After Giant Food announced plans to cancel its 10% “recognition pay” increase after this week, United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400 and UFCW Local 27, the unions representing Giant store associates, called on the company to extend the temporary pay increase until the end of this crisis. Click here to sign the petition. “Our members have heroically served on the frontlines throughout this crisis, and with no vaccine in sight, they will have to continue to do so for quite some time,” said UFCW Local 400 President Mark Federici. “Whether you call it ‘recognition pay’ or ‘hero pay’ or ‘thank you pay,’ the bottom line is this: so long as these workers continue to face danger every day, they should be compensated for taking that risk.” Stop & Shop, another grocery chain owned by Giant’s parent company Ahold Delhaize, agreed to extend its 10% pay increase through July 4 after more than 10,000 workers and supporters signed a petition. “There is no reason Giant can’t do the same,” said Federici. As momentum builds for the Workers First Caravan here in DC on June 3, the AFL-CIO is working to lift up the voices of individual workers. If your local has members who have compelling stories that speak to the urgency of enacting the HEROES Act, please email [email protected] now. For example, workers who have lost their employer-based health insurance and cannot afford COBRA, have been infected with the coronavirus at the workplace, or have been laid off after their employer accepted government loans to keep workers on the payroll. Worker stories in Spanish and other languages are encouraged. Although the pandemic has created unique challenges for the MWC’s Community Services Agency, “crises like this are exactly why CSA exists,” said Executive Director Sonte DuCote. "We've had to be extra creative to deliver emergency assistance," said DuCote, "like meeting up with CSA executive committee member Dan Duncan outside the locked-down AFL-CIO building to sign checks to send to landlords, utility companies and other creditors. Duncan added that "We are extremely grateful to our affiliates and their members, union allies, the Greater Washington Community Foundation and the United Way National Capital Area for providing the funds to help Metro Washington area workers, a large chunk of whom are not eligible for unemployment." Workers who need emergency assistance should contact their local union or the Community Services Agency at [email protected]. photo: (l-r) Duncan and DuCote; photo by Chris Garlock ”If the working people had all they ought to have, we should not have the paupers and criminals. It is better to save them before they go under, than to spend your life fishing them out afterward." Josephine Shaw Lowell was a 19th century Progressive Reform leader best known for creating the New York Consumers League in 1890. |