AN ORDINANCE relating to employment in Seattle; establishing labor standards requirements for additional compensation for grocery employees working in Seattle; amending Sections 3.02.125 and 6.208.020 of the Seattle Municipal Code; declaring an emergency; and establishing an immediate effective date; all by a 3/4 vote of the City Council.
Every part of the Finance and Housing Committee Agenda Item 19 Council Bill 119990 relate to employment in Seattle. Establishing Labor Standards Requirements for additional compensation for grocery employees working in Seattle. The committee recommends the bill passes amended. Thank you, Madam Clerk, for reading that into the record. Councilor Mosqueda, you are the Chair of the committee and also the Prime Sponsor of Council Bill 119990. And I'm going to hand it over to you to provide the committee's report. Thank you very much, Madam President. Before I begin my remarks. Madam President, would it be appropriate for me to move the substitute first with your. Indulgence. I will try to wing it. I don't have that text right in front of me, but. We are amazing. Class. I'm also noticing that I do not actually have that in my script, so I apologize. Otherwise I would have. To facilitate that. Why don't we do this? Why don't you speak to the. The Bass bill and and the substitute version? And while you are doing that, I will ask that the clerks send you and I the appropriate procedural language so that we can get this in front of us procedurally. So I think it's a it's okay for you to speak to the substitute into the underlying bill, and that will then go through the motions, the procedural motions and substitute. And I just ask the clerk to send us that language while you're doing so. Thank you very much, Madam President. It takes a team effort here. Appreciate all of our colleagues for your indulgence with us. This has been a very remarkable last few weeks, as we have heard from Frontline's stories, from workers themselves in grocery stores, stocking shelves, people that are checking out our goods at the checkout than those who have been working 24, seven week in and week out. After the announcement of COVID, they have not had the chance to work from home, like many of us have. Those of us on the Zoom, the vast majority of us have been able to work from home and be able to follow the state. Stay healthy and stay home ordinance. This is what we need to do in order to help reduce the spread of COVID. But those individuals who are working at our grocery stores, who are stocking the shelves, who are making sure that we have enough toilet paper and paper towels and enough produce to take home to our families. They have been going in to work every single day and we appreciate them. In fact, employers initially appreciated them offering hazard pay, hero pay. They have in many cases stepped up at the beginning to call them the true heroes on the front line. But quickly, that hero pay went away, but the hazard hasn't gone away. In fact, as we heard from folks today in our public testimony, the hazard is only increasing. The more contagious and deadly strand of COVID is present in our community here in Seattle, in Washington State and across this country. We also know across this country we are struggling and we are doing everything we can to get the vaccine out as fast as possible. But we don't yet have it distributed widely into our community. And so those who are going into grocery stores, who have their masks below their nose or below their chin, who are reaching across grocery store workers to reach for that zucchini, are putting grocery store workers lives and health at risk. They put themselves in hazard way, a hazard way every day. They deserve hazard pay today. Colleagues, it's my honor to be able to work with all of you to bring forward another piece of legislation, as we have done over the last year, to truly try to protect those on the front line and recognize the incredible danger that our community is in, the incredible danger our frontline workers are in, who are helping to keep our communities safe, healthy and fed. And right now, that pay and protection needs to be offered to grocery store workers here in the city of Seattle. I'm incredibly honored to be able to do this with the support of our council colleagues from the Housing and Finance Committee who unanimously passed out Council Bill 119990. This is a piece of legislation, as we heard during committee briefing today from those who worked on the front lines to say that they signed up to work in grocery stores because they wanted to. Many of them love doing their job. Many of them still earning minimum wage, like going to work. They like helping people. But right now, in the middle of this pandemic, they're right next to customers shopping, coughing, unmasked. Standing next to them. And every day they're asking, am I bringing something home to my family? Have I cut something myself? You heard the public testimony of workers who have been trained, who have been trained to now come home and take off the clothes that they wore to work, just like we have had to teach and train farm workers to take off their clothing for fear that they are going to be contaminating pesticides and transmitting those pesticides to their family members. This is the type of situation that workers in the city of Seattle are currently dealing with, and they do not have hazard pay right now. It should be no surprise that grocery workers face extremely high risk of exposure to coronavirus. And along with it, the mental and psychological impacts that come with that potential exposure. In fact, as I noted last week and earlier this morning, one study of grocery workers in Boston found that 20% of those workers tested positive despite higher use of masks. That's about a five times higher rate of exposure to COVID and contracting COVID than those