New pandemic relief considered in Bellingham for these ‘essential’ workers
Front-line grocery workers at large stores in Bellingham would get $4 per hour hazard pay, if the Bellingham City Council approves a proposed measure.
Councilwoman Lisa Anderson introduced the measure as an emergency order to start immediately, but she changed it to a regular ordinance and council members decided 4-2 to have a public hearing and further discuss the proposal at its April 26 meeting.
“We’re assisting all grocery store employees, especially those that don’t have (union) representation and need some level of assistance,” Anderson said.
“It’s about the level of exposure (to COVID-19) regardless of best practices or not,” she said.
Grocery store personnel were considered essential workers early in the new coronavirus pandemic as Gov. Jay Inslee ordered schools, public buildings and many businesses to close and imposed social-distancing rules.
Meanwhile, profits at major supermarket chains rose as high as 39%, according to news reports and a report by the Brookings Institution.
Council members Gene Knutson and Pinky Vargas voted against considering the ordinance and Councilman Dan Hammill was absent Monday, April 12.
Vargas said she was wary of interfering in contracts that stores have with union employees.
“I totally agree that the conditions that these Fred Meyer employees have been working under is deplorable. And shame on Kroger for not following the protocols for COVID and protecting their employees,” Vargas said.
“I do believe these workers deserve hazard pay,” Vargas said. “However, I do not feel that the City Council should be interfering in the collective-bargaining process. This is also unfair and unequal. I do believe these workers deserve hazard pay, as well as others. But that should happen through union contracts and negotiations — not a city ordinance.”
A Fred Meyer official didn’t immediately respond to a Bellingham Herald request for a comment about the proposed ordinance.
In the past, the company has told The Herald by email that it is following Washington state guidelines to protect customers and employees from COVID-19.
Amanda Dalton, president of the Northwest Grocery Association, a trade group, said its member stores are compensating employees who get a COVID-19 vaccine and are providing sick leave for those who suffer adverse reactions.
“If the city does peruse a hazard pay ordinance we urge them to implement it with a narrow sunset,” Dalton told The Herald in an email. “Grocery stores were not the only industry that stayed open during the pandemic, nor are grocery stores ‘unsafe.’ At a minimum, all hazard-pay ordinances should have a 90-day sunset.”
Grocery workers from various local supermarkets have addressed the City Council during the public-comment part of meetings in recent weeks, seeking a pay increase for the duration of the pandemic.
They’ve criticized supermarket chains such as Kroger, which owns Fred Meyer, and Alberton’s, which owns Haggen and Safeway, of making record profits and not sharing that money with their employees.
“We’ve been working every day to provide the community with daily essentials like food and medicine. Every day, we’ve been on the front lines, putting the community first,” said Richard Waits, a U.S. Army veteran and Haggen deli worker with 20 years on the job.
“Every day, we deal with customers fighting with us about wearing a mask. And we just want to protect ourselves and the community,” he said during the council’s March 22 online meeting when Anderson first asked the city’s legal staff to write a measure that would withstand a court challenge.
Sarah Cherin, executive vice president and chief of staff of the United Food and Commercial Workers 21, urged the council on March 22 to move quickly.
“Despite our progress on vaccinations, you are holding this meeting virtually. Bellingham city offices remain closed to the public. The city remains under a state of emergency, and public-health experts still consider Whatcom county to be at high risk,” Cherin said.
Grocery workers can’t work from home, and come in contact with hundreds of shoppers daily — many who refuse to social distance or wear a mask, she said.
“While the mayor and this council have taken steps to protect yourselves and city employees, grocery workers don’t have the same options available to them,” Cherin said.
“Imagine that you’re being paid as little as 10 cents above minimum wage as a new employee picking groceries for customers who are following public health experts’ advice to avoid grocery stores,” she said. “Imagine you are a front-line worker exposed daily to increased risk, but at a job where that risk has never been priced into your wage. Now imagine that your employer has made record profits because of this very pandemic and funneled those profits to shareholders through billions of dollars in stock buybacks while refusing to acknowledge your changed working conditions.”
Bellingham’s proposed ordinance is similar to those enacted in Seattle, Burien, Bainbridge Island, and King County, according to the text of the ordinance.
Seattle’s ordinance was affirmed by a federal court, said Alan Marriner, city attorney.
But the measure is without enforcement power, because Bellingham, unlike larger cities such as Seattle, has no enforcement division, Marriner said.
“The only remedy for an employee that does not receive their hazard pay or is retaliated against is to file a civil action in court,” he said.
This story was originally published April 19, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
