Marc Perrone, President at United Food and Commercial Workers joins Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel to weigh in on protecting the safety of hardworking employees in the food industry amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Video Transcript

- I want to talk about the men and women who are on the front lines of this crisis. Not at the hospitals, but at the grocery stores nationwide. These men and women keeping us fed. And to help talk about the steps being done to protect them and safeguard them, Marc Perrone is joining us.

He is the United Food and Commercial Workers President, the union that represents them. Sir, it is good to have you here. And you know, just within the last week or two, your union has made great strides in pay increases to keep these men and women funded as they keep us fed. Can you bring us up to speed on what still needs to be done?

MARC PERRONE: Well, I think that what really needs to be done is that they need masks, and I think that we need to talk about the customers that go in the stores as well. We have one set of stores, like in New Jersey. And about 25% of the stores have already been identified as having somebody that was positive COVID-19 that worked there now.

And if they don't receive some of this protective equipment that they need, I think we're going to see more transmission take place in these stores. If you think about the hospitals, where you have a lot of people that are infected by the virus, and then you look at other large locations, like an average grocery store in New Jersey would do about 1,200 people per day. One day, last week, one of those stores did 10,000 people in a day.

So when you think about the number of people going through those stores and the potential people that can be asymptomatic, you have to ultimately consider what can you do to stop that transmission? You can limit the number of people inside the store, as well as put masks on everybody that are coming in and out. And I think that would be the first thing I would like to see that would--

- Yeah, I think a lot of people would agree with you.

MARC PERRONE: You know, but we have in fact-- I think that most of our employers understood the impact and the necessity in order to pay people essential worker pay. The reason why, I think, they did it is because they were concerned that they wanted to have employees who knew their operations, that ultimately didn't become so afraid, they left work.

- Right.

MARC PERRONE: And they were willing to pay, and I think they're willing to pay people for that.

- Marc, this is Julie, here. I just want to get back to that mask issue for a moment, because I think this is something that hits home for a lot of customers who are coming into those stores. And you know, as you mentioned, these are effectively frontline workers right now, the people who are bringing us our food and essential items. I went into a grocery store over the weekend, where you had a partition at the cash register, but the workers, as you say, were not wearing masks. The stock people certainly weren't wearing masks who were stocking the shelves. What are you hearing from these grocery store chains about why they would not implement mandatory masks and mandatory gloves for everyone working in the store?

MARC PERRONE: I think initially, Julie, it was this, right? The CDC came out with a report that said, don't wear the mask, unless you're sick. And I think that a lot of the grocery companies thought, oh, my god, if my people are wearing a mask, everybody's going to think they're sick when they really were.

Unfortunately, the CDC didn't come out with the guidelines that they came out with this last weekend until recently. Had that been the case, had they done that in the initial stages, I think that people would have been much more apt to wear the mask. Even now, today, there's still some hesitation by some of our employers to tell people, put masks on.

Now, as of last week, all of my major employers have agreed that if, in fact, employees have their own personal masks that they don't have any issues about them wearing them. But I still think there's some concerns about it at the ground level. You know, a decision can be made at the top. However, by the time it gets down to the store level, there's still people that have different views about what it should be like. I mean, honestly, our president said this week. He said, he's not going to wear a mask, and I think that sends some mixed messages from time to time.

- Marc, I ask this question as a former bag boy many thousands of years ago at public supermarkets in South Florida. I remember when we were switching from paper bags to plastic bags. Now, in New York City, they've made plastic illegal, but it was right at the same time COVID-19 was becoming a crisis. So the stores are still in a flux. Do you know-- is there any information as to what would be safe not only for customers, but for your members, whether it's bagging in plastic or in paper?

MARC PERRONE: Well, I can tell you two things. Paper would be better, right? Because it doesn't last as long on paper as it does on plastic. What we're concerned with right now is reusable and people bringing their own bags back in from their homes. Because we don't know where those bags have been. We don't know whether or not they were disinfected. So if I had my choice, it would be paper first, plastic next, and reusable not at all.

- You bring up a good point with reusable. I was thinking about that going to the grocery store here in New York City. And by the way, they now limit how many people at a lot of the stores can go in at any one time. But we appreciate your being here, and we know that the men and women at the grocery stores across the country are a crucial part of getting us through the crisis. Marc Perrone, President of the UFCW International. Good to have you here. We look forward to having you come back on when this crisis starts to apt.

MARC PERRONE: Adam, thank you.

- You've got it.