Whole Foods employees are staging a nationwide 'sick-out'

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5dmeka/whole-foods-employees-are-staging-a-nationwide-sick-out

by laurex • 6 years ago

122 105 6 years ago

vice.com

elicash6• 6 years ago

Here's what they're asking for: https://www.coworker.org/petitions/global-retail-worker-sick...

-Guaranteed paid leave for all workers who isolate or self-quarantine instead of coming to work.

-Reinstatement of health care coverage for part-time and seasonal workers.

-Increased FSA funds to cover coronavirus testing and treatment for all team members, including part-time and seasonal.

-Guaranteed hazard pay in the form of double pay during our scheduled hours.

-Implementation of new policies that can facilitate social distancing between workers and customers.

-Commitment to ensuring that all locations have adequate sanitation equipment and procedures in place.

-Immediate shutdown of any location where a worker tests positive for COVID-19. In such an event, all workers should continue to receive full pay until the store can safely reopen.

orblivion• 6 years ago

I generally have mixed feelings on unions, but overall these seem like pretty reasonable demands and it seems like a good thing for Whole Foods to do from a PR standpoint anyway. They would make me more confident if I were a Whole Foods shopper if nothing else.

The one thing that I can't help but question, just thinking in terms of microeconomics (which I'm fairly basic on), is this concept of hazard pay. I've heard that some places are increasing wages already. Doesn't this sort of account for the increased risk? Or to put it another way: If you got a 2x raise but they didn't call it "hazard pay", would you still demand hazard pay?

leetcrew3• 6 years ago

I don't think "hazard pay" has any legally defined meaning in the US. it might imply that they are only demanding the 2x pay for the duration of the crisis.

amluto3• 6 years ago

-Guaranteed paid leave for all workers who isolate or self-quarantine instead of coming to work.

This should be required by law of all employers.

-Immediate shutdown of any location where a worker tests positive for COVID-19.

This seems like overkill. How about having all employees wear masks (not N95) and cleaning the store thoroughly if someone tests positive? Or do they mean a few-hour or one-day shutdown?

meheleventyone• 6 years ago

Staff should be wearing gloves and masks already! After someone has been infected and all their contacts should be isolated is a bit late!

knodi1235• 6 years ago

> -Guaranteed paid leave for all workers who isolate or self-quarantine instead of coming to work.
This should be required by law of all employers.

All businesses should be required to tell every employee "You don't have to come in to work for the duration of the crisis, unless you feel like it. But you'll get paid regardless."?

nn353• 6 years ago

-Immediate shutdown of any location where a worker tests positive for COVID-19.

This seems likely to shut down the majority of Whole Foods stores in short order. An unreasonable request, IMO. Grocery stores are genuinely essential to society and the death rate for < 40yo is very small. Put some masks on them and keep working.

I do think high-risk employees should basically be allowed to stay home, though.

rocha3• 6 years ago

Hospitalization rate is hovering between 10% and 20%

Edit: source https://covidtracking.com/data/

toomuchtodo4• 6 years ago

I do think high-risk employees should basically be allowed to stay home, though.

Employees in states where a shelter in place order is in effect can stay home and collect unemployment backed by the federal government [1]. One might argue everyone is high risk, as you might have a risk factor you're not aware of, leading to an unexpected death. [2]

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-stimulus-package...

[2] https://www.insider.com/spanish-coach-francisco-garcia-21-di... (A 21-year-old Spanish soccer coach died from the coronavirus after finding out he had undiagnosed leukemia while he was in hospital)

zzzeek2• 6 years ago

this fails to consider that if an employee of the store tests positive that has an implication for the store itself as well as all the food and products being sold to the public.

elicash6• 6 years ago

I'd bet that if Amazon agreed to all demands but that one that the workers who organized this would be ECSTATIC.

There should be negotiation, back-and-forth. What's frustrating, as somebody not affiliated with the organizing here but has been in similar circumstances, is when the company won't even come to the table to bargain.

diob3• 6 years ago

If they're essential to society, do you support free medical care for all the employees who get sick during this time? Do you support paying for the ongoing costs of an employee that suffers the rest of their life due to complications or after effects from COVID-19?

ahoy2• 6 years ago

the first rule of negotiation is to set your initial ask high

gameswithgo• 6 years ago

lots of room for reasonable compromise in there

NovemberWhiskey4• 6 years ago

Guaranteed paid leave for all workers who isolate or self-quarantine instead of coming to work.

