Posted on

COVID-19 Impacts Raymundo’s Workers and the Company Fails to Act

Raymundo's Workers Sign Petition demanding Covid protections
For Immediate Release

Des Plaines, IL – Today, Friday April 3, workers from Raymundo’s Food Group, in Bedford Park, IL, refused to work after learning that a coworker had tested positive for COVID-19. Workers also reported that the Company has a history of forcing workers to remain on the job while sick.  With additional coworkers also exhibiting Coronavirus symptoms, Raymundo’s workers no longer feel safe and are compelled to inform the public about this dangerous situation. The workers report that the Company knew the worker was infected, but did nothing. Despite publicly available guidelines, CDC recommendations, and health officials’ insistence on the importance of social distancing, the Company has yet to implement meaningful social distancing policies and protect its workers.

In November 2019, the Raymundo’s workers held an election and voted to Unionize. In response, the Company appealed the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision to certify Local 881 United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and has unlawfully refused to bargain.

As the certified representative of the workers at Raymundo’s, Local 881 UFCW demands that Raymundo’s immediately shut down and hire a professional cleaning organization to fully sanitize its facility. In addition, the Company should provide the workers with paid sick leave and extended family medical leave benefits. The Company’s failure to implement the most basic safety precautions and lack of communication with its employees is unacceptable.

“We learned that a coworker was infected with COVID-19. The Company told us later and in a very disrespectful way.  When we asked to disinfect the facility, management insulted us. All of this is unfair, we want to work in a safe environment.” said Juan, a Raymundo’s worker.

“What we want is for Raymundo’s to disinfect the facility and be transparent as to what steps it has taken to protect us. Is it a lot to ask for a safe work place?” said Itzel, a Raymundo’s worker.

“We want Raymundo’s to communicate in a professional way with its employees.  As soon as the Company learned about the infection it should have notified us. I am pregnant, and they don’t give a damn if they put my health and my baby’s health at risk!” said Susana, a Raymundo’s worker.

The Raymundo’s employees are deemed essential workers during the Coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, on Thursday, Local 881 UFCW demanded Raymundo’s give workers hazard pay of an extra $2 per hour and provide a safe environment for its workers during this pandemic and into the future. The Company has failed to act.

“It is a disgrace and shameful to keep workers in the dark when it comes to their health and safety. We demand Raymundo’s shut down their facility and take responsible action by sanitizing the entire facility and provide paid sick leave for workers that cannot work due to COVID-19.” said Local 881 President Steve Powell. “We stand with Raymundo’s essential workers in their fight to work with respect, dignity, and above all safety!”

###

Local 881 UFCW represents 34,000 members employed in retail food and drug stores throughout Illinois and Northwest Indiana, cannabis workers in Illinois, as well as a professional division comprised of health and nursing home workers, barbers and cosmetologists, and workers in other retail and service industries. Among the companies under contract with Local 881 are Jewel Food Stores, Osco Drug, Mariano’s, CVS Pharmacy, Kroger, Schnucks, Conagra Brands, and many smaller chains and independent stores, as well as nursing homes and other business establishments. Local 881 is among the largest affiliates of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents 1.3 million members in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Posted on

Ban the Bags! Illinois’ Largest Retail Union Calls for more Protections for Grocery, Retail, and Pharmacy Front Line Workers

For Immediate Release

Des Plaines, IL –34,000 retail, pharmacy, and grocery members of Local 881 United Food and Commercial Workers have been deemed “essential workers” during the COVID-19 pandemic and are selflessly continuing to provide vital services in Illinois keeping millions fed and medicated while offering the last vestiges of normalcy in our communities.

Local 881 UFCW members are risking their own health, and that of their families, to ensure stores remain stocked, operational, and sanitized, and will remain on the leading edge of the state’s response to this health crisis. While many employers are implementing additional health and safety strategies to protect our members and their families, per the union’s demands, like installing plexiglass shields in check-out lanes, allowing for more time to sanitize work stations and the overall stores, and providing hazard pay, more can be done.

To that end, Local 881 UFCW President and International Vice President, Steve Powell, today released the following statement and list of requests to local, state, and federal leadership in Illinois:

“Tens of thousands of Local 881 UFCW members continue to show up every day and serve their communities across Illinois despite the risk to their own health and that of their families. These brave union members deserve nothing less than the respect and protection of their elected leaders. Words and appreciation are not enough during this crisis. You cannot call them essential without providing the protections and benefits that title deserves. That is why we are demanding that our elected leaders immediate enact the following safety measures.”

