Smith’s employees to receive temporary raise

A national food workers union won a $2-per-hour raise for more than 2,000 employees at Smith’s Food and Drug stores in New Mexico for at least three weeks to reward them for working “on the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak.”

The United Food and Commercial Works International Union announced the agreement Monday with Kroger Co., the nation’s largest supermarket chain and parent company of Smith’s.

Smith’s has two stores in Santa Fe — 2110 S. Pacheco St. and 2308 Cerrillos Road. It has 23 stores in New Mexico.

The agreement covers 460,000 Kroger employees across the country at multiple supermarket chains.

The $2-an-hour raise, called a “hero bonus,” covers frontline employees in Kroger retail stores, manufacturing plants, distribution centers, pharmacies and call centers. The raise is in place only for three weeks, “at which point the union and Kroger will revisit the discussions,” according to a union news release.

The raise also covers the 30,000 new Kroger employees hired in the past two weeks, Kroger Chairman and CEO Rodney McMullen said in the release.

The agreement also provides emergency paid leave to Smith’s employees affected by the novel coronavirus.

Kroger also is adding ExpressPay next week for employees to have access to some of their wages before payday. Kroger will make $5 million available nationwide for employees with hardships, such as lack of access to child care.

The agreement with the union also allows employees to wash their hands and sanitize their cash registers every 30 minutes.

Kroger will install plexiglass partitions at checkout lanes, pharmacies and Starbucks outlets.