Does anyone have any idea how they're supposed to operate their business if they have to pay workers who don't work? I mean, they would have to hire replacement workers - who also don't need to come to work? Or are the replacement workers supposed to be second-class vs. the original workers?

sickleave• 6 years ago

Certainly Jeff Bezos could spare a billion or two.

matz13• 6 years ago

Its not going to work, if you pay people to not work, who is going to work then ? Money will become useless.

alistairSH5• 6 years ago

The same way any other employer is able to offer PTO? It should just be a cost of doing business (and is in much of Europe).

Uhhrrr• 6 years ago

Guaranteed hazard pay in the form of double pay

With unemployment skyrocketing, it seems to me very unlikely that this would be granted. What is the purpose of putting it on the list?

airstrike2• 6 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring

downerending• 6 years ago

-Guaranteed hazard pay in the form of double pay during our scheduled hours.

I too would like to double my pay. :-)

I'm not entirely unsympathetic, but I've worked far more dangerous jobs for a lot less money.

Beyond that, what's up with the writing? "Guaranteed" hazard pay? As opposed to "un-guaranteed"? What does that even mean? Guaranteed by whom? And "during our scheduled hours"? ??

alistairSH5• 6 years ago

Maybe they mean paid each pay cycle. Vs a promise for a lump sum at the end of the pandemic.

MivLives• 6 years ago

Did Whole Foods finally remove health insurance for people on part time 20? Or are they asking it to be applied to non part time 20 workers.

tracker12• 6 years ago

Wonder if grocery store workers will largely be forced to unionize and fall under similar terms as airline industry with regards to limitations on a strike. "Essential work"

whyenot• 6 years ago

Aren't many grocery chains already unionized? I believe Safeway, Raleys / Nob Hill, and Albertsons are, at least.

toomuchtodo4• 6 years ago

Yes. It would make sense for existing grocers unions to assist in the efforts of these Whole Foods workers, and eventually expand to Amazon Fulfillment workers (perhaps working with other unions under the AFL-CIO umbrella).

http://www.ufcw.org/grocery/

junky228• 6 years ago

none of those exist in my part of the U.S. I haven't even heard of the last two

ken• 6 years ago

In the Seattle area, nearly every grocery store (except Whole Foods) employs workers represented by UFCW 21: https://www.ufcw21.org/shop-union

taylodl• 6 years ago

They already are unionized - at least in my neck of the woods (Ohio). If the Whole Foods employees are not, well, then that should be their first order of business.

tracker12• 6 years ago

My understanding is that a lot of their in-store employees are at-will and part time, and largely not covered by the unions... of course companies and states will vary.

elicash6• 6 years ago

Grocery stores and their workers could bargain over these details however they wanted. CBAs look very different from one another.

amelius2• 6 years ago

I sympathize but wouldn't a strike be illegal during a crisis?

eropple• 6 years ago

No? They're not drafted, you can't compel grocery store workers to work. It just turns out that we rely more than people thought on some of the least protected of our citizens, and this is a pretty good chance to have their voices be heard.

txcwpalpha• 6 years ago

Being drafted isn't relevant to the question. The NLRA does indeed specify that strikes can be illegal in certain situations, such as if doing so would cause a national emergency. I don't know if this particular strike falls under that or other criteria.

fart_ratty• 6 years ago

Something like Eisenhower did with the steel workers could happen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_strike_of_1959#Invocatio...

amelius2• 6 years ago

you can't compel grocery store workers to work

No but organizing to not work as a group is something else.

ttul• 6 years ago

I'm sure that one of the long term outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic will be a (potentially short-lived) resurgence in unionization and a general leftward shift in global politics. This move to the left will coincide with governments continuing to exercise greater authority over the population and economy. Our reality after COVID-19 will look more like 1970s Britain.

