Major Grocer Albertsons Pushes to Classify Employees as First Responders

In a bid to protect workers on the frontlines, Vivek Sankaran, Albertsons Companies' president and CEO (Albertsons Companies owns grocery chains like Safeway, ACME Markets, Jewel-Osco, Vons, Pavilions, and its namesake supermarkets) is pressing state and  federal government officials to temporarily designate grocery employees as first responders to protect them in part by providing them with priority access to testing.

"The temporary designation of first responder or emergency personnel status would help ensure these incredible grocery workers access to priority testing, have access to personal protection equipment, like masks and gloves, as well other workplace protections necessary to keep themselves and the customers they serve safe and healthy," Sankaran said in a joint statement with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (the UFCW), which has partnered with the retailer in support of this move.

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