    • Local 881 workers must be designated as first responders for the remainder of the COVID-19 crisis. Governors in Minnesota, Michigan, and Vermont have taken this position, which will make retail workers eligible for free childcare, provide coverage for all coronavirus treatments, tests, and medicines if diagnosed or quarantined, and ensure that they have adequate access to PPE. These minimum benefits come at a pivotal time as our members are working to sustain the food supply when demand is high, and schools are closed. Like the rest of us, grocery store, pharmacy, and food processing workers have children who are no longer attending school and are themselves at risk of getting sick. Everything must be done to ensure they can work and come home safely to their families
     
    • Limitations on the number of customers in grocery stores and pharmacies must be put in place. Directives from the Governor and Mayor have severely limited the size of crowds allowed in public and private places, and our essential retail outlets should be treated similarly.
     
    • Suspend Chicago’s single use “bag tax” for the remainder of the COVID-19 crisis so that workers and customers are not being infected by reusable bags that are transmitting the virus from home to grocery stores. We have recently seen other industry leaders take decisive action to protect their workers and customers by suspending shoppers from bringing in reusable items like cups and bags because of concerns over transmission of the virus. Local 881 clerks and baggers are directly in harm’s way by having to handle hundreds of reusable shopping bags in an average shift. Other states have already implemented a temporary ban on reusable shopping bags and many of our employers are beginning this commonsense practice.

###

Local 881 UFCW represents 34,000 members employed in retail food and drug stores throughout Illinois and Northwest Indiana, cannabis workers in Illinois, as well as a professional division comprised of health and nursing home workers, barbers and cosmetologists, and workers in other retail and service industries. Among the companies under contract with Local 881 are Jewel Food Stores, Osco Drug, Mariano’s, CVS Pharmacy, Kroger, Schnucks, Conagra Brands, and many smaller chains and independent stores, as well as nursing homes and other business establishments. Local 881 is among the largest affiliates of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents 1.3 million members in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
 
 
Posted on

Illinois’ Largest Retail Union Calls for Grocery, Retail, and Pharmacy Workers to Be Designated as First Responders

For Immediate Release

Des Plaines, IL – As Illinois and the nation enters the first week of unprecedented shutdowns of government and private business, the hardworking members of Local 881 United Food and Commercial Workers remain on the front lines of the societal and economic crisis that COVID-19 presents. 

Staffing hundreds of grocery stores and pharmacies across Illinois and Northwest Indiana, Local 881 UFCW members are providing a vital link to millions of families who need to access food, prescriptions, and household products that allow them to stay home safely and help flatten the curve. Local 881 UFCW members are putting in thousands of hours at risk to their own health, to ensure stores remain stocked and sanitized, and will remain on the leading edge of the state’s response to this health crisis. 

Local 881 UFCW staff and leadership have been in constant communication with our employer partners, government officials at all levels, and our membership to advocate for member’s safety and rights during this time. We are particularly thankful to have strong and responsive leaders like Governor Pritzker, Mayor Lightfoot, and the members of our Congressional delegation who are approaching this crisis with the needs of working families first and foremost. 

To that end, Local 881 UFCW President and International Vice President, Steve Powell, today released the following list of requests to local, state, and federal leadership in Illinois:

    • Grocery, retail, and pharmacy Union members are staffing the front lines of this public health crisis. As we have witnessed the demand for food and supplies reach unprecedented levels, our hardworking men and women are working tirelessly to meet the needs of the Illinois citizens. I ask that Local 881 workers be designated as first responders and be recognized as the essential workers they are in the midst of this crisis. 
    • In the event of local travel restrictions or curfews, I request that Local 881 members be given permission and protection in order to safely commute to and from their work locations in order to perform their essential jobs by showing proof of employment or their Union membership card. 
    • In light of the recent guidelines limiting gathering and event sizes, I ask you to provide a more comprehensive plan that protects our workers and community within stores by providing crowd control measures or specific limits to the number of people allowed in stores at any given time. We continue to call on our employers to provide protective measures and supplies to all members who are working in the stores, particularly those in the check-outs, who are coming into contact with hundreds of customers in an average shift. 
    • We are calling on the Illinois Congressional delegation to do the right thing by amending the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to recognize our country’s grocery, retail, and food processing workers as first responders. We ask that they use the federal relief legislation to guarantee that all of these workers receive at least two weeks of paid leave. This will ensure that our members can continue to serve their communities without having to choose between their health and their paycheck.

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to evolve, we again want to say how proud we are of our thousands of workers who are showing up and serving their communities in extremely stressful times. We also call on all customers and residents of Illinois and NW Indiana to please, treat our members with the respect they deserve during this crisis, and to practice the safest health guidelines that public health officials recommend when in our stores.  

###

Local 881 UFCW represents 34,000 members employed in retail food and drug stores throughout Illinois and Northwest Indiana, cannabis workers in Illinois, as well as a professional division comprised of health and nursing home workers, barbers and cosmetologists, and workers in other retail and service industries. Among the companies under contract with Local 881 are Jewel Food Stores, Osco Drug, Mariano’s, CVS Pharmacy, Kroger, Schnucks, Conagra Brands, and many smaller chains and independent stores, as well as nursing homes and other business establishments. Local 881 is among the largest affiliates of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents 1.3 million members in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.