Protesters gather at Fredericksburg Giant, demand hazard pay restored

A local food workers union protested inside of a Giant grocery store in Fredericksburg today.

The union wants hazard pay restored for workers who, for months, have been on the front lines of the pandemic.

“What do we want? Hazard pay! When do we want it? Now!,” they chanted.

That was one of many statements chanted by a dozen members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 chanted outside of the Giant grocery store at Eagle Village.

Beginning at 4 p.m., union members marched outside and inside of the store letting their outrage of the situation be heard.

The union members protested the loss of hazard pay that had been given to them to work through the coronavirus pandemic. When the shutdown began in March workers in various grocery stores were classified as essential workers.

“We were literally paid for two months and then they decided to cut it out as though it (the pandemic) had ended when clearly it hasn’t. We’re still at risk so this is a really important thing,” stated Local 400 member Christine Fetter.

In order to incentivize their workers to stay on, Giant like many other grocery stores offered hazard pay. In their case, Giant offered a 10% pay increase and then offered a one time bonus of $200 for part-time employees and $400 for full-time employees.

The program ended in May, just two months into the pandemic when grocery stores such as Kroger and Safeway ended their hazard pay and Giant followed suit.

Many of the assembled protesters expressed not just a desire for their hazard to be restored, but also for greater safety precautions to be taken. Some felt that the plastic barriers erected between the workers and the customers were not enough to guarantee safety.

Protesters also told stories of customers not wearing masks in spite of signage encouraging them to do so, and then suffering verbal abuse from those customers. The protesters expressed a need for some form of enforcement for wearing masks inside the stores. According to one protester, Walmart has such security measures at their front entrance to make sure masks are worn by the customers entering the store.

The protesters followed social-distancing guidelines keeping six feet from each other as well as wore masks for the occasion. They were able to interact will members of the public who were interested in what was transpiring.

In addition to hazard pay, the protesters are also demanding access to testing kits for coronavirus since they are in constant contact with the public.

This protest is one of several protests by Local 400 that are in progress across the Greater Wasington, D.C. area. Those protests are part of a bigger nationwide protest being conducted by various local food workers unions.

Giant Food did not respond to a request for comment for this story.