Sign up for a weekly digest of reporting and analysis on one of the Golden State’s most pressing issues: inequality.Get the news that matters to all Californians. Start every week informed.An employee stocks refrigerated items at a Grocery Outlet store in Pleasanton on Sept. 15, 2022. Photo by Terry Chea, AP PhotoThe governor signed two other bills that strengthen protections for grocery workers during grocery store mergers and acquisitions.
He cited the state’s Grocery Worker Retention law, which since 2016 has required companies that merge or buy another grocer to retain existing workers at least 90 days, and the federalHe also noted that affected workers could tap unemployment insurance. The union that represents many California grocery workers is raising alarms about the potential layoffs. The United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council said in a statement: and rural areas, increasing food costs, and a reduction in a variety of products, including seasonal, organic, and climate-friendly plant-based foods for consumers,”
Wood, 65, said she’s nearing retirement and plans to leave California because living here is hard on her $21.02 hourly pay. State Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, the Los Angeles Democrat who authored SB 725, said the governor’s veto is disappointing.