INDIANAPOLIS — At least 68 grocery store workers have died from COVID-19 and more than 10,000 have been sickened, the president of a union that represents food workers said Wednesday.
Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents 1.3 million workers in grocery, meatpacking, food processing and other industries, said in a video press conference that included four Kroger Company employees that most of the deaths and illnesses were concentrated in the New York/New Jersey region, but that the numbers did not include workers at non-union grocery stores.
Perrone said the number of grocery store workers that have died or become ill has doubled in the past five weeks. He added that none of America’s largest grocery store companies, including Kroger, Trader Joe’s, Walmart or Whole Foods, have released internal estimates of the number of workers that have died or become sick after being exposed to the coronavirus.
“In any given day, these workers must interact with thousands of customers walking in and out of these supermarkets,” Perrone said. “The threat of this virus is real across every grocery store in America.”
Read more from RTV6 here
