In large supermarket chains, workers are forced to work the whole day because their attendance is continuous. Endless queue of clients are formed from 6 in the morning until sunset uninterruptedly, to be able to stock up on the minimum necessary to face the mandatory quarantine and combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Whereas, in the supermarkets of the working class neighborhoods, those who go shopping there are informal and unemployed workers who do not have access to online purchases, much less to make a large purchase to stock up for a week. In the neighborhoods, the workers live daily and many of them pay supplies with the Food Card that is not enough for much. In addition, the products that are restored do not enter into the so-called “watched prices” (low prices) or promotions. Usually, shelves are filled only with top brand products and prices are increased every day. We can’t take this anymore.
The essential products to prevent the spread of coronavirus are scarce by their absence both in the shelves and for the employees themselves. Since the day the mandatory quarantine was decreed, supermarkets have bought back ethyl alcohol only once, which lasted in a shelf for one day this last Saturday. Since then, it has not reappeared. And the only one that was put up for sale had a cost of $ 95 for 500 cc, allowing people to carry no more than 1lts per person.
Disposable gloves and facemasks are not supplied to all workers in large supermarkets, be them cleaning staff, cashiers or repositories, and in most cases, neither alcohol gel. Not to mention in the smaller neighborhood supermarkets. In those where the elements are available, they are provided meagrely, and if the employees request them, bosses allege they are missing or not arriving, and to those workers who refuse to work without protection, be them cashiers, repositories and / or cleaning staff, they are threatened with sanctions and even suspensions with no payment. Besides, the bosses and managers, with an atrocious cynicism, tell the workers that their appropriate use is left to the discretion of each one. The hygiene supplies necessary for prevention (gel alcohol, masks and gloves) have just started to appear in those branches that were inspected by government entities.
On March 26 the editorial board of “Multimedio En La Mira” received complaints from employees of (Hypermarket) COTO - Sarandí, in Avellaneda (Great Buenos Aires) for a possible case of autochthonous Covid-19 of an employee of the same branch who is hospitalized in a clinic in the area awaiting confirmation of the diagnosis. There is fear among the employees for contagion. This caused the tightening of the entrance control measures for the personnel who now have their body temperature measured before entering and, in the event of any symptoms or discomfort, they are sent back to their homes without giving them the minimum medical attention or guaranteeing them prior or corresponding medical controls. Work rhythms are uninterrupted, scheduled vacations from before the quarantine have been suspended, and even in some cases also the weekly holidays, making the employees work from 7 to 10 days in a row, the exposure to contagion is every time greater due to continuous contact with the public and physical exhaustion, added up that there are already licensed workers, but without accurate diagnosis.
In the case of janitors and cleaning staff, mostly an outsourced service, health care is suspended, both medical offices and administrative offices are closed for quarantine and those medical providers that are still attending require the monthly updated card and the last receipt of salary to give the benefit, or they charge the consultation above $ 500, to give just one example.
Besides all these dire labor conditions there’s the inconveniences derived from the restriction of movement, having to surpass the police control where they demand the permit sealed and signed by management and in the public transport there’s the control of the federal police and the bus or train workers themselves (drivers, inspectors, cleaning and security staff) so the movement is only allowed to those registered workers carrying the due permission required. This is the situation workers have to go through every day, both for going to work and returning to their homes.
Supermarkets are exempt from quarantine and were declared essential services, but they are one of the main sources of contagion and spread of the coronavirus. The bosses' negligence and determination, their incessant thirst for profit, are acts of a heartbreaking social crime, as the massacre in Italy and the rest of Europe already shows. These parasites are only interested in continuing to increase their profits at all costs, even taking advantage of the pandemic.
This is the situation of the supermarket workers, while the bosses and managers don’t have any risk and still make a fortune in the midst of the pandemic, since they are also subsidized by the government with millions. It's only the workers who are risking their wages, jobs and lives. This is so because the coronavirus makes us sick and this rotten capitalist system kills us.
That is why it is urgent that we, workers, take this social crisis in our hands. We must immediately seize food, gel alcohol and all basic supplies. All the warehouses of the large supermarkets and companies must be expropriated without compensation and placed under the control of a committee of workers and consumers, and the market chain and all intermediaries must be eliminated to form a Single Supply System for the poor people.