A worker at a Safeway distribution center in Tracy has died of complications from COVID-19 and dozens more are infected, highlighting the plight of food workers.
The worker, a 52-year-old man from Turlock, was a longtime employee of Safeway’s massive warehouse in Tracy. He died Monday night, the second grocery store worker in Northern California to die in the pandemic.
The warehouse employs 1,700 workers and Governor Gavin Newsom confirms that more than 50 other employees there have tested positive. The warehouse supplies 250 stores in California and Nevada and another 19 in Hawaii.
The company is now taking employees' temperatures as they arrive for their shifts, giving them masks and telling them to take meal breaks separately.
Still, 96% of workers responding to a union survey said they were concerned about infection. The outbreak helped prompt an executive order by the Governor Thursday giving all food workers an extra two weeks of paid sick leave.
“I think about people that grow our food, the people that pick our food and the people that pack our food, deliver our food, cook deliver and serve our food. That’s the food chain in the state of California, broadly defined. And that by definition is essential,” said the Governor.
Workers at the Tracy distribution center do not have contact with shoppers but a company spokesman says there are worker shortages on some shifts which may explain empty produce sections in some stores.
The Governor added that we could all do a little more to show our appreciation.
“I just want to compliment you for holding that line and continuing to help us reduce our own spread,” Newsom said. “I heard a few grocery workers say ‘we’re called essential workers but increasingly we feel like we’re disposable,’ and I want you to know you’re not disposable. You’re essential and you’re valued.”
