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Ralphs, Food 4 Less to close 25% of Long Beach stores over extra $4 per hour 'Hero Pay' ordinance
https://www.foxla.com ^ | 02 February 2021 | By Mary Stringini

Posted on 02/03/2021 10:16:28 AM PST by Red Badger

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Ralphs and Food 4 Less, both owned by the parent company Kroger, announced Monday that they will be closing 25% of their stores in Long Beach after the city council passed an ordinance requiring companies with over 300 employees nationwide to pay employees an extra $4 per hour.

"As a result of the City of Long Beach’s 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," said a company spokesperson. "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."

There was no was no immediate response to a request for comment from the city. Mayor Robert Garcia was a major proponent of the ordinance. Before signing the measure, he wrote on Twitter that grocery workers "have been on the front lines of this pandemic and deserve this support."

According to Kroger, the Ralphs store at 3380 N. Los Coyotes Diagonal and the Food4Less store at 2185 E. South St. will close on April 17.

The city council unanimously approved the wage increase on Jan. 19 to compensate grocery store workers for the dangers they face in serving the public during the coronavirus pandemic. The ordinance was tentatively approved, and a final vote is scheduled for Feb. 2.

The ordinance would be in place for at least 120 days, after which the ordinance would come back to the city council for a possible extension.

The company spokesperson noted that the Long Beach City Council’s mandate does nothing to raise wages for the frontline workers the city employs.

"The irreparable harm that will come to employees and local citizens as a direct result of the City of Long Beach’s attempt to pick winners and losers, is deeply unfortunate," continued the company spokesperson. "We are truly saddened that our associates and customers will ultimately be the real victims of the city council’s actions."

The company said that since March, the grocers’ family of companies have invested $1.3 billion to both reward associates and to implement dozens of safety measures.

"In addition to providing several rewards to all frontline grocery, supply chain, manufacturing, pharmacy and call center associates, the organization has invested to support associates through additional benefits like paid emergency leave and the companies’ $15 million Helping Hands fund that provides financial support to associates experiencing certain hardships due to COVID-19," the companies spokesperson wrote in a joint press release. "All extra pay provided was in addition to the total compensation package Ralphs and Food 4 Less have long offered to associates, which includes competitive wages, strong health care coverage, and a reliable pension benefit."

The day after the city council passed the ordinance, the California Grocers Association filed a legal challenge to an ordinance. The claim asked the court to declare the pending hazard pay decree invalid and unconstitutional.

The CGA alleged that the ordinance is illegal because, by singling out certain grocers and ignoring other groups that employ essential frontline workers, it violates the constitutional requirement that similarly situated people must be treated alike. The CGA also argued that the ordinance is preempted by the federal National Labor Relations Act, which protects the integrity of the collective-bargaining process.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; US: California
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1 posted on 02/03/2021 10:16:28 AM PST by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

How long before Kroger is called racist for doing this?

Not long, I’m thinking.


2 posted on 02/03/2021 10:18:47 AM PST by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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To: Red Badger
In leftist theory, this isn't suppose to happen so I suggest we simply ignore reality.

how am I doing?

3 posted on 02/03/2021 10:19:10 AM PST by JonPreston (Q: Never have so many, been so wrong, so often)
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To: Red Badger

It is demonstrated time and again that the true minimum wage is $0, and yet the lefties never seem to learn.


4 posted on 02/03/2021 10:19:10 AM PST by Sirius Lee (They intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live and live like you are prepping for eternal life)
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To: Red Badger

Normally, I would this is karma to those who voted for the left. But as we’ve seen, when things get bad in the country, the voting trends move leftward as does the desire for voters to have the government bail them out and control their lives even further.


5 posted on 02/03/2021 10:20:02 AM PST by CatOwner (Don't expect anyone, even conservatives, to have your back when the SHTF in 2021)
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To: Red Badger

I would think that even the libtards in CA would get pissed over the possibility of going hungry and rise up and best the city council to death!


6 posted on 02/03/2021 10:21:52 AM PST by The MAGA-Deplorian (Sarcasm! Its what I mastered in!)
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To: Red Badger

Oh, and coming up shortly, possible strikes elsewhere against Kroger, including the left sending out the brown shirts.


7 posted on 02/03/2021 10:22:10 AM PST by CatOwner (Don't expect anyone, even conservatives, to have your back when the SHTF in 2021)
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To: Red Badger

Bob, the cashier at register 6, was awarded the Medal of Honor today for bravely throwing himself on a can of corn.


