Kroger, one of the largest grocery retailers in the nation, said it planned to close two stores in Long Beach, California, after city officials passed an ordinance last month requiring large grocery chains to provide workers hazard pay during the pandemic.
“We are truly saddened that our associates and customers will ultimately be the real victims of the City Council’s actions,” Kroger said in a statement.
The ordinance requires grocery stores with at least 300 workers nationally to provide them $4 an hour extra in hazard pay to compensate for the risks they have been taking during the virus outbreaks.
Other local governments, including those in Los Angeles County and Seattle, have passed similar mandates in recent weeks.
The measures come after companies, including Kroger, stopped providing hazard pay during the summer even as outbreaks worsened, though the grocery chain has provided employees with other forms of financial assistance.
Unions and political leaders, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, have criticized grocery companies for ending hazard pay, while their profits soared during the pandemic.
But the California measures have faced pushback from typically sympathetic allies of low-wage workers. The Los Angeles Times editorial board wrote last month that the proposals unfairly reward grocery store workers at large companies, while excluding other frontline workers who are also facing risks, such as Amazon warehouse employees and meatpacking workers.
The ordinances also exclude workers at nongrocery chains such as Home Depot that have stayed open throughout the pandemic, the newspaper’s editorial noted.
Kroger echoed that sentiment in its statement.
“This misguided action by the Long Beach City Council oversteps the traditional bargaining process and only applies to some, but not all, grocery workers in the city,” the statement said.
Kroger said the two Long Beach stores — a Ralphs and Food 4 Less — were slated for closure April 17.
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