{"id":145271,"date":"2021-02-18T11:18:15","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T16:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=145271"},"modified":"2021-02-18T11:43:13","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T16:43:13","slug":"kroger-closing-more-stores-due-to-seattles-mandated-hazard-pay-for-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kroger-closing-more-stores-due-to-seattles-mandated-hazard-pay-for-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Kroger Closing More Stores Due To Seattle\u2019s Mandated \u2018Hazard Pay\u2019 For Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fkroger-closing-more-stores-due-to-seattles-mandated-hazard-pay-for-workers%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=145271&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-1230959663.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Kroger, the largest grocery chain in the United States, is closing two stores in Seattle, Washington due to the city\u2019s mandated hazard pay for workers.<\/p>\n<p>Seattle recently joined several other West Coast cities in passing hazard-pay laws that require grocery stores to pay workers an extra $4 an hour, even though there hasn\u2019t been any indication that the coronavirus has swept through grocery stores despite remaining open throughout the pandemic. CNN <a href=\"https:\/\/amp.cnn.com\/cnn\/2021\/02\/17\/business\/kroger-closing-grocery-workers-hazard-pay\/index.html\">reported<\/a> that Seattle\u2019s hazard pay law relates to grocery stores over 85,000 square feet, which are required to pay workers the additional sum per hour.<\/p>\n<p>The two stores being closed are part of Kroger\u2019s QFC brand, which the company said will close in April.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, Seattle City Council didn\u2019t consider that grocery stores \u2014 even in a pandemic \u2014 operate on razor-thin profit margins in a very competitive landscape,\u201d QFC said in a press release this week. A spokesperson for the grocery chain told Business Journal that the two stores to be closed \u201cwere already struggling and the Seattle City Council decision made it impossible for us to run a financially sustainable business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As CNN reported, Kroger offered its employees an extra $2 an hour when the pandemic first started, but ended that program in May 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month two grocery groups \u2013 the Northwest Grocery Association and the Washington Food Industry Association \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.documentcloud.org\/documents\/20470244-grocers-association-lawsuit\">sued<\/a> Seattle, alleging the hazard-pay law broke the law by targeting large employers. In the lawsuit, the groups note that grocery stores were already providing \u201cappreciation pay,\u201d \u201chero bonuses,\u201d and \u201cthank you pay,\u201d as well as implementing numerous health and safety measures to protect workers, yet Seattle City Council members still suggested they weren\u2019t doing enough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy design, the Ordinance picks winners and losers,\u201d the lawsuit says. \u201cIt singles out large grocery companies with unionized workforces (i.e. [United Commercial Food Workers International] UCFW\u2019s members) without providing any reasonable justification for the exclusion of other employers or frontline retail workers. The Ordinance arbitrarily and improperly targets grocery store businesses in Seattle for disparate treatment while not requiring the same commitments from similarly situated businesses, or conferring <em>any<\/em> benefits on similarly situated employees. There is no support for any of the City\u2019s statements that the Hazard Pay will protect public health, address economic insecurity, and promote job retention.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit also notes that UCFW sponsored the ordinance.<\/p>\n<p>As The Daily Wire previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/hero-pay-ca-cities-demand-pay-raise-for-grocery-workers-then-stores-close\">reported<\/a>, Kroger has announced other store closures in California cities after they also passed hazard pay laws.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a result of the City of Long Beach\u2019s decision to pass an ordinance mandating Extra Pay for grocery workers, we have made the difficult decision to permanently close long-struggling store locations in Long Beach. This misguided action by the Long Beach City Council oversteps the traditional bargaining process and applies to some, but not all, grocery workers in the city,\u201d Kroger said in a statement at the time.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">member<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kroger, the largest grocery chain in the United States, is closing two stores in Seattle, Washington due to the city\u2019s mandated hazard pay for workers. Seattle recently joined several other &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2181478,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-1230959663.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Kroger Closing More Stores Due To Seattle\u2019s Mandated \u2018Hazard Pay\u2019 For Workers","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-1230959663.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Kroger Closing More Stores Due To Seattle\u2019s Mandated \u2018Hazard Pay\u2019 For Workers","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2181478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}