We are Trader Joe’s workers writing to demand that the employee benefits introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic be made permanent and that healthcare coverage be immediately and permanently issued to all TJ’s workers risking their health and safety in stores. When the Covid-19 pandemic started last March, Trader Joe’s workers across the country spoke up and demanded that the company institute hazard pay in order to compensate us for the tremendous risk we have undertaken by continuing to work. The company eventually gave us a two-dollar "Thank You Pay" increase and raised the employee discount to 20%. However, many stores have cut hours during the pandemic, which has resulted in a sustained loss of income for many employees. When our "Thank You Pay” was increased to four dollars in February to comply with local laws, management made up costs by getting rid of the permanent raises employees would normally receive in the summer. Ironically, taking away the opportunity for a raise will cost the most loyal, full-time employees thousands of dollars in future income while Trader Joe’s returns to pre-pandemic level sales and profits. After only three months, the company announced that on May 1st they will take away our additional two dollars, and we fear the rest of the “Thank You Pay” is soon to follow. To add insult to injury, as the pandemic continues into spring, a huge percentage of us are vulnerable after losing our company-sponsored health insurance at the end of December when the company maintained an hour requirement many workers couldn’t meet due to cut hours, sick loved ones, and unsafe exposure in the workplace. In some cases, employees failed to meet health insurance qualifications due to quarantining or recovering after contracting the virus themselves. As essential workers who have risked ourselves and our loved ones for the last year, we should not be left without healthcare. We deserve more than thanks. We have continued to work tirelessly, with smiles on our faces, to provide our communities with essential services and resources. The experience of working through the pandemic has been traumatic for many. What was once a normal shift can now bring on extreme panic and anxiety for many crew members. Countless employees have gotten sick with Covid-19 contracted at Trader Joe’s and some of our coworkers have lost their lives. Though Trader Joe’s claims “integrity” as a core company value, as far as we are aware, TJ’s executives have received full salaries, and possible bonuses, this past year with the option of working safely from home. We deserve thanks, but the company’s actions feel like an insult——every measure the company has taken to provide an additional “benefit” during the pandemic has been accompanied by an action that shifts the loss back on crew members. We crew the ship and we insist that Trader Joe’s meet these demands: -The “Thank You Pay” be made a permanent raise of 4 dollars an hour for all Trader Joe’s crew members, including those on extended leave of absence. -The 20% Crew Member Discount be made permanent. -Reinstate full healthcare coverage for all current employees and expand healthcare coverage to all part- and full-time employees. If TJ workers are interested in learning more about how to take action at work, reach out to an EWOC organizer today at workerorganizing.org/talk-with-an-organizer.

While the COVID-19 vaccine is becoming more readily available across the country, Whole Foods workers are still getting sick! Management everywhere are allowing pre-pandemic crowd sizes, despite the country still only being a third vaccinated. Mask mandates are rarely enforced. This isn’t new, Whole Foods workers have been reporting all pandemic that management teams have consistently put workers in danger rather than enforce any meaningful safety protocols with customers. Whole Worker has received reports from workers who were lied to about cleaning crews coming in. We’ve gotten reports of stores where as many as a quarter of store employees tested positive for COVID and where employees were only told to quarantine over a week after management knew they’d worked a shift with someone who had tested positive for COVID. We’ve even heard from stores where management forced employees to open their store without running water, and thus no working bathrooms or water to refill disinfectant, despite this being a violation of company policy, state law, and health codes. We’re tired of being put second in Whole Foods’ pursuit of profit and customer pleasing. No profit line is worth our health and safety. We deserve better and we demand safe working conditions! If you want to connect with other Whole Foods workers taking action for their health and safety reach out to us at https://workerorganizing.org/talk-with-an-organizer/ and a volunteer organizer will be in touch!

Exposure to the mass population puts the lives of every craft in the organization. No hazard pay, no priority to be vaccinated. Our exposure could spread variants without the opportunity to be vaccinated. This is important to all contacted daily and could benefit the general public and the workers delivering, serving at retail offices and all support personnel.

Sharon has caused multiple amazing employees to lose all motivation do their job, or to even show up for their job. The employees dread coming into work because they know the unfair situations in which we must work in. Sharon condones rude selfish behavior with her favoritism towards a single employee who refuses to follow our standards or even learn her duties to the fullest extent. Sharon let's her do anything she pleases, including treating the other staff like they are below her, doing the bare minimum and less of her duties, taking breaks and leaving whenever she wishes, spending most of her shifts on the phone, and then retaliates against the honest hardworking employees that speak up against the unfairness. She has caused our store to suffer and our guests to become disgruntled by the constant disruptions in our workplace. After months of asking for fair change, Sharon has done nothing but turn a blind eye to Jennifer's disturbances to the crew and retaliation against those who complain. Sharon is constantly mocking and spewing out profane and racial slurs against our customers, employees and anyone else who dares to speak against her personal views inside and even outside of the store. She is highly unprofessional and not fit to run a staff if she refuses to change her ways and drop the ongoing discrimination as well as exposing contagious employees to work shifts that she could easily fill with a healthy employee.