8 posted on 02/03/2021 10:22:45 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
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To: JonPreston

“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”
― George Orwell, 1984


9 posted on 02/03/2021 10:23:00 AM PST by Red Badger (SLEAZIN' is the REASON for the TREASON .................................)
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To: blueunicorn6

And Desean, the stock clerk, was awarded a Nobel Prize for cleaning up a spilled carton of milk...................


10 posted on 02/03/2021 10:24:29 AM PST by Red Badger (SLEAZIN' is the REASON for the TREASON .................................)
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To: CatOwner

The good news is you got a raise, the bad news you no longer have a job.


11 posted on 02/03/2021 10:24:51 AM PST by euclid216
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To: Red Badger

As stores close the liberals will push to move those employees to government jobs or clean energy jobs.

I don’t think they are worried about what they see as temporary layoffs.


12 posted on 02/03/2021 10:24:55 AM PST by plain talk
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To: bk1000

Creating ‘Food Deserts’..................


13 posted on 02/03/2021 10:25:33 AM PST by Red Badger (SLEAZIN' is the REASON for the TREASON .................................)
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To: Red Badger

Oh, to see such bravery!


14 posted on 02/03/2021 10:26:25 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
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To: plain talk

In a purely socialist/communist society, EVERYONE WORKS FOR THE GOVERNMENT.

Then, there are no people left to pay the taxes...................


15 posted on 02/03/2021 10:27:14 AM PST by Red Badger (SLEAZIN' is the REASON for the TREASON .................................)
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To: bk1000
How long before Kroger is called racist for doing this?

One of the two Kroger stores that are closing is in the whitest part of Long Beach.

16 posted on 02/03/2021 10:33:50 AM PST by rexthecat (nks!)
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To: rexthecat


Where am I going to get milk for my White Russians?
17 posted on 02/03/2021 10:39:50 AM PST by z3n
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To: Red Badger

Now, the city of Long Beach can buy the Ralphs and Food 4 Less, both owned by the parent company Kroger.

Then, they/Long Beach can pay their employees whatever they want to pay them.

Of course after the city buys the stores, only the elites will be able to buy groceries from these stores.


18 posted on 02/03/2021 10:53:23 AM PST by Grampa Dave (Law & order took the last train out of DC & America on election/coup/night, Tuesday, Nov. 03, 2020!!)
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Ralphs and Food 4 Less, both owned by the parent company
Kroger, announced Monday that they will be closing 25% of
their stores in Long Beach after the city council passed an
ordinance requiring companies with over 300 employees
nationwide to pay employees an extra $4 per hour.

***********

Instead.....

How about a 100% reduction in pay.......


19 posted on 02/03/2021 10:59:54 AM PST by deport
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To: Red Badger

It was only a matter of time when Portland, Maine’s experiment would be duplicated across the country.

As part of a package of 6 ordinances that a liberal group brought to the polls on November 2, 2020 was a proposal for “hazard pay” for a declare city or state “State of Emergency” The hazard pay increases of time and 1/2 all wages to a minimum of $18.30 per hour for those required to report to work at a Portland address. This omitted those who are telecommuting. (We already have a $12.15 minimum wage law in Portland).

The idiots who wrote the ordinance forgot to correctly note it start date which they intended to be 30 days after the election. Business leaders won a split decision on Monday.

“A Maine Superior Court judge ruled that the emergency minimum-wage provision passed by voters is valid under the Maine Constitution and Portland City Code.

The ordinance was expected to take effect 30 days after the election, but the court ruled Monday that it would take effect on Jan. 1, 2022, siding with city attorneys on their interpretation of the City Code.”

Hopefully this pandemic will be over by then.

“Attorneys for two Whole Foods workers who intervened in the case are expected to appeal the timeline for implementing the higher wages to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.”

The entire selling point of this question was easy money for the voters. Of the 6 questions this passed with the largest margin.

Surprisingly, the one question that failed was one basically outlawing Air BnBs.

https://bangordailynews.com/2021/02/01/news/portland/portland-workers-plan-appeal-after-court-rules-they-wont-get-emergency-hazard-pay-until-2022/

My job puts me in a car all day long with little interaction with the public with most of my work in Portland. I work for a national based company. I sent an email outlining the issue an noting that they might be liable for the increased pay. They read the city’s info and decided on a wait and see attitude. It would have been a small raise to bring me up to the $18.30 pay rate and of my division, I would be the only one effected.


20 posted on 02/03/2021 11:06:49 AM PST by Steven Scharf
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