SpicyLemonZest• 6 years ago

We're hearing a lot of stories about labor activism now because every employer allowed to stay open needs as many workers as it can get. When the rest of the economy reopens, and the millions of unemployed people start looking for jobs, that's unlikely to weigh on labor's side of the bargaining table.

m0zg• 6 years ago

I don't understand. WF charges 2-3x as much as a "regular" grocery store and prides itself on "ethics" and "sustainability". Why are we even having this discussion? Why aren't those employees fairly compensated and protected?

usaphp• 6 years ago

Where do these “2-3x as much” figures come from? Their prices are not much different from Vons in my experience, they just sell a lot of premium items they you won’t find in your local vons - but for stuff you find in a regular supermarket - they charge around the same. And their 365 products sometimes are even cheaper than non organic alternatives

ascagnel_• 6 years ago

I also find many of the 365 products are made differently in some subtle ways vs. other store brands or big-label items. One example I came across recently was ginger ale; the 365 version has less carbonation and is sweetened with cane sugar (vs corn syrup), so it had a substantially different taste than the name brand (Seagram's) I picked up when the 365 brand wasn't available.

elicash6• 6 years ago

Not person you're responding to, but I think it's fair to say that they sell pricier products - in some cases, yes, even 2-3x, than where some get their groceries. My parents do a lot of their shopping at dollar stores and they're just far less expensive.

But of course you're comparing here different products of the same "type," a box of cereal versus an entirely different box of cereal by an entirely different manufacturer, so I think they were misleading without that context. Also, pricier products doesn't necessarily mean bigger margins.

nabnob• 6 years ago

There's no such thing as ethical consumerism. That image of "ethics" and "sustainability" is just branding to appeal to woke liberals who have the disposable income to buy their groceries at Whole Foods.

ahoy2• 6 years ago

"Why aren't those employees fairly compensated and protected?"

I think we all know why.

346793• 6 years ago

Why aren't those employees fairly compensated

They are, otherwise they wouldn't have agreed to work there. Not one person who works for Whole Foods is employed by force.

claudiawerner2• 6 years ago

We agree to many unfair things day to day. It's not clear to me that accepting a contract means that the contract describes a fair arrangement. Fairness is also highly subjective; the employer, for instance, likely has a different opinion as to what is or isn't fair compared to the mass of employees. It's quite possible that even you and I have different ideas of what is and isn't fair. This is precisely why philosophers across the political spectrum have criticized the structuring of society on the basis of the abstract idea of 'fairness'.

airstrike2• 6 years ago

dang• 6 years ago

Recent and related:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22736512

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22729819

new_guy• 6 years ago

Not mentioned yet but relevant, back in September Bezos dropped health care benefits got Whole Food workers https://www.businessinsider.com/whole-foods-healthcare-amazo...

346793• 6 years ago

While grocery stores are essential, any individual employee is not. These are not skilled positions. Grocery store employees can and should be easily replaced. The alternative is the potential for a group of unskilled laborers to hold our nation's food supply hostage at time when many people who are out of work would gladly take their place. If they don't feel safe working right now, go home. Someone else will. Doubling their pay during a crisis won't make them any safer.

parsimo2010• 6 years ago

I empathize with the workers, but isn't striking while there are >3 million people out of work a bad idea? Whole Foods could fire the strikers and replace them. It's not like they need particularly rare skills, just about any of the current jobless could take a shift.

elicash6• 6 years ago

It's only a one-day strike. Unless you're openly an organizer, you're not taking much risk. The biggest thing you're thinking about in that situation is going without pay. But also, this is why strikes are only successful when you've got everyone taking part in them. The cost to replace an entire workforce is actually huge, and would shut down operations for a period of time. There would also be a campaign aimed at preventing folks from crossing their picket line: customers, new staff, etc. Enlisting elected leaders, etc.

More generally-speaking, it's illegal to fire NLRA-covered workers for striking. Granted, the penalties are minimal (penalties are backpay MINUS what the worker earned while they waited for the case to resolve itself... no punitive damages). Also, you have to actually win in court, of course -- and I'm guessing Amazon has good attorneys that can win a tough case. But if you're firing the entire workforce, no attorney is that good. It's clearly retaliation.

It's true that during economic downturns it can be hard to successfully organize, people in all industries feel more replaceable. But it's also true that at times when workers are feeling more pain, there can be tremendous activism. Additionally, there have been times in our country's past when workers were far worse off than today and yet risked far more than their jobs (in some cases, their lives) to win the protections we have now.

LatteLazy• 6 years ago

Supermarkets are quite essential in the current emergency. Essential workers can't strike for obvious reasons.

Whole Foods employees are staging a nationwide 'sick-out'

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