The Covid-19 pandemic continues to roil the food industry. Barely 2 years after hundreds of essential workers died from Covid-19, corporate profits continue to soar, driven by industry consolidation and price inflation. But high profile organizing campaigns have captured the imaginations of many food retail and service sector workers, reflecting a steady escalation of discontent with the status quo and a newfound faith in their collective power.
Many of the largest companies in food retail and hospitality continue to pay their workforce far less than a living wage, leading to endemic food insecurity and anxiety among essential workers. The labor share of national income has decreased and real wage growth declined 2.6% year over year, while corporate profits continue to far outpace wage growth. The pandemic also enabled a huge transfer of wealth upwards, as shareholder wealth grew by 57 times as much as worker wages. Meanwhile, the CEO-worker pay gap grew even wider in 2021, jumping to 670 to 1, with employee pay rarely keeping pace with price inflation.
And such inequality has been objectively deadly during the pandemic. A recent study showed that Americans working in retail and service sectors bore the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic. The death rates of low income adults were 5 times than that of high income adults. And while low income adults made up just one-third of the working age population, they accounted for over two-thirds of Covid-19 deaths.
But the pandemic era...
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