BALDWIN PARK, Calif. — “We’re here fighting for a better wage and for equity with our brothers and sisters at other groceries,” Irma Vega, who has worked for Food 4 Less grocery for 24 years, told the Militant March 7. “We need a raise, prices are so high everywhere. And we need safer conditions.”
Vega was one of 300 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers and their supporters who rallied here, as contract negotiations are set to begin with the Kroger-owned Food 4 Less grocery chain. Their current contract, which covers 6,000 workers in Southern California, expires June 8.
Kroger promotes Food 4 Less as a lower-price alternative to other grocery chains. As a result, workers said, Kroger pays them less than other area grocery workers, including at Ralphs, another Kroger-owned chain. Their demand for equity aims to erase this difference.
“They don’t care about our health, mental or physical,” Erlene Molina said. “We would work 12-hour shifts during COVID. There are not big enough staffs in the stores now. The people I work with are exhausted.”
Members of the Service Employees International Union, Teamsters from UPS and other trade unionists joined the rally.