As the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic closes schools across the country, more and more parents are juggling working from home with caring full-time for their children. But working from home isn’t possible for emergency personnel like paramedics, nurses, and public health workers who are on the front lines of the fight against the virus. Some states and cities are providing child care for emergency workers so they can do their jobs.
Minnesota and Vermont have now officially designated another group of workers as emergency personnel: grocery clerks. This means the workers hurrying to stock shelves and check out customers in those states will also receive free child care.
.@GovTimWalz has classified “food distribution workers,” which is store clerks, stockers, etc, as Tier 2 emergency works. This allows frontline workers childcare as they serve and feed Minnesotans. Thank you @GovTimWalz for supporting our industry during this challenging time! — MN Grocers Assoc. (@MNGrocers) March 18, 2020
The directive from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz came as part of an order for “Care for Children of Families of Emergency Workers,” which instructs closed schools to continue to provide care for children of emergency personnel who are “critical to the response of COVID-19.” Under the order, grocery workers are considered “essential tier 2 workers.” “Districts should make every effort to provide care for school-age children” of these workers, the order states. (People caring for the children of emergency personnel are also considered emergency personnel.)
The state of Vermont is developing a plan to reimburse private child care centers for providing care to essential workers. Public safety commissioner Michael Schirling told VTDigger that his office would add grocery store workers to the list of essential employees who would receive services like child care.
Grocery clerks are often underpaid and underappreciated.
San Francisco, which is under a shelter-in-place order, limits its emergency child care to first responders, including hospital staff, public health employees, and disaster service workers. On Tuesday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWire announced the state would open emergency child care centers for children of health, safety, and “essential service” workers, though the definition of “essential service” was not immediately clear.
Grocery clerks are often underpaid and underappreciated. As they brave the daily crowds of people rushing to stock up their pantries, and risk infecting themselves through contact with so many customers, their essential role in a functioning society has become clearer than ever. Designating them emergency workers and providing them child care is the least we can do.
jawshuwah on March 19th, 2020 at 05:10 UTC »
I hear Costco pays a living wage and treats their employees well. It really seems to show, the folks who work there do their jobs well and are always great to deal with.
It's worth the Costco card knowing this alone, so I make a point to shop there even when I'm not stocking up in bulk now.
But on top of that I always thought they were just a bulk discount store, but since shopping there more lately I've noticed they actually seem to sell carefully chosen higher quality products at the kind of lower prices you usually have to settle for cheap junk to get, (often in large quantities).
Our supply chain deserves a living wage!
nhinds42 on March 19th, 2020 at 04:37 UTC »
If I and the hundreds of thousands of other grocery workers in the US are eventually categorized as emergency workers, we should get some adequate fucking compensation. I don't want to risk my life and well-being, or that of my family Everytime I go into work. But I have student bills, and debts that need to be paid, so missing anything more than what I can cover with protected time is out of the question. What am I even supposed to do? Quit so I can preserve my health, and quickly become unable to sustain myself in any way? Keep going to work and risk getting sick without even knowing if I'll have a job when I come back, or if I do have a job, if I'll be in any way compensated for the hours lost due to being required to still work in this time of national emergency. The sad thing is, most of my coworkers are in the same boat as I, with even bigger worries. Much of them have children. How can they be expected to come into work everyday and then go home without knowing whether or not they just caught covid-19 and exposed their family to it? Changing our classification to emergency workers doesn't change a thing but ensuring everyone who has any worries similar to mine in this industry had no way out, as now we have society to worry about as well, without anyone worrying about us.
Mrchristopherrr on March 19th, 2020 at 03:56 UTC »
If they are needed for an emergency then they deserve a living wage.