An employee stocks refrigerated items at a Grocery Outlet store in Pleasanton on Sept. 15, 2022. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have given grocery store workers who are laid off as a result of a merger or acquisition a week of severance pay for every year of their service.
“While the goal of limiting the disruptions caused by grocery mergers and acquisitions … is laudable, existing law already provides protections for displaced workers,” he said. “The additional obligations in this bill are unduly prescriptive and overly burdensome.” The companies denied that, saying no “frontline” employees would lose their jobs, because the companies plan to sell hundreds of stores to C&S Wholesale Grocers, which has agreed to maintain store jobs and bargaining agreements and may use the Albertsons name in California.
“Without our bill, it leaves essential workers vulnerable to a potential merger, as a vast majority of these workers are already struggling to make ends meet for their families,” she said.