![]() ![]() And it includes stronger enforcement mechanisms, including giving grocers 33 days to resolve a violation before a worker can sue. “AB 853 will give California’s decision makers the information needed to know just how proposed mergers in the grocery and drug-retail industries will affect their lives and can make an informed decision on the impact of mergers on our state.”ĪB 647 will strengthen the state’s existing Grocery Worker Retention Law, expanding its 90-day retention provision to include warehouse workers. “Grocery workers have seen the effects of mergers and acquisitions in the industry - from job loss to centers of their communities going dark,” said Todd Walters, president, UFCW Local 135 in a statement. The analysis would include effects on community “food deserts,” prices, the supply of experienced grocery workers, as well as unemployment, wages and benefits. Hours before the veto, the United Food and Commercial Workers praised Newsom for signing two companion bills to strengthen protections of grocery store workers.Īssembly Bill 853 will require grocery or drug store companies to notify the state attorney general 180 days before finalizing a proposed merger or acquisition, and to submit an impact analysis of the deal. “Without our bill, it leaves essential workers vulnerable to a potential merger, as a vast majority of these workers are already struggling to make ends meet for their families,” she said. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, the Los Angeles Democrat who authored SB 725, said the governor’s veto is disappointing. Wood, 65, said she’s nearing retirement and plans to leave California because living here is hard on her $21.02 hourly pay. We were there for him during that time … but he’s not there for us now.” “We kept the food going to people if they needed it and we stood on those frontlines. “We were deemed essential workers during the pandemic and we stood behind our governor at that time,” she said. Judy Wood, a cake decorator at Albertsons who has worked in grocery stores for 36 years, said she feels let down by Newsom’s veto. ![]() ![]() Some grocery workers said they would feel more secure with legal protections. Photo courtesy of the United Food and Commercial Workers union 5, to support a bill that would have paid severance to grocery workers laid off because of mergers or acquisitions. Grocery store workers rallied Thursday, Oct. The companies denied that, saying no “frontline” employees would lose their jobs, because the companies plan to sell hundreds of stores to C&S Wholesale Grocers, which has agreed to maintain store jobs and bargaining agreements and may use the Albertsons name in California. “A merger between these two companies could result in large-scale layoffs for workers, grocery stores closing down, particularly in food deserts and rural areas, increasing food costs, and a reduction in a variety of products, including seasonal, organic, and climate-friendly plant-based foods for consumers,” The United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council said in a statement: The union that represents many California grocery workers is raising alarms about the potential layoffs. The merger could result in 5,750 jobs lost in the Los Angeles region, according to the report. In Los Angeles and Orange counties, 115 of 159 Albertsons stores are located within two miles of a Kroger store. Kroger operates 233 stores under the Ralphs, Food 4 Less and Foods Co brands in California, and Albertsons operates 579 stores under the Albertsons, Safeway, Vons and Pavilions names, according to a report by the Los Angeles research group, Economic Roundtable. “The additional obligations in this bill are unduly prescriptive and overly burdensome.”Ĭalifornia could be among the states most affected by a Kroger and Albertsons merger. “While the goal of limiting the disruptions caused by grocery mergers and acquisitions … is laudable, existing law already provides protections for displaced workers,” he said. He also noted that affected workers could tap unemployment insurance. He cited the state’s Grocery Worker Retention law, which since 2016 has required companies that merge or buy another grocer to retain existing workers at least 90 days, and the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires companies with 100 or more workers to give them 60 days notice before mass layoffs. ![]()
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