Following news of the first confirmed COVID-19 cases in several area grocery stores, UFCW Local 400 is urging DC Mayor Muriel Bowser to declare grocery workers as “first responders.”
The union, which represents thousands of grocery workers at Giant, Shoppers, and Safeway stores in the DMV area, is calling on Mayor Bowser to provide access to free, dedicated testing sites and protective equipment for grocery store, pharmacy, and food processing workers, as has been made available to other first responders in the District. “Our members working on the frontlines of this crisis are exposed to hundreds of customers per day and thousands per week, not to mention their coworkers, families and neighbors,” said Local 400 president Mark Federici. “We must do everything in our power to ensure these essential personnel are not putting themselves at unnecessary risk or serving as unintentional vectors for the virus. Without adequate testing, there is simply no way to know how widespread their exposure could be. The time to take immediate action,” said Federici, “is now, now, now!” In today’s labor history, on this date in 1914, unemployed workers rioted in New York City’s Union Square. Today’s labor quote is by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., assassinated on this date in 1968 in Memphis, where he had been supporting a sanitation workers’ strike. In the wake of this tragedy, riots broke out in many cities, including Washington, DC. Martin Luther King, who said: “Be concerned about your brother. You may not be on strike. But either we go up together, or we go down together.” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus, which stands up for union members and their families. At unionplus.org you’ll find useful links to coronavirus resources from the AFL-CIO, as well as Union Plus Hardship Help Benefits. Check it out at unionplus.org
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