HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – May day protests are all about support for the working class

“I love my job, my coworkers,” says 51-year-old Rae Campos who works at the Ralphs store on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood.

But she says support is exactly what is lacking from her employer:

What You Need To Know


  • Nationwide at least 72 food industry workers have died

  • 5,300 either tested positive or asked to quarantine.

  • 21 workers tested positive at Hollywood Ralph's

  • Protesters are showing support for grocery store workers

“But I don’t love the fact that they don’t take care of us,” said Campos.

Campos says her friend couldn’t even come to the protest.

“My best friend, my best friend of 36 years has gotten sick, and it’s very hard for me, very hard for me to watch her to listen to her, go through this,” said Campos.

Campos’s friend Jackie, who also works at Ralphs recently tested positive for COVID-19, so she checks-in on her every day.

“She is not able to sleep at night,” says Campos, “it’s awful to hear her because it sounds like she is taking her last breath every time she talks to me.”

According to United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union 21 grocery workers at this Ralphs have tested positive for COVID-19 about 15 percent of the store’s workforce. In the day since the May Day protest that number is now 21, according to the LA County Public Health Department.

“It they would have cleaned out our store, a lot of our coworkers wouldn’t have had to have gone through this,” says Campos.

Nationally, at least 72 food industry workers have died and more than 5,300 have been impacted by testing positive or having been asked to quarantine, according to UFCW.

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Ralphs sent Spectrum News 1 the following statement:

“In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ralphs has taken extensive measures to safeguard our associates, customers and supply chain, ensuring local communities always have access to fresh, affordable food.”

Ralphs along with other stores have implemented changes like putting up Plexiglas to protect cashiers, limiting the number of people inside at one time, and according to the company they have done three deep cleanings at this store. But Campos says, that is hardly enough.

 

 

 

“It’s very hard for me to come to work and think that, that they’re not really taking that much time to make sure that we are safe, because I have to go home and I feel unsafe taking it home with me,” said Campos.

On April 16, Campos decided to stop coming to work. After all, she lives at home with her parents who are in their 70s and says she couldn’t live with herself, if her job cost them, their lives.

“Its life threatening to my stepfather, he could die at any moment because he has a weak immune system, diabetic, water in the brain, and I as a child we lost our father young. I don’t want to lose another one, I don’t want to have to go through another one,” says Campos.

So she will keep protesting because although usually May Day protests are about wages and hours, this demonstration is about safety and lives.

Note: only two of the people that are shown in the video demonstrating are actual employees of Ralphs the rest were union representatives. When we asked the union why that was, they said it was because many workers were scared about retaliation.