United for Respect
50 signatures reached
To: Doug McMillon, Jeff Bezos, & retail CEOs
Protect retail & grocery store workers during coronavirus pandemic
People who work in retail and grocery stores right now are holding our communities together – making sure people can get the food and supplies they need to survive.
Every minute we spend at work, we’re interacting with customers and coworkers who might be infected. We’re doing our best to make sure our neighbors and communities can get groceries and supplies during the pandemic. All this, while many stores are seeing huge increases in sales and profits.
I work at Walmart part-time. Just two weeks ago, I went to the doctor and got diagnosed with the flu. I don’t have any sick leave so I had to beg my store manager to let me go home. The doctor recommended 5-7 days of rest but I was only able to get one day off. The choice was made for me: I had to continue going to work with the flu.
Sign the petition to tell the biggest retail and grocery corporations to 1) provide gloves, masks, and protection to all employees 2) ensure paid sick & family leave, 3) hazard pay at double the regular pay for employees working during the pandemic.
Why is this important?
Lots of grateful customers thank us for supporting them. But America’s biggest employers aren’t treating us like heroes, they are treating us like we are their bottomline.
Walmart employs many people who are facing the pandemic without paid time off or health insurance. They penalize us when we’re sick and don’t accept doctors’ notes as excused absences. Amazon is hiring hundreds of thousands of employees to meet increasing demand – but most of these jobs are part-time without health care.
Even worse, the government’s response so far has specifically excluded most retail and grocery employees – any company with more than 500 employees isn’t required to provide the emergency federal paid sick leave.
Working in retail and grocery stores is a lot more dangerous than it was last month. Corporations need to recognize the worth of our work. Thank you for supporting us.
