The United Nations defines hazard pay as “compensation granted to staff members who have been requested to remain and report for work in duty stations where very hazardous conditions exist.”

The Alameda Labor Council is now the leading and most successful advocate of hazard pay for our grocery workers. We’ve won that extra pay in Oakland, San Leandro, and Berkeley. Next up is the city of Alameda.

The hundreds of grocery workers who have literally given their lives to keep families fed makes this fight both urgent and worthy of all the energy we have within us.

Political speeches about “essential workers” are meaningless unless they are followed with a real reward for these workers.

Grocery workers are people like us. They work hard for their families. They put their kids through college. They do what they can to make ends meet.

Grocery workers are different from many of us. They can’t work from home. They don’t have bosses who will cut them some slack. Missed days mean unpaid bills.

We are living through a time of reckoning. We are strong enough to lead. We won’t forget those who do the right thing, nor will we forget those who turn their backs on those who need help

In Solidarity,
Liz