Sam Gurwitt Photo
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal at Stop & Shop.
On Wednesday, Charmaine Acampora got her first direct deposit paycheck from Stop & Shop since March without 10 percent tacked on as hazard pay. On Thursday afternoon, she stood in front of the Hamden Stop & Shop with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal to call on the company to reinstate the hazard pay.
Acampora was one of a small group of workers and union leaders who gathered in the parking lot of the Dixwell Avenue store.
Like many grocery stores, Stop & Shop gave its workers extra pay starting in March to compensate for the extra risk they experienced in coming to work amid the Covid-19 pandemic. On July 4, the extra payments ended. But, as workers and union leaders said Thursday, the risk did not.
“Nothing’s really changed for us in there. You’re still wearing masks, you’re distancing, you’re washing,” said Asst. Grocery Manager Joe Renaldi (pictured above). While the panic buying of the early days of the pandemic are over, business has still been strong, he said. He said that most weeks, sales have topped what they were last year.
The unions representing Stop & Shop workers — United Food and Commercial Workers Locals 919 and 371 in Connecticut as well as 12 others in other states — mounted a campaign last month to get the company to continue its hazard pay. The company stood by its decision to end the “appreciation pay” as planned.
In an email to the Independent, company spokesperson Maura O’Brien said that in March, the company was seeing “levels of foot traffic and demand that were unprecedented, and associates worked long hours to keep our shelves stocked and to service our customers.” Now the company is “beginning to transition back to pre-COVID levels of customer traffic and demand,” she wrote.
To those standing in the sunny parking lot Thursday, that is no excuse.
“These folks were essential in March. They were essential in April. They were essential in May. They were essential in June. They’re just as essential now. Nothing has changed,” said Blumenthal. “Nothing has changed, except we got the most recent profit from Ahold,” he added, referring to Ahold Delhaize, the Dutch parent company of Stop & Shop.
Holding a printout of a recent Hartford Courant article, he read the company’s profit numbers for the first quarter of 2020. The company’s profit for the first quarter was about $1.1 billion. Last year, profits for the same quarter were $768 million. In the U.S., the company’s sales are up nearly 14 percent. In its quarterly report, the company notes that that growth is “due largely to the Covid-19 outbreak.”
“So don’t tell me, Stop & Shop, you can’t afford the pay these folks what they deserve,” Blumenthal continued. “That 10 percent, that’s just the beginning of what you owe to these workers.”
He said he has been advocating for the federal government to provide hazardous duty pay of up to $25,000 as a part of the next federal stimulus bill, which is slowly working its way through Congress. In May, the House passed the HEROES Act, which has floundered in the Republican-led Senate. Democrat Blumenthal said he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to include the hazard pay in the bill that passes the Senate, but promised to try.
“This country should pay police and fire, nurses and doctors, postal workers, and yes, supermarket and grocery workers,” he said. “They’re on the front line. The stores are called essential, and so are the workers.”
Local 371 President Ronald Petronella, Local 919 President Mark Espinosa, and Local 919 Business Rep. Jorge Cabrera all recalled how last year, Blumenthal was on the picket lines with them when workers across the company went on strike for 11 days.
Last April, Blumenthal visited the Hamden store, and posed for a photo op with a worker named Richie. Richie was back, now retired, standing next to Blumenthal as they listened to other speakers.
Workers said that though infection rates are low in Connecticut right now, they worry they will grow again.
“As we know, the numbers will be going up in the fall,” said deli worker Kim Mazzaro (pictured above). It’s a very scary situation. This isn’t going away.”
Renaldi said he has to be careful not to infect his 91-year-old mother who lives next door to him.
And though he may be called a hero, he is no longer paid like one, said union leaders.
“Stop calling them heroes,” said Cabrera. “Treat them like heroes. Pay them like heroes.”