LONG BEACH, California – Kroger Co. is closing two Southern California supermarkets in response to a local ordinance that requires additional pay for certain grocery employees working during the pandemic.
The decision announced by the company Monday follows a unanimous vote last month by the Long Beach City Council calling for a 120-day increase of $ 4 an hour for employees of supermarkets with at least 300 employees nationwide and over 15 in Long Beach.
Kroger said it will close a Ralphs market and a Food 4 Less on April 17, Press-Telegram reported.
“As a result of the City of Long Beach’s decision to pass an ordinance requiring additional pay for supermarket workers, we have made the difficult decision to permanently close Long Beach stores that have been in trouble for a long time.” the company said in a statement.
The statement added: “This misguided action by the Long Beach City Council goes beyond the traditional bargaining process and applies to some, but not all, supermarket workers in the city.”
A statement from the city characterized Kroger’s decision as “unfortunate for the workers, the buyers and the company.”
The city of Montebello approved a salary increase similar to the payment for dangerous living conditions and is being considered in Los Angeles and Pomona.
A lawsuit filed by the California Grocers Association claims that the Long Beach ordinance interferes with the collective bargaining process between grocery stores and unions representing workers.
An association official said Monday that an increase of $ 4 an hour represents an increase of about 28 percent in labor costs.
“There is no way that supermarkets can absorb such a large cost increase without compensation elsewhere, considering that supermarkets operate on very small margins and many stores are already operating in the red,” said the president and CEO of the association, Ron Fong, in a statement.
The Long Beach ordinance was approved during a Jan.19 meeting in which council members and Mayor Robert Garcia said many grocery stores gave employees pay-per-risk during the early stages of the pandemic, but later they gradually eliminated it.
“These people who are working in these markets and these grocery stores are heroes,” Garcia said at the time. “This is nothing new. They have received this type of additional payment in the past and if they deserved it in the past, they deserve it today. “
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