Correspondence - #30 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Orozco, Norma From: N. A. DePano <saumcleadpastor@gmail.com> Sent: Monday, March 01, 2021 2:06 PM To: eComment, Sarmiento, Vicente; Phan, Thai; Lopez, Jessie; Hernandez, Johnathan; Penaloza, David; Bacerra, Phil; Mendoza, Nelida Subject: SUPPORT for Item 30: Ordinance Establishing Premium Pay for Grocery Workers and Retail Pharmacy Workers Dear Council, My name is Adiel DePano and I'm the Lead Pastor at Santa Ana United Methodist Church in the city of Santa Ana. Many of my parishioners live in Santa Ana. I am glad to see that Santa Ana is considering a Hazard Pay ordinance for our amazing grocery workers. I wholeheartedly SUPPORT the passage of Agenda Item 15, and urge the council to pass it immediately. Since the beginning of the pandemic, our grocery workers have been on the frontlines, risking their health and lives and that of their families' in order to keep us fed and nourished in these dangerous times. We need to care for these workers in the best way we can. We know that when hired, most grocery workers were not expecting a job that would one day endanger their lives. This is a critical difference between them and their fellow heroes in police and fire departments across the country. And yet we've seen our grocery workers step up to this mighty task, despite the inadequate compensation provided by their corporate employers. Our community has pronounced them "heroes," but without truly acknowledging their incredible sacrifices. We owe it to them to pass this ordinance in order to get them the hazard pay they so truly deserve. Over the last year, we've seen large grocery chains earning billions of dollars in profits, benefitting from the increase in meals eaten at home. It has been exasperating to see large corporate grocery chains fail to honor their workers with the hazard pay they deserve, while at the same time spending billions of dollars in profits on self-serving stock buyback schemes. My faith tells me that God has a special place for the poor. The Bible says in Isaiah 3:13-15, 13 The Lord takes his place in court and stands to judge the people. 14 The Lord presents his case against the elders and other leaders of his people: "You have burned the vineyard. Your houses are full of what you took from the poor. 15 What gives you the right to crush my people and grind the faces of the poor into the dirt? " The Lord God All -Powerful says this. Santa Ana should be at the forefront of resolutions like this that help our community, and that serve as an example for other cities to follow. We ask that you stand with us and do the right thing by insisting that grocers do their part and honor our heroes with the hazard pay they deserve.