While America is eating wings, drinking beer and swearing at the TV on Sunday, James Peete will be stocking the shelves at Ralphs with fresh guacamole and chips, cheese and cracker platters, ready-to-eat meats and an abundance of beverages.
“My Super Bowl is trying to make sure that everybody gets what they need on the second-largest consumption day — a huge day for us,” he said.
Peete has been working at Ralphs in Glendale for 12 years. He has been through everything from exhausting graveyard shifts to the implementation of self-checkout which reduced his working hours. But through it all, a few things have remained constant — unfair wages, insufficient staffing and insecure benefits.
Aside from Thanksgiving, Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day for food consumption in the U.S., according to research done by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW). A study by Statistica states that consumers will spend about $16.5 billion at grocery stores this year, almost $2 billion more than last year. Each customer or household is expected to spend up to $85.
As grocery store workers around Southern California approach the Super Bowl, they want to provide their communities with the best service possible. But it’s intimidating, workers say, because many stores are understaffed.
Grace Garcia, 50, is a cashier at Vons. She’s been there for eight years but has 33 years of supermarket industry experience under her belt.
“Understaffing makes it difficult for people to get in and out of the store, and sometimes, they get upset and they get angry at us because of it, but we have no control over that,” she said.
At the root of understaffed stores in Southern California are the insufficient conditions outlined in the workers’ union contracts. But many of these contracts are set to expire on March 2, meaning there is an opportunity for groups like the Grocery Workers Rising organization to push for change.
Grocery Workers Rising consists of 50,000 grocery store workers mainly from Kroger-owned Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions, Gelsons and Stater Brothers. The workers of the organization are represented by seven UFCW Union Locals in California, including 770 which covers L.A., Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties.
On Wednesday morning, UFCW held a press event outside of Ralphs in Glendale to give union members a chance to be heard. Peete and Garcia were among the few who made it amidst bad weather.
According to the organization’s website, Grocery Workers Rising is negotiating toward new contracts that provide livable wages for workers with children, sufficient hours to provide good customer experience and secure health benefits and retirements.
“Workers are treated like we don’t matter,” the website writes. “It’s time to get back to the middle-class jobs where we have the best wages, best healthcare, best pension and the best working conditions.”
Grace Garcia says that she would need to make $110,000 a year in order to live comfortably.
“We’re far from that,” she said. “I don’t expect to be making $55 an hour, but better wages would allow us to support our families better.”
Additionally, workers feel that they are not sharing in their companies’ successes.
“Kroger just spent a billion dollars on trying to get this merger across. They could have used that money to improve staffing and provide better service for their customers and even reduce prices, which I think everybody would appreciate,” said Peete.
Negotiations for improved contracts are set to begin February 13, according to the union. Grocery Workers Rising will kick off their advocacy efforts on February 28, with a rally in Buena Park. 700 people are expected to be in attendance.
“I think we’re the unsung MVPs of the Super Bowl, even though I don’t get to watch it,” said Peete.