This whole story is our country summed up in a nutshell: Corporations should be free to do what they want and make as much profit as they possibly can no matter what the consequences to their employees. The unfairness of our society just seems to get worse by the year.
My girlfriend just got COVID for the second time. She works in a supermarket and has been dealing with an elevated heart rate in the aftermath of testing positive. She's now back at work after having used up a significant portion of her available free time getting tested and recovering.
I support these striking Kroger employees fully. Solidarity to all frontline workers forced to work in unreasonable conditions while their companies' profits soar.
So sorry your girlfriend has Covid again. A friend who works at Sprouts in Denver is on his second case also. Frontline workers really do need everyone to focus on their safety and well-being and compensate them for the risk they are being made to take if they stay employed at the stores, etc. I hope she recovers very quickly and does not get ill again.
Thanks for covering the strike here in Denver. The pay most frontline workers receive is pathetic. I recall a year ago seeing a sign in the entrance to the King Soopers store near me, with the starting wage of $14. I was shocked and angry as that amount is maybe $1.50 more per hour than I received working there almost 30 yrs ago! I won’t be crossing that line despite the store being a two minute walk from my house. Sadly, going to the Sprouts store in the neighborhood doesn’t mean much more for workers in the grocery industry. The starting pay there, or at Whole Foods, or any grocery store, isn’t better. People haven’t cared what front line workers earn for years, as far too many of us marched on in life, glad we were able to get a college degree or somehow move out of similar working environments. The pandemic is shoving the situation back into our faces and we need to stand up and ask the hard questions about front line worker pay and treatment in many industries- childcare, education, healthcare, sanitation, and more. The difference in pay between executives and frontline workers is obscene and it is at a crisis point for workers and families trying to eek out an existence.
The point of ensuring continuing and larger percentage gains each year for stockholders and executives has meant stagnant wages, reduced benefits, changing the retirement benefit qualifications, and generally just making gains by stagnating employee pay and benefits. Just as the demand of large institutional investments (401k’s/403b’s) to answer for portfolio mix in industries damaging the climate, we have to ask the hard questions about how companies treat our fellow humans here on earth.
Capitalist say employees are free to go else where. I’m glad to see they’ve found the picket line. Hope it spreads nationally! The huge profits Kroger is making should be tied to the wages of the people who are actually doing the work and risking their health. They are currently not much more than slaves!
ALL the grocery stores!! Seems the Publix millionaires can throw hundreds of thousands at idiot republican schemes to defraud the public and an election, but hey. When covid started, Publix was one of the last to use masks. I know, because I complained at every Publix I went to at the time.
What’s strange is that my local NPR station just now reported (in a story about why increased numbers of 2020 HS grads didn’t go on to college but “prefer” to work) that starting wages for hospitality and other frontline workers are up some 50% nationwide. So, hmm, is Kroger the outlier here?
All of this… plus, there was a shooting at a Boulder King Soopers last year. Part of the strike demands is better security, which hopefully could prevent such tragedies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Boulder_shooting
Sadly, in too many areas, even a minimum wage of $25/hr won’t help a family THRIVE. Orlando is beyond ridiculously expensive. Yet Florida has always had some of the worst pay/work in the nation. New neighborhoods are springing up all over without a single “affordable” building in sight. Even decrepit housing is overpriced.
One more thing that reflects greed in feeding us. Inflation at the grocery store has soared due to 1% corporations fueling price increase for their profits and investors. My neighbor's beef cattle prices at market are not why a chuck roast costs $22.00. Believe me, the thinking farmers are ticked about it but have no power.
Although I certainly believe that workers should receive good pay I don’t understand why large companies such as Kroger do not have a vaccination program set up and required for all its workers - and I don’t mean testing, I mean full vaccination. That way all their workers would have full protection and so much less sickness.
more of GOP's "beloved" Tax Cuts And Jobs Act "at work", and with Elaine Chao as a Kroger Board Member. Kroger's failure to "trickle down" should be a continuous Democrat election ad.
As usual, Judd, we thank you and your team for shining light on the darkness. What you do is the strongest weapon we have against deceit and unfairness.
Kroger is my primary grocer in my neighborhood in Virginia Beach. What grocery would you recommend as treating their employees more favorably. My other choices are Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Aldi, Lidle.
I looked up your link and would need Judd to break it down so that I could understand it... I'd like to know about LIDL and Aldi, because both cater to lower income (and both were originally German owned). Locally, I learned from Trader Joe's employees that they are treated VERY well.
This whole story is our country summed up in a nutshell: Corporations should be free to do what they want and make as much profit as they possibly can no matter what the consequences to their employees. The unfairness of our society just seems to get worse by the year.
Yes, this is the story of a society that is killing itself.
In a nutshell...Exactly. Our decadence as a society will likely prove our undoing.
My girlfriend just got COVID for the second time. She works in a supermarket and has been dealing with an elevated heart rate in the aftermath of testing positive. She's now back at work after having used up a significant portion of her available free time getting tested and recovering.
