And you think your job sucks?
Once hailed as heroes who kept us all from starving during lockdown, grocery store workers are now subject to torrents of abuse, pay cuts and COVID-19.
Five months into the pandemic, as states open up, these essential workers are suffering from low morale, low pay and dangerous working conditions, according to a shocking new report in The Washington Post.
Across the country, many stores including Krogers, Meiers and Publix incentivized their workers at the start of the coronavirus pandemic by giving them a boost of $2 an hour and offered bonuses. But that’s now gone and workers are left with additional duties — sanitizing, policing customers on masks and occupancy — while facing financial ruin.
Angel Manners, who processes vendor deliveries at a Meijer store in northern Kentucky, told The Washington Post she has never felt so demoralized adding, “We’ve lost our hazard pay, and people are quitting every day. Those of us who are left are really stretched thin — working so much harder for $11.50 an hour.”
Manners claims at least a dozen colleagues have quit in the past month alone while the rest of them deal with an angry public and the fear of COVID-19.
“Some customers were appreciative in the beginning, but now they’re just rude,” she told the Post.
“Managers are making decisions on their own, saying, ‘You have a cough, but you’ll be OK,’ ” Manners told The Washington Post. “You don’t want to say ‘no’ because you’ll lose your job.”
Frank Guglielmi, a spokesman for Meijer, told the paper “employees undergo temperature checks and other health screenings before each shift. Anyone who tests positive for the coronavirus or is considered high-risk can apply for as much as four weeks of paid leave.”
A Trader Joe’s employee in Manhattan who has tested positive for coronavirus antibodies twice told the paper she shows up for work even if she’s not feeling well because she has no sick leave left.
Robert Miller, NY Post 2020′