Customers should stand in solidarity with workers

Cory

As a regular customer and a former grocery store worker, I support workers in all departments of every grocery and retail store deemed essential, who are calling for personal protective equipment, hazard pay, sick leave, and other fundamental protections. 

During this global pandemic, large corporations that operate businesses deemed essential must prioritize workers' health and well-being over focusing on how much money can be made. I know it’s not that simple, and that international corporations like Ahold Delhaize will not simply do the right thing because they should. 

Last year, I stood in solidarity on the picket line every day and most nights with Stop and Shop workers who were asking for a fair contract that didn’t reduce pay or strip away benefits. Getting to know the people who worked at Stop and Shop in my town reminded me of how disconnected we as customers can be to the people who work at the stores we frequent. Only after losing a hundred million dollars did Ahold Delhaize yield. What will it take now to get corporations like AD to step up to protect and properly compensate the people working through these conditions and constantly exposing themselves to Coronavirus? 

Like most people, I want to have the basics I need to get through this crisis, but not at the cost of the health and wellbeing of the people who work there. I urge customers to stand in solidarity with workers; we have the power to choose what companies we give our money, to put working people first through our actions as consumers. 

When we are asking workers to risk so much by showing up to work through COVID-19, we must also be willing to make sacrifices, namely by not supporting companies with bad labor practices, and by standing in solidarity with workers, staying informed about active strikes and other actions that support essential workers who need our solidarity most now.