When the California Grocers Association (CGA) president was informed that the city council of Long Beach had tentatively approved an ordinance requiring larger grocery stores to temporarily pay their workers hero pay, he was disappointed.
“We were surprised that the city council would not talk to us to learn about what we've already done before they Institute this unprecedented raise,” CGA president Ron Fong said.
Hero pay is a temporary boost in pay provided to employees who have worked on the front lines since the coronavirus emerged as a health hazard in March 2020.
“We have done so many things for our employees to recognize them already and some of it includes supplying them with all of the PPEs that they could possibly need for free,” Fong told the Southern California Record. “We pay for daily temperature checks to keep our workplace safe, partitions at registers, hand washing stations and we have intermittently given hazard pay bonuses, gas cards, and food cards throughout the year.”
As previously reported, if it is finally approved on Feb. 2, the "Premium Pay for Grocery Workers Ordinance" would require Long Beach grocery stores, such as Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Ralph’s, to pay an additional $4 an hour arguably because workers face greater exposure to COVID-19 infection on the job.
“We have never seen a city council mandate that we pay $4 an hour extra to a certain group of people,” Fong said in an interview. “That’s unprecedented and untimely because having to comply with this leaves grocers with some difficult choices. The choices are going to be reduced shifts in our grocery stores to meet payroll or increased prices for the customers.”
In response to the ordinance, the CGA filed a lawsuit last week in the Central District of California federal court alleging violations of the U.S. Constitution.
“They say that essential workers are heroes and yet they just target grocery store workers,” Fong said. “They're not talking about ambulance drivers, doctors, nurses, and firefighters who are also essential workers. If they are really concerned with hero pay, they ought to mandate it for everybody in Long Beach.”
The CGA's lawsuit also alleges that the ordinance violates the California Constitution.
“It’s a federal pre-emption,” Fong said. “We argue that the bargaining for wages should be left to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and to federal standards, not up to the Long Beach City Council."
Los Angeles and Santa Ana are reportedly on the verge of passing similar hero pay ordinances but Fong said letters of opposition sent by the CGA to the Long Beach City Council, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and the Los Angeles City Council requesting a meeting have been ignored.
“Anytime we hear of a locality thinking about it we reach out and try to talk but most of the time we are unsuccessful in swaying them,” Fong added.
The case is currently pending before U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Obama, and Magistrate Alka Sagar.