“We deserve more.”
Those three simple words spoken by a grocery store worker to NBC News encompass a sentiment that is growing among retail workers all across the country.
From sea to shining sea, grocery store employees and other retail workers are getting burnt out working overtime to cover for COVID-positive co-workers forced into quarantine. They are being forced to burn through their accrued sick days and vacation time if they contract the coronavirus and are forced to quarantine themselves.
“It’s worse than the beginning of the pandemic,” said the California retail worker (who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of losing her job). “I’m trying to work, but we’re just so strapped for help.”
Many of the policies put into place to protect essential retail workers at the start of the pandemic in 2020 have since been rolled back.
Social distancing and mask wearing are no longer required of customers in many places, and enhanced regulations for cleanliness have also been shelved along with hazard pay for workers who came into contact with someone with COVID.
All these changes have put workers at further risk of contracting the virus, which could result in the loss of hard-earned paid leave.
The worker who spoke to NBC said her store has seen four to six workers out sick every single day for weeks, leaving the healthy workers to work longer hours to make up for the absences and keep the store running.
“Everyone in the store is frazzled,” she said. “At this point I’m so burnt out. I come home and fall asleep… We’ve had to deal with COVID head on. Just because we’re here serving and working at a grocery store doesn’t mean we aren’t of value — and it’s important that the company values employees and values people who are out there risking their lives.”
“Employees want to feel safe; they want to feel protected,” Debbie Berkowitz, a labor fellow at Georgetown University, told NBC News. “This is going to be with us for a long time, so employers need to change how they do things instead of fighting science.”
Meanwhile, a Supreme Court challenge went the way of employers Thursday when the court struck down President Joe Biden’s new OSHA regulation that stated anyone who employs more than 100 people had to institute either a vaccine mandate or weekly testing.
“Employers in the workplace can decide whatever they want to do unless there is a government standard like you have to pay a minimum wage. But with the coronavirus there really is no requirement,” Berkowitz said.
“Workers really are on their own.”
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