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

The current coffee academy is not working. Partners can no longer get the title or the apron for being a coffee master. Instead baristas can spend hours completing a free online course on coffee. The program is unpaid and there is no incentive to complete the program. Coffee master used to be one of the coolest parts of working at Starbucks. Partners and customers would look up to coffee masters if they had questions or wanted to learn more about coffee. Coffee masters were there to support and help partners learn more about coffee. Currently, customers are no longer getting their questions answered about how to brew coffee. They can no longer get a roast recommendation based off of their personal preferences. Many partners haven't even tried a majority of Starbucks roasts. Something needs to change.

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.

Nursing assistants are the lowest paid. They usually make minimum wage or slightly over. They are the manual labor of the health care industry, physically working very hard. Like everyone they have family and home obligations or work elsewhere. These polices are not used or enforced on any other type of healthcare worker other than CNA's or Nurses.

It’s important to make sure we all feel like we are being heard. That everyone feels we are being fair in work place and not that other people have to work harder then others because they “aren’t used to working in those conditions” If people don’t feel like they are being heard they feel like they don’t matter.

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.

We, students of University of California Santa Cruz continue to be in solidarity with AFSCME 3299 dining hall workers and student workers. Being a student at the University of California is a privilege we hold. While many of us are studying from home and the few are living on campus full time, workers continue making UCSC run. It has become increasingly clear that without students and workers on campus, the university does not feel like a university. While many of us have the privilege of staying safe at home, that is not the case for AFSCME 3299 workers. Workers continue to go to work and risk their safety during a pandemic. Many workers are part of communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Essential workers already face the risk of working during a pandemic. On top of those risks, workers at UCSC Dining Halls have to go to an unsafe, toxic workplace environment created by their management. And when workers take back their power, they are faced with retaliation from management. Since he began his tenure as an Associate Director of Dining Administration at UCSC, Clint Jeffries has routinely failed to advocate for dining hall workers. One manager, Lilian Galdamez Mijano, routinely belittles AFSCME 3299 workers to the point of tears. She attacks the quality of their work and punishes all workers for small mistakes. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, students do not see these aggressions taking place in the Dining Halls; they are living far from campus, and even those students living on campus do not enter the dining halls. This diminished student presence has worsened a toxic work environment at UCSC dining halls. When workers ask Clint for support or request that he talk to Lilian about her problematic behaviors, they are met with disappointment. Clint unconditionally and consistently supports dining hall managers over the workers he is supposed to help and serve. Clint’s refusal to support AFSCME 3299 dining hall workers reflects UCSC’s failures to support students and workers, especially during a pandemic and financial crisis. We understand that these issues do not start nor end with Dining Hall management but extend to UC administration. Specifically, Barbara Greening and her anti-worker and anti-union attitudes when meeting. Despite her role within UC labor relations she routinely disregards workers' concerns, speaks over , belittles, and degrades them creating an even more hostile and discouraging environment. We know from lived experiences that what affects the worker affects the student. It is our responsibility to use our privilege as students to once again raise our voices and demand respect alongside AFSCME 3299 members. It is clear that the UC administration does not care about workers or their safety during a pandemic and the UC will only listen to our collective demands if we target their corporate greed. Clint Jeffries and management have failed to advocate for workers’ safety and thus students’ safety. We know that our care, safety, and well being is tied to community care, it is dependent upon students and workers coming together.

Gig workers ARE essential workers. Gig workers are the people who drive passengers for companies like Uber and who deliver food for companies like Doordash and Instacart. They have provided many of us with services we’ve relied on in order to safely shelter in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is for this exact reason that many states list gig workers as “essential workers”. As the COVID-19 vaccine is distributed, it is imperative that the Center for Disease Control include gig workers in their Phase 1b recommendation for vaccine distribution for “Frontline essential workers”. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, gig corporations were quick to petition that their workers be classified as essential, while refusing to provide them with personal protective equipment or healthcare. The people who drive for ride hailing companies and deliver our food and groceries safely to our homes, have been forced to spend the last ten months exposing themselves to a deadly virus in order to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. Despite this, many state governors have failed to include gig workers in vaccine roll out efforts. In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo excluded rideshare drivers and food delivery workers from the next phase of the state’s vaccine rollout. This is unacceptable and dangerous for both workers and consumers alike. The CDC must properly prioritize gig workers as essential workers in vaccine roll out plans across the country. Many gig workers have had no choice but to continue working or return to work during a deadly pandemic because the platform corporations they work for have unilaterally abandoned them. These corporations have refused to pay a dime into state unemployment funds and have actively advocated that their workers be excluded from state unemployment benefits, all while denying them access to crucial benefits like health insurance, paid sick leave and proper protective equipment. The majority of gig workers in the United States are Black or Brown, representing the communities hardest hit by the pandemic while receiving the least amount of protection and support. It is crucial that the CDC’s vaccine plan includes gig workers as essential workers. We demand that the Center for Disease Control include gig workers in their Phase 1b recommendations for vaccine distribution for “Frontline essential workers”.

Burgerville workers have demanded hazard pay in the past, and Burgerville has denied these requests. Now there is a way for workers to get increased pay at no cost to Burgerville: credit card tips at the drive thru. Workers feel this urgency now more than ever. Due to management error, credit card were briefly enabled at the Convention Center Burgerville in November. This resulted in workers making an extra $5 an hour from the generous contributions of appreciative customers. The community of customers have demonstrated they want to tip when they are given the opportunity, and this gesture makes a huge difference in worker compensation. This is the pay they deserve as they risk their life to serve customers.

Hops Burger Bar has already had COVID-19 cases at multiple of their locations and have failed to properly notify their workers, or respond in a timely way! Management delays means the virus has time to spread.

Carhops at Sonic are paid a tipped wage of 5 dollars an hour. Since we are a fast food establishment, many customers don't realize that we are tipped workers. Including a prompt to tip your carhop in the check-out will communicate that carhops must be tipped. During my time at Sonic, I've had several customers ask why they can't tip on the card. Staff is expected to wear a mask at all times, to mitigate the spread of covid-19. However, there is no policy that requires that customers extend the courtesy. This puts employees at greater risk, because masks are effective at containing pathogens, in other words they are only effective if both parties wear them. Sonic has the responsibility to provide a safe working environment. In late January Sonic began rolling out card tips for orders through the Sonic app. This is a step in the right direction, but this only makes up a small percentage of card orders. We must push them to update the software in the stalls as well.