California Grocers Association Sues To Block Hero Pay

LOS ANGELES, CA — The California Grocers Association fired a salvo in the battle over pandemic hero pay this week with a lawsuit challenging a West Hollywood ordinance requiring a $5 pay boost for grocery workers during the outbreak.

The suit is likely to reverberate across the Southland as cities across Los Angeles County have enacted hero pay ordinances or are in the process of approving them. The lawsuit comes just a day after the West Hollywood City Council voted to require large grocery stores to give employees a $5 per hour pay raise for the next 120 days. Early this month, the Los Angeles City Council voted to have the city attorney draft a similar ordinance.

The Association has been quit to try to quell the hero pay movement before major grocery chains are forces to add millions to their payroll. Momentum for the movement has been building as the toll of the pandemic has disproportionately impacted essential workers. The California Grocers Association already sued the cities of Montebello and Long Beach, challenging those cities' similar "hero pay" boost measures. A hearing to discuss a preliminary injunction in the Long Beach case is set for Feb. 23 in Los Angeles federal court.

"In addition to clearly violating federal and state law, the extra pay mandates will harm customers and workers," said Ron Fong, president and CEO of the California Grocers Association.

Industry groups have suggested such mandatory pay increases could have unintended consequences and force store closures, layoffs and price increases to be passed on to already-struggling consumers.

A $5-per-hour mandate amounts to a dramatic increase in labor costs for grocery stores, Fong said.

"That is too big a cost increase for any grocery retailer to absorb without consequence," he said. "Options are few. Either pass the costs to customers, cut employee or store hours, or close. Already two stores closed in Long Beach after the city enacted a $4/hour pay increase. Nearly 200 workers lost those jobs."

The association alleges that in voting to approve the ordinances, city councils have ignored low profit margins, and significant operational costs grocers have incurred in response to the pandemic, including the hiring of tens of thousands of additional employees.

Long Beach city leaders already enacted a $4 hazard pay law for retail essential workers. Kroger Co., the parent company of Ralphs and Food 4 Less, promptly announced plans this month to close two struggling Long Beach stores in response to the hazard pay ordinance.

UFCW 770, the local branch of the United Food and Commercial Workers union that represents food and retail workers, condemned Kroger and praised cities for supporting essential workers.

“Since the pandemic began, Kroger has made billions in profits because of the sacrifices of grocery workers who have been putting their own health and safety on the line every day. Rather than provide the hazard pay these grocery workers have earned and deserve, Kroger decided to threaten these workers and the community’s access to food in the middle of a public health crisis," a union representative said.

There have been at least 134 grocery worker deaths and 28,700 grocery workers infected or exposed nationwide, according to the union.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.