Kroger workers link union, Black Lives Matter
Over the last three months Aaron Washington, a 17-year veteran of Kroger’s Delta Distribution Center, has been pushed to his limits.
In the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, Washington worked 16-hour days, seven days a week, along with around 400 other workers at the warehouse that supplies approximately 100 grocery stores in the Mid-south.
Meanwhile, Washington navigated news of three coronavirus cases among co-workers and watched family members lose their jobs in different industries as his own income grew and fell.
Over the course of the pandemic, Kroger introduced a $2 per hour hazard pay raise that Memphis warehouse workers demanded after news of a first COVID-19 case at the warehouse spread. The company eliminated hazard pay weeks later, met with outcry from frontline workers.
Now, Washington said, “it’s definitely time to escalate.”
That means pushing for workers’ on-the-job demands as much as it means the fight for racial justice in the world at large, said Washington. He hit the streets in Memphis twice during recent protests and bought a ticket to Washington, D.C. once he heard about the March on Washington the Poor People’s Campaign has called for on June 20.
“I think our strategy should be to keep pushing forward, for exactly what we asked for, for all the things that we ask for – livable wages, criminal justice and police reform, the whole spectrum right now,” Washington said.
Alluding to the eruption of Black Lives Matter protests across the country in the wake of the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd, an un
armed black man, by a white former Minneapolis police officer, Washington added: “I think it’s the perfect time.”
Kroger has provided a non-hourly bonus since eliminating hazard pay and said the company will continue to recognize the “hard work and extra effort” of workers.
“At the same time, we will continue running a sustainable business that provides steady employment and opportunities to learn and grow for over half a million associates,” a statement sent by spokesperson Teresa Dickerson said.
During the pandemic, Kroger sales increased by 30%, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported in March – when grocery prices rose by an average 2.6%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Recent financial statements show Kroger made $2.3 billion in operating profits in 2019 when the company granted six executives $37 million in salaries, cash bonuses, stock awards, stock options and other compensation.
Inspired by protest, wary of rush to normalcy
Washington, who is a union steward in Teamsters Local 667, said he thinks the union has a role to play in the fight for racial justice. And on the flip side, the spirit of protest has infused the workers ongoing fight with their company.
On Wednesday, Washington and around 20 other warehouse workers and their union representatives brought their demands from the negotiating table to the warehouse entrance, in a sidewalk demonstration.
President of Teamsters Local 667, James Jones, pointed out the ongoing nature of the pandemic.
The two largest single day increases in the number of new coronavirus cases have occurred since the city and county commenced the first phase of re-opening, according to Shelby County Health Department data.
“We’re here to call out corporations who have turned their backs on workers. At this time, we need as much protection as we can get,” Jones said.
“We have been ravaged by an unknown plague. And there is no real answer in sight. This is not the time for Kroger to take advantage of their downtrodden workers,” he said.
Washington said he believes that as long the hazard remains, hazard pay should continue.
Kroger, in a statement sent by Dickerson, said worker safety is the company’s top priority.
“We follow all CDC and local health department guidelines, including implementing rigorous sanitation procedures, providing our associates personal protective equipment, physical distancing and temperature checks,” the company said.
Quotas discourage distancing
Workers say they’ve raised two issues that discourage social distancing. One is the lack of staggered break times they say they’ve repeatedly requested.
The other is the supermarket chain’s reintroduction of quotas and a corresponding disciplinary system that ends with a worker being fired if they don’t meet efficiency standards 95% of the time.
Brandon Lindsey, 28, took part in the demonstration outside the warehouse Wednesday and talked about working conditions on the inside.
“It’s just a lot going on. It’s kind of a scary situation,” said Lindsey, a father of three who has worked at the distribution center for six years.
On a warehouse floor where workers must retrieve cases of groceries among shared aisles within a prescribed amount of time, the threat of job loss trumps social distancing, multiple workers said.
Kroger has previously declined to comment on its production standards.
Jones said the ongoing fight with the company drains the union.
“We are using all our resources to hold these companies accountable, just for the workers to be able to come in, perform their job and go home safely,” he said.
Bonuses at other companies
Among food chain supply companies, Kroger is not alone among those with responses to the pandemic that the workers’ representatives say has fallen short.
Roberts Fields is the Teamsters liaison with Turner Holdings, operator of the Prairie Farms dairy plant in Midtown which employs about 110 workers. A separate Teamsters action took place there Wednesday morning, Fields said.
“They’re putting out an abundance of product and they’ve been pushing, pushing, pushing. But they’re not treating them as essential employees or paying them as essential employees,” said Fields.
He also said he had to pressure the company to implement COVID-19 safety precautions.
The Commercial Appeal requested comment on Turner Holdings’ COVID-19 safety plan Wednesday evening and did not immediately receive a response.
Aside from the dairy plant, Teamsters said of the 40 workplaces where they represent essential workers, other employers have provided bonuses or
A 1.4 million member union imagines its role
Jones and Washington both talked about the civil rights legacy unique to Memphis, as the site where Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated while supporting a strike launched by city sanitation workers – a workforce comprised entirely of black men.
“We’re here today to protect those morals,” Jones said at the rally. “Today’s environment for people of color is totally unacceptable.”
He encouraged those present to “pick up the baton” of fighting for equal rights.
Washington agreed, though he considers the idea that it’s necessary “a shame ... that we’ve been fighting for the exact same thing we were 50 years ago.”
He is, however, excited about ways he sees the union playing a role in the political moment.
The International Brotherhood of the Teamsters describes itself as “America’s largest, most diverse union,” with a membership of 1.4 million.
“We need to plan, mobilize and move people. The union has to really step up right now,” Washington said.
“This is something that’s real right now,” he said of the street protests. “All our organizations, we have to work together ... More people need to get involved. You don’t have to march or protest. But we need everybody’s support.”
Voting, he believes, is “what’s gonna make the real change.”
Lindsey, the rank-and-file worker who took part in the rally, said that the notion workers weren’t alone in their struggle is comforting in itself.
“I just appreciate that we’re finally getting our voices heard,” he said. “That people take time to see what we’re going through here, with everyone else and everything that they’re dealing with. It means a lot.”
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.