Lexington Herald Leader: Kroger workers are still heroes in pandemic. It’s too soon to stop paying them that way.
By Linda Blackford
Read Linda’s column as it originally appeared in the Herald Leader.
Workers at Kroger groceries around Kentucky continue to stock shelves, bag groceries, and keep us fed while facing the constant threat of COVID-19.
But they are no longer “heroes,” or at least no longer deserving of “hero bonus” pay of $2 an hour, according to Kroger, which last week announced it would be ending the program this Sunday.
This is the ultimate corporate cynicism from Kroger’s leaders, who make millions of dollars themselves — including $12 million a year for CEO Rodney McMullen — and probably work at home these days. It was worth priceless public relations to the company when they announced it, but do it for too long, and it might cut into the bottom line. Incidentally, Kroger told the Popular Information newsletter that it had spent $700 million on the hero bonus. The newsletter also calculated that Kroger had spent $755 million since 2019 buying back its own stock. McMullen makes roughly 483 times the salary of his average employee, who makes about $24,000 a year.
Kroger spokeswoman Erin Grant did return my call for comment, so we don’t know how many more Kroger employees in Kentucky have tested positive for COVID-19 since 13 in late April.
“What worries me is that when we say the crisis is over, we can stop pretending to care about our front line workers and put their lives in even more danger with careless social behavior,” said Caitlin Blair, spokeswoman for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 227, which represents Kroger workers in Kentucky and Southern Indiana. She said Kroger is also ending special paid sick leave. “They said we are returning to normal, which is an incredible example of how disconnected from reality the corporate elite of this company really is.”
All the safety measures will stay in place, which shows that Kroger understands the crisis is still there. Did I mention that Kroger saw a 30 percent increase in sales between March 2019 and 2020?
Kroger can’t be singled out. Target, Walmart, CVS, Whole Foods, plenty of stores that offered the bonus to keep frontline workers in stores, are reversing course because it’s too expensive, and with all the other job losses across the country, they can hire plenty of people, despite the risks.
Like these companies, we’re all ready for the crisis to be over so we can get back to real life. But the numbers show that we’re in denial. The U.S. recently topped 80,000 deaths, and confirmed cases continue on a steady pace, although slightly offset by improvements in New York. But public health officials like Anthony Fauci warn that reopening too quickly could spark more hotspots around the country. (Our own Elf King Rand Paul, who wandered around the Senate while waiting for his own, positive coronavirus results, embarrassed Kentucky once again when earlier this week he questioned Fauci’s credibility on this topic, and suggested it would be just fine for kids to go back to school. Oh yes, and Paul’s hometown of Bowling Green is currently one such hotspot.)
So what can we do for grocery workers to show that we appreciate them more than their Kroger bosses do? We can write Kroger CEO Rodney McMullan (1014 Vine Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202) to register our displeasure. Most of all, we can do what grocery stores are asking us to do: Wear masks, keep six feet apart from people, go in one at a time. The CEOs may no longer recognize their employees as heroes, but we can give them the respect they deserve, in a pandemic and beyond.
Linda Blackford writes columns and commentary for the Herald-Leader. She has covered K-12, higher education and other topics for the past 20 years at the Herald-Leader.