I support these striking Kroger employees fully. Solidarity to all frontline workers forced to work in unreasonable conditions while their companies' profits soar.
Very sorry to hear this - a reminder that the statistics we see about COVID infections tell only a part of the story.
I feel you. My family in restaurant industry the same results with Civid
So sorry your girlfriend has Covid again. A friend who works at Sprouts in Denver is on his second case also. Frontline workers really do need everyone to focus on their safety and well-being and compensate them for the risk they are being made to take if they stay employed at the stores, etc. I hope she recovers very quickly and does not get ill again.
Thanks for covering the strike here in Denver. The pay most frontline workers receive is pathetic. I recall a year ago seeing a sign in the entrance to the King Soopers store near me, with the starting wage of $14. I was shocked and angry as that amount is maybe $1.50 more per hour than I received working there almost 30 yrs ago! I won’t be crossing that line despite the store being a two minute walk from my house. Sadly, going to the Sprouts store in the neighborhood doesn’t mean much more for workers in the grocery industry. The starting pay there, or at Whole Foods, or any grocery store, isn’t better. People haven’t cared what front line workers earn for years, as far too many of us marched on in life, glad we were able to get a college degree or somehow move out of similar working environments. The pandemic is shoving the situation back into our faces and we need to stand up and ask the hard questions about front line worker pay and treatment in many industries- childcare, education, healthcare, sanitation, and more. The difference in pay between executives and frontline workers is obscene and it is at a crisis point for workers and families trying to eek out an existence.
The point of ensuring continuing and larger percentage gains each year for stockholders and executives has meant stagnant wages, reduced benefits, changing the retirement benefit qualifications, and generally just making gains by stagnating employee pay and benefits. Just as the demand of large institutional investments (401k’s/403b’s) to answer for portfolio mix in industries damaging the climate, we have to ask the hard questions about how companies treat our fellow humans here on earth.
Rampant capitalism costs lives. The US demonstrates this to the rest of the world every day. Meanwhile US companies take over the world.
Capitalist say employees are free to go else where. I’m glad to see they’ve found the picket line. Hope it spreads nationally! The huge profits Kroger is making should be tied to the wages of the people who are actually doing the work and risking their health. They are currently not much more than slaves!
ALL the grocery stores!! Seems the Publix millionaires can throw hundreds of thousands at idiot republican schemes to defraud the public and an election, but hey. When covid started, Publix was one of the last to use masks. I know, because I complained at every Publix I went to at the time.
Nightmarish is right. Go Kroger strikers!
What’s strange is that my local NPR station just now reported (in a story about why increased numbers of 2020 HS grads didn’t go on to college but “prefer” to work) that starting wages for hospitality and other frontline workers are up some 50% nationwide. So, hmm, is Kroger the outlier here?
In many cases, they are up solely because of city/state laws requiring higher minimums. Oh, and they are still low.
All of this… plus, there was a shooting at a Boulder King Soopers last year. Part of the strike demands is better security, which hopefully could prevent such tragedies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Boulder_shooting
Better security won’t “prevent” gun violence. Better policing and laws might.
Don’t disagree with you about laws, but that’s not in Kroger’s hands. Better store front security is.
Great reporting- thanks!
Sadly, in too many areas, even a minimum wage of $25/hr won’t help a family THRIVE. Orlando is beyond ridiculously expensive. Yet Florida has always had some of the worst pay/work in the nation. New neighborhoods are springing up all over without a single “affordable” building in sight. Even decrepit housing is overpriced.
One more thing that reflects greed in feeding us. Inflation at the grocery store has soared due to 1% corporations fueling price increase for their profits and investors. My neighbor's beef cattle prices at market are not why a chuck roast costs $22.00. Believe me, the thinking farmers are ticked about it but have no power.
Although I certainly believe that workers should receive good pay I don’t understand why large companies such as Kroger do not have a vaccination program set up and required for all its workers - and I don’t mean testing, I mean full vaccination. That way all their workers would have full protection and so much less sickness.
more of GOP's "beloved" Tax Cuts And Jobs Act "at work", and with Elaine Chao as a Kroger Board Member. Kroger's failure to "trickle down" should be a continuous Democrat election ad.
As usual, Judd, we thank you and your team for shining light on the darkness. What you do is the strongest weapon we have against deceit and unfairness.
Kroger is my primary grocer in my neighborhood in Virginia Beach. What grocery would you recommend as treating their employees more favorably. My other choices are Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Aldi, Lidle.
The one that didn’t make $4B in profit last year while keeping their employees in poverty. https://csimarket.com/Industry/Industry_Profitability.php?ind=1305
I looked up your link and would need Judd to break it down so that I could understand it... I'd like to know about LIDL and Aldi, because both cater to lower income (and both were originally German owned). Locally, I learned from Trader Joe's employees that they are treated VERY well.