UFCW Advocates for Stronger Health & Safety Protections and First Responder Benefits for Frontline Workers

Across the country, our UFCW union family is actively pushing to make improvements in health and safety for both hardworking grocery store workers and the customers they are serving. We are also advocating for these changes in other industries including healthcare. We’re all in this together. We are so thankful to every worker putting their own health and safety on the line to keep our communities safe and families well fed. Some of the changes we’re calling on employers to provide include:

FIRST RESPONDER BENEFITS
✅ “First responder” status for all grocery workers to ensure personal protective equipment is available
✅ Overtime pay for anyone working more than 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week
✅ Hazard pay during the crisis

INCREASED HYGIENE AND SAFETY PROTOCOLS
✅ Hand sanitizer and wipes for every worker and at every workstation
✅ Regular scheduling for workers to wash their hands and wipe down work stations
✅ Gloves to all workers and ability to wear masks
✅ Encourage customers to utilize social distance protocols in stores where possible
✅ Free testing and time off to get tested without penalty or discrimination
✅ Ongoing health and safety training on CDC guidelines

SANITARY STORES
✅ Reduced hours of operation for daily disinfection
✅ Special hours for grocery workers and at-risk customers to shop
✅ Regimented cleaning schedule for checkout stations
✅ Closed salad and food bars

PAID LEAVE
✅ Two weeks paid sick leave and emergency FMLA paid long-term leave
✅ Ability to use paid sick leave for childcare in case of school closures
✅ Identify at-risk workers and provide them opportunities to work other jobs in stores
✅ Protection against job loss
✅ Hire more union workers to address understaffing at stores