SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ A California state senator and former union leader asked the California Grocers Association to send older workers home with pay to minimize their risk of COVID-19 infection.
State Sen. Connie Leyva, a Democrat, said in a letter to the grocery association that workers older than 65 are at greater risk of contracting the rapidly spreading coronavirus that has already killed 19 Californians.
"I want to implore (grocery stores) to do the right thing so these front line workers don't develop the coronavirus and don't make it," said Leyva, who is a former president of the California Labor Federation and a former leader of United Food and Commerical Workers chapter.
Leyva said grocery stores are "making money hand over fist right now" and can afford to pay older workers to stay home until the crisis passes. She added that recently laid off restaurant workers now need jobs and can fill the employment gaps in stores.
"This expression of human kindness will show that California's grocery industry understands and values its employees, particularly those most vulnerable," Leyva wrote.
Ron Fong, president of the association, said "CGA had a good dialogue with the senator and we're in the process of reviewing the request."
Grocery stores are among the businesses that have been not been asked to close by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who on Thursday issued a statewide order asking Californians to stay home because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The directive is meant to better position California against COVID-19. Experts say that keeping people at home as much as possible will slow the coronavirus' spread, a term that's called "flattening the curve."
The stay-in-place expanded on Newsom's previous calls for seniors to physically isolate themselves and for Californians in general to limit their social interactions.
Older people are considered more susceptible to the respiratory illness that's already sickened more than 1,000 Californians.
