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Stories and information in our region on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stop & Shop Says Its Employees Should Be Considered First Responders

Ich bin dann mal raus hier. from Pixabay

Stop & Shop and its major employee union have called on federal and state governments to designate workers as “extended first responders” during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Stop & Shop is the largest supermarket chain in Connecticut. Its president made the appeal alongside the head of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. They said the status would help grocery workers have priority access to testing, emergency childcare and other protections.

Stop & Shop also announced it would extend a 10% pay increase for its hourly workers through May 30.

The UFCW and the national chain Kroger made a similar request earlier for Kroger employees this month. The union represents more than a million workers in the United States and Canada.

Read the latest on WSHU’s coronavirus coverage here.

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Davis Dunavin loves telling stories, whether on the radio or around the campfire. He started in Missouri and ended up in Connecticut, which, he'd like to point out, is the same geographic trajectory taken by Mark Twain.