They make less than a server and do all the servers work for them. It’s not equal pay. And can’t live off 2.83 an hour.

The upcoming third wave and the spread of the mutations of the Corona virus that are more infectious demand for a strong response. Regular testing is an important measure to identify Covid clusters quickly, allow contact tracing, and thus help to keep the infection numbers low. We must do everything we can to have low infection numbers rates to prevent even more dangerous mutations!

Whole Foods can afford to do better. The grocery store chain and its parent company, Amazon, are raking in profits during the pandemic. To slow the spread of the virus among Whole Foods employees and customers, CEO John Mackey needs to immediately institute a permanent comprehensive paid leave policy. That includes guaranteed paid sick time, paid family and medical leave, and paid time off to be vaccinated. Join us and Whole Foods employees in calling on Whole Foods to live up to their virtues by giving their employees the opportunity to put their wellness and their families first now and in the future.

Almost exactly a year ago, we saw corporations calling grocery workers “heroes” — what a difference a year makes! A new company-wide policy on team member meal and rest periods which went into effect on February 8th has shortened our breaks from 15 minutes to 10. The policy change has affected different regions in different ways. Many stores offered two paid 15 minute breaks per shift - under the new policy, all they get is 10. Some stores offered workers a paid 30 minute lunch break - under the new policy, that break will no longer be paid. Whole Foods claims that they are doing this to “streamline regional processes and policies.” In reality, they are bringing every store in America down to the bare minimum. This policy was designed to offer us as little break time and as little pay as the law will permit. Jeff Bezos' net worth grew by $75 billion last year. Now Amazon/Whole Foods is forcing their lowest paid employees to sacrifice paid rest time on the job. Is this how we’re thanked for working through a pandemic? We risk our lives every day to keep these stores stocked and clean. We’ve earned our breaks! Let’s send a message to Amazon and Whole Foods: these changes are unacceptable. If you’re a Whole Foods worker and you want to fight back, reach out to us. Together, we can hold Whole Foods accountable for its unfair policies. In Solidarity, Whole Worker and the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee

Management is harassing employees by intimidation and fear of being written up for reasons that are unfair and unethical. Abuse of authority and lack of support during COVID pandemic.

For the last year, essential workers - such as grocery store clerks, bus drivers, and people in food service - have been working through a pandemic to ensure that families can continue to eat and stay alive. We are truly public servants, risking infection from the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its mutations in service of the general public. Workers can’t control other people, such as those we interact with daily who do not take this pandemic seriously. We are tired of putting on a friendly tone to ask customers, coworkers, and managers to please pull their masks over their noses. We are exhausted from going to work day after day, not knowing if today might be the day we bring home the virus that could kill us or our family members. Our field is diverse; we are Black, disabled, immigrant, indigenous, Latinx, parents, students, working class. The federal government’s National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness calls for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. We urge you to listen to experts who say that essential workers should be vaccinated now. Consider our sacrifices over the past year, and commit to repaying us by prioritizing us for the vaccine.

As per the decision of publix

Schedules are posted on short notice, often only 2 days in advance, but we are expected to follow any changes without question. Because of this, we often do not have time outside of work for ourselves. This also means shifts are cut without proper notice; once we are on the schedule, we expect those hours to be on our paycheck, and the decision to cut them can be detrimental. Many of us have missed rent payments and other bills which can have a long term impact on our finances. We are negatively impacted by clopenings because of the lack of sleep and are never able to function at 100%. This can cause employees to become irritable, fatigued, and at times dangerous to ourselves and others. The grease, water from leakage, and other liquids on the floors cause a daily slipping hazard. Handrails on the stairs are loose and splintered, while the stairs continue to lose grip due to the fry gunk built up on them. Many of us have reported slipping on the floor, resulting in more serious injuries like hitting our head, cracking ribs, and falling on the grill. The floor is just one example of the hazards that are left for employees to handle on their own and deprioritized by management. Many of us across different locations have endured instances of sexual harassment by both staff and management over a long period of time. This has become a pervasive issue that needs to be addressed immediately. There is currently no way to safely or anonymously report, and when someone does come forward it is not taken seriously and answered with responses like ¨they’re not like that.¨ Currently, human resources is not a safe option for employees to turn to, and there is no option in the chip app to assure anonymity or confirm that any complaint will be addressed. Without anonymity there is the fear of backlash from any complaint which has led to a toxic culture of keeping people quiet. After a few short months, management has failed to keep up with COVID guidelines. Sanitation has gone from happening hourly to a few times a day with none on night shifts, and masks aren’t being enforced with customers and staff. This has created an unsafe work environment. We are left to enforce mask-wearing with customers which causes a huge amount of stress, and are unsupported by management or security. Many of us avoid confrontation out of fear of how customers will react, putting ourselves at risk or forces coworkers to step in and away from their own work.