause businesses to close.

Last month, the national supermarket company Kroger announced it would close two stores in Long Beach after that city passed an ordinance requiring grocery stores with more than 300 employees to pay an additional $4 an hour because of the pandemic.

Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft said she believed the large grocery chains could absorb the financial hit.

The California Grocers Association has filed lawsuits challenging the raises in other cities.

“These companies have posted record profits since the beginning of the pandemic but have unfortunately chosen not to share those profits with (their) workers,” Alameda resident and longtime labor activist Mike Henneberry said in an email to the council. “This is a good way to recognize the sacrifices made by grocery workers and will not be detrimental to the city.”

Fellow Alameda resident Jeff Lewis also sent an email to the council. “These companies relied on these workers risking their lives in order to make money during the pandemic just as we relied on these workers to help us get food and other necessities,” Lewis said.

Steve McCarthy, vice president of the California Retailers Association, asked the council to hold off a decision so that an economic study could be made about the impact of the raise in a March 2 letter.

“An inflexible, one-size-fitsall approach risks increasing the costs of food, grocery and retail pharmacy drugs and will disproportionately impact those in our communities who are already bearing the brunt of this pandemic,” McCarthy said.

The raises would remain in place until state officials designate the public risk of COVID-19 as minimal.

The ordinance will come back before the council for a second reading on April 6. The raise is expected to kick in 30 days after being approved.