Spit-on, screamed-at Pierce County grocery workers face hazard deeper than COVID-19
The fierce debate over whether to mandate COVID-19 hazard pay for thousands of Pierce County grocery workers has been eye-opening in more ways than one.
It’s illuminated the ongoing conflict between high-profit companies and low-wage workers who remain anxious more than 14 months into Washington’s state of emergency. It’s also revealed the limits of broad vaccine access in reducing that conflict.
New light has been shed on tensions in local government, as well — specifically, whether Pierce County should mandate hazard pay inside the borders of independently run cities.
Ultimately, the ordinance adopted by the Council Council last week applied only to large grocers in unincorporated Pierce, requiring them to pay workers an extra $4 an hour until the governor lifts the state of emergency.
This messy political food fight also illustrates shifting power dynamics in Pierce County. The council’s new Democratic majority clearly wants to enact progressive policies in the mold of King County. But they’re up against a second-term Republican county executive who’s now thrown down the gauntlet: Not only will he use his veto pen, he’ll use it less than an hour after a council vote.
There’s one more thing the showdown over hazard pay has forced into the open — a disgrace that should alarm all of us.
Just a year after being hailed as heroes for their work on the front lines, grocery workers have been largely reduced to an afterthought. Worse, some have become objects of contempt by creeps who won’t follow safety rules or practice kindergarten-level human decency.
At last week’s hearing on the hazard pay ordinance, several local grocery workers spoke emotionally about the disrespect they’ve endured.
They’ve been spit on, sneezed on, by customers who are either clueless or malicious. They’ve been targeted for abuse when stores have run out of high-demand items. And the most common indignity: They’ve been screamed at by unmasked customers who hate being asked to comply with store rules.
“We’ve been called names by every walk of life that you can possibly imagine,” said Patty Estes, a cashier at the South Hill Fred Meyer.
Our reaction was similar to council member Marty Campbell’s: “What we found is that the real hazard isn’t COVID,” the Tacoma Democrat said. “It’s our fellow Pierce County residents and the way they treat people.”
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that this unsafe, boorish behavior continues, given the cover that the anti-mask crowd receives from too many people in authority.
Case in point: freshman council member Amy Cruver. The Eatonville Republican last week tried to compare the stress that workers feel when facing unmasked customers to what people who don’t want to wear masks feel when told they have to.
“They, too, experience high levels of anxiety at being judged and ostracized,” Cruver said after the grocery worker testimony — a tone-deaf comment, to say the least.
Cruver was one of the three Republicans who voted no on hazard pay; it passed on the strength of the four council Democrats. Their success was short-lived, however; County Executive Bruce Dammeier vetoed it a half hour later.
Irreconcilable differences were laid bare the next day, when grocery worker union members delivered petitions to Dammeier’s office and he sat down to talk with them for a few minutes. It was an awkward meeting, recorded on camera, in which neither side covered themselves with glory.
Union leaders brushed off Dammeier’s proffer of easy vaccinations, as if they’re irrelevant to the cause of worker safety. Their claim that hazard pay “is not about the money” also seemed disingenuous.
For his part, Dammeier had no good explanation why he vetoed the ordinance so quickly — a move that was sure to be seen as insensitive. And his claim that he opposed the mandate as a matter of fairness because cities were left out? Come on, now. His fellow Republicans on council supported that amendment unanimously.
Our takeaway is that the hazard pay conversation would have made more sense at the front end of the pandemic than at the backside of it.
But the larger lesson is one that mustn’t be forgotten when the COVID hazard is neutralized:
Dignity is a common currency that every service employee in our community is owed, not least those who rose to the occasion to keep our pantries stocked.
News Tribune editorials reflect the views of our Editorial Board and are written by opinion editor Matt Misterek. Other board members are: Stephanie Pedersen, News Tribune president and editor; Matt Driscoll, local columnist; and Jim Walton, community representative. The Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom and does not influence the work of news reporting and editing staffs. For questions about the board or our editorials, email matt.misterek@thenewstribune.com