LONG BEACH, California – Kroger Co. will close two Southern California supermarkets in response to a local ordinance requiring extra payment for certain food employees working during the pandemic.
The decision announced Monday by the company follows a unanimous vote last month by Long Beach City Council, which imposed a 120-day increase of $ 4 per hour for supermarket employees with at least 300 employees nationwide and more than 15 in Long Beach .
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said it would close a Ralphs market and a Food 4 Less on April 17, Press-Telegram reported.
“Following the decision of the City of Long Beach to adopt an ordinance requiring additional payment for grocery workers, we have made the difficult decision to permanently close the outlets of stores in Long Beach,” the company said in a statement.
The statement added: “This wrong action by the Long Beach Local Council goes beyond the traditional negotiation process and applies to some, but not all, of the city’s food workers.”
A city statement described Kroger’s decision as “unfortunate for workers, buyers and the company.”
A similar salary increase has been approved by the city of Montebello and is being considered in Los Angeles and Pomona. Further north, Oakland approved the risk to food workers on Tuesday, while other Bay Area cities, including San Jose and Berkeley, were considering similar ordinances.
A lawsuit filed by the California Grocers Association alleges that the Long Beach ordinance interferes with the collective bargaining process between grocery stores and workers’ unions.
An official from the association said on Monday that an increase of $ 4 per hour represents an increase of about 28% in labor costs.
“There is no way that grocers can absorb such a large increase in costs without compensation elsewhere, given that groceries operate with thin edges and many stores already operate in the red,” said the association’s president and CEO. Ron Fong.
The Long Beach Ordinance was approved at a Jan. 19 meeting, in which council members and Mayor Robert Garcia said many grocery stores gave employees wages in the wake of the pandemic, but later eliminated it.
“These people who work in these markets and these grocery stores are heroes,” Garcia said at the time. “It simply came to our notice then. They received this type of additional payment in the past and, if they deserved it in the past, they deserve it today. ”
The Los Angeles proposal advanced Tuesday with a City Council vote in favor of the city’s attorney drafting an order that provides for an additional $ 5 an hourly payment for workers at major grocery and drug store chains. The Council requested that the draft be presented as soon as possible for a final vote.