Restaurant and Retail workers take the hit from Omicron variant

The quick surge of omicron in the US has put a strain on store and restaurant staff who have already worked two years through a deadly pandemic. Often initially praised as the heroes during the early days of the health crisis, the workers who feed America cannot stay home. All sorts of workers in the industry like cashiers, cooks, waitstaff, sales associates, stockers, custodians, store management and others have faced endless safety hazards, low wages and often with no strong paid leave policies or benefits.

These customer-facing workers have struggled with daily exposure to the covid 19 virus while on the job. According to the United Food and Commercial Workers union, at least 213 retail and grocery workers have died due to the virus and more than 50,000 workers have been infected or exposed to it. Some of these workers have also struggled with the quick end of hazard pay that some companies offered them during the start of the pandemic. They have health with understaffed stores, angry, violent customers refusing to wear masks, brazen shoplifters and even store shootings. 

Ken Jacobs, chair of the Center for Labor Research and Education at UC Berkeley says, "It's all taken a toll on workers' physical and mental health. The Omicron variant brings many of these issues back. Frontline retail and restaurant workers are again facing difficult decisions about health risks and the need to put food on their own tables."

Source: CNN