Bainbridge Island considers hazard pay mandate for grocery store workers

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND – Bainbridge Island’s City Council is considering a pay hike mandate for workers at the island’s two grocery stores.

The concept would mirror ordinances established in the cities of Seattle, Burien and other jurisdictions, which require grocery stores to boost paychecks for workers during the pandemic. Hazard pay mandates went into effect in Seattle and Burien this month — $4- and $5-per-hour bumps, respectively — and two industry trade groups have filed lawsuits challenging them in U.S. District Court.

Bainbridge Island is home to two grocery stores, both in Winslow: a Safeway location, on High School Road, and a Town & Country Market, on Winslow Way.

Council members didn’t consider a specific proposal Tuesday night but voted unanimously to task council members Brenda Fantroy-Johnson and Joe Deets and city attorney Joe Levan with investigating the idea further.

Fantroy-Johnson pointed to reports about grocery store profits during the pandemic that "say that they are not only doing well, but they’re making money off of the pandemic, because people are staying at home, and they’re cooking, and they’re going to the grocery store. These workers are on the front line. They're just asking to be appreciated for having to come to work so that we can have our basic needs met."

Deets said he was supportive of benefits for workers but said he didn't approve of a $4-per-hour mandate: “In a conversation that council member Fantroy-Johnson and I had with (Town & Country) management, they say they cannot afford $4 for the workers. I believe them. I’ll just say straight out, I’m not in favor of $4, because do we want to jeopardize this company that we so rely on and who have been so supportive of our community?”

Becky Fox Marshall, a spokeswoman for Town & Country Markets, said the company hasn’t taken a stance on hazard pay proposals but noted the pay and benefits the company has established for workers at its six market locations, including a $2 hourly “appreciation pay” boost that ran from April to August last year and cash bonuses paid out to workers in the fall that equated to about a $2 hourly pay bump and a boost to an employee discount from 10% to 20%. The company revived the appreciation pay in January and will review it again as it’s set to run through the end of March, she said.

After Seattle’s hazard pay ordinance went into effect, employees at the company’s Ballard marketplace began receiving an additional $2 per hour on top of the appreciation pay they were receiving, Fox Marshall said.

Messages sent to Safeway representatives seeking comment for this story were not returned.

Councilmember Christy Carr added Tuesday night: "I do think that we can recognize that we have two very different grocery stores on the island, and I trust that our ad-hoc subcommittee members understand that and would be taking that into their consideration."

Sue Wilmot is a checker at the Safeway location on High School Road and a member of the executive board for UFCW 21, the local union that represents grocery store workers. She advocated for the proposal on Tuesday. In an interview with the Kitsap Sun, she noted that Safeway had at one point paid out hazard pay to workers but stopped. She hoped to see a $4 mandate passed for Bainbridge and for other jurisdictions to pass similar pay requirements.

“It’s not a bonus,” she said. “It’s about being fairly paid for the risks we face every day. These grocery companies that we work for have done very well during this pandemic, they have had record profits because of our risks we’ve taken on the front lines. We have been there for our communities every day, showing up every day despite the risks.”

Wilmot noted that of the roughly 300 union members working in the island’s two grocery stores, 58% are women and 60% live off-island: “Bainbridge Island exports its higher-paid workers and imports its lower-paid workers,” she said. “I’m glad they hear us, and they’re listening and standing up for us.”

Noting the lawsuits challenging the ordinances in Seattle and Burien, Levan, the city attorney, said he’d bring back to council a draft measure and “try to create it in a way that would protect the city as best as possible from legal challenge, but then we’d talk about that draft and what the legal risk is related to that, because we know there is legal risk, because we know these other cities have been sued.”

Mayor Rasham Nassar said council members had heard widespread support for the idea: “I think this is one of those areas where our community would like us to take some risk, just in consideration of the fact of the class of people that we are working to protect constitute historically marginalized (people) and have been our front-line workers throughout this pandemic.”

Nathan Pilling is a reporter covering Bainbridge Island, North Kitsap and Washington State Ferries for the Kitsap Sun. He can be reached at 360-792-5242, nathan.pilling@kitsapsun.com or on Twitter at @KSNatePilling.