who aren't working on grocery store floors, for example, exposed to various customers daily. And as you heard from Sara Charron from U.S., UW 21 and others who testified today with the more recent advice telling people to get in and out of grocery stores within 15 minutes. There is no possible way that a grocery store worker who has a six hour shift can only be exposed in that environment for 15 minutes. It is a hazardous situation, and we also need those workers. We need to be able to rely on them for the supply of food to our communities to make sure that our most vulnerable who can't go online and grocery shop like I do, I pick up my queue of C grocery deliveries because I have the ability to go online. So many people don't have access to the Internet like that and some in our elderly community and those who are vulnerable health conditions, they're not able to go and buy online. And we need to make sure that everybody in those stores, from the workers themselves to the folks who are shopping, have the ability to and to be recognized for the incredibly hard work that they do, because those workers are providing the most urgent and needed resources, services and goods to our most vulnerable community members. I'm really excited about the opportunity to work with you and Counsel Council President Gonzales. I think I'll save some of my comments about the urgency of now. The why grocery stores now, and the importance of protecting these grocery workers in this moment. In part of my closing comments. But with that council colleagues, we are again showing what it means to both care for those on the frontline and those who they care for. This is about the health and well-being of grocery store workers, obviously, but it's about the population's health as well, because we need to make sure that our entire system is well functioning. And hazard pay is one element to make sure we're recognizing the way that these grocery store workers are part of our response in this moment as we all search for solutions to the pandemic. Without that solution yet in hand, we have to step up and honor the work that these grocery store workers do with hazard pay today. Thank you, Councilmember Mosqueda. And I sent you a quick message. I think the substitute you were referring to was a substitute for the committee considered on Friday, which we voted out of committee, and that was subject to suspension of the rule. So unless there's another substitute that we're not aware of since Friday, we don't need to do any more procedural votes in full council today. Excellent. Thank you. Council President. Okay, great. Just a little pardon to the viewing public for a little bit of a procedural snafu, but I think we were able to figure it out while Councilmember Mosquito was providing the committee's report. And we are good to go. The substituted version of the bill that the council consider that the committee considered on Friday is what is before the full council today for our consideration. So there are no other amendments or substitutions that I am aware of. So we're going to go ahead and continue debate on Council Bill 11990. Are there any additional comments on the bill as described by Council Member Mosquito? Councilmember Sawant and then Councilmember Morales. And then I think I what Councilmember Peterson and then Councilmember Peterson, because we're silent. And then we're Lewis. I try to remember all of this. Go ahead. Customers want. Thank you. I'm proud to support and co-sponsor this legislation that will bring much needed relief to thousands of grocery workers in Seattle. Congratulations to members of UFC, CWA 21 and the labor movement who have organized, advocated for and put forward the demand for global hazard pay. As we've heard from the union, grocery workers don't have an option of working from home. They are inside the stores for many hours a day, every day around people who may have COVID. They've suffered high exposure rates to COVID. Many have gotten sick and many have died. The grocery workers deserve this extra pay, as do all frontline workers. Thank you to everyone who has written to my office and provided public testimony today. Unfortunately, we have seen in other industries and businesses that are less unionized or not unionized, like Amazon in the gig economy, workers who deserve similar COVID hazard pay being denied pay or being given some pay, not nearly enough, and then having it unilaterally taken away from them by billionaire bosses. It shows a difference of being organized in a union. I urge all frontline workers who are following this legislation to note that it takes organizing to win things like hazard pay. We never win as workers because of the kindness of the bosses or the political establishment. We want we win when we are organized. Most grocery workers in the Seattle area belong to UFC, so collectively they have a measure of power that is absent entirely when workers are struggling as individuals. That is why I urge all my fellow workers who are in jobs that are not unionized to form unions and fight for your rights collectively. It won't be easy. It is absolutely difficult. The history of the labor movement shows how organizing for a union in a workplace is against all odds, and it requires tremendous solidarity, courage and self-sacrifice. My council office and my organization, Socialist Alternative, stand at the ready to support you and work alongside you and your unions in your efforts so that we can win hazard pay and beyond for all workers struggling under the dual weight of COVID and the capitalist recession. I'm proud also to support the Amazon workers in Alabama, the Amazon work warehouse workers who have organized and now have their union election coming up over the massive resistance of the company. They face a very tough battle ahead and we must support them. In fact, we've already seