Fresno grocery workers are local heroes. They are essential and deserve hazard pay

Health care workers have rightfully been held up as American heroes for all they have endured treating COVID patients and, sadly, watching many of them die. As of Monday, the national death toll due to the pandemic was nearly 515,000.

But the honorary title of “heroes” can also be awarded to the supermarket workers we all depend on when shopping for food, beverages and personal-care necessities.

Imagine what would have happened to American society if grocery stores had been shut down this entire time. Chaos would have resulted.

Thankfully, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state health leaders realized supermarkets had to remain open as essential businesses. That means those store employees are essential workers.

Now comes a proposal by a Fresno City Council member to honor such workers with hazard pay. Council President Luis Chavez will propose at Thursday’s meeting that grocery-store employees get $3 an hour hazard pay on top of regular wages for working in the pandemic.

If the ordinance is approved, it will be in effect for 120 days. Chavez estimates it will affect 65 stores in Fresno. Such businesses have to be at least 15,000 square feet in size or have 10% of their merchandise as nontaxable items, like food. Violations could lead to fines or even imprisonment.

Not only have supermarket workers had to be out in public at a time when health experts recommended staying home, but they have had to endure shockingly rude behavior of customers who refuse to wear masks and think it perfectly fine to cuss out any employee asking them to simply put one on.

Because they are essential and have been doing the job Fresnans rely on, Chavez’s proposal makes sense and is the right thing to do. His one regret? That he didn’t think of it sooner.

Hero pay opposed

The idea has met with stiff resistance, however. The California Grocers Association, for one, has filed lawsuits against five other California cities where similar laws have been passed. It argues that such wage requirements unfairly target only grocers, and might violate collective bargaining agreements.

Such legal protest comes as grocers earned hefty revenues in the first three quarters of 2020. According to The New York Times, 13 of the nation’s largest supermarket and retail companies earned $17.7 billion more in that period in 2020 vs. 2019.

That’s a result of the pandemic. Those businesses logically benefited by being open as essential.

Interestingly, supermarket companies initially offered extra pay to workers when the pandemic started a year ago. The Times notes that most of that additional compensation dried up by the start of summer. But the bigger point is that the firms themselves saw value in the wage bump — they recognized their workers were performing their jobs at a time of greater risk. That remains true today, even as vaccines are getting better distributed and administered.

Economic stimulus

Another opponent is council member Garry Bredefeld. He argues that city government has no right to dictate wages to a private company, and that the idea smacks of authoritarian rule-making.

Actually, government regulates businesses every day in thousands of ways, from employee health to consumer safety to environmental standards to taxes. It has done so for decades. Besides, Chavez’s measure is temporary, not permanent.

Putting more money into the pockets of grocery workers would be a real help to them, and their spending in turn would be a stimulus to the city’s economy, something a conservative like Bredefeld should welcome.

Grocery companies argue they operate on thin margins. But the 2020 revenues of the national firms would indicate they are not suffering too badly. Closer to home, about 30 Fresno grocers took advantage of COVID relief monies last year for payroll protection, a Bee analysis shows.

Will supermarkets pass the cost of hazard pay onto their shoppers? They would do so at their own peril. Wise shoppers will leave one store if they can find a better deal at another.

The pandemic has been a once-a-century event with uncharted challenges. Certain members of our society have stepped up — grocery workers among them. It would be right to thank them with a boost in the paycheck, if only for a time.

The City Council should approve Chavez’s proposal.