CORRESPONDENCE - Item #2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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M iT IT , RAVO ICE FOR WORKING CALIFORNIA 12.January 2021 To the Mayor and City Council in Santa Ana: Andrea Zinder President Matt Bell Secretary - Treasurer On behalf of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 324, and our 20,000 members in Los Angeles and Orange County, I am writing to express our support for Item number 2 on the January 121h Special City Council Meeting, which considers mandating hazard pay for Grocery and Drug retail workers. It has been made abundantly clear during this pandemic that our members play a critical role in providing necessary food, supplies and medicine to an anxious public. This has taken an enormous toll on our membership. Currently 2,063 of our members have been diagnosed with COVID-19, which represents around 10.4% of our local. Workers live in dread that each shift could be the one where they are exposed. Yet they go to work every day. The industry has been shameful in acknowledging this risk. While quick to publicly laud themselves as good employers in March by implementing a $2/hour "Hero Pay", they very quietly phased it out by June. Despite a surge of cases in the summer, and an even worse surge in December, virtually none of these employers reinstituted this pay. Some gave out gift cards for store credit, some did nothing at all. The Grocery and Drug industry have reaped record profits, and yet it refuses to recognize the importance of the employees that have made this possible. Therefore, it is imperative that the County steps in to ensure a basic standard of fairness and reinstate a hazard pay for these essential workers. We are grateful for the leadership of Mayor Sarmiento and Councilmember Phan on this issue. Sincerely, Derek Smith Political Director United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 324 8530 Stanton Ave., P.O. Box 5004, Buena Park, CA 90622-5004 • (714) 995-4601 • (800) 244-UFCW • Fax (714) 995-8214 • www.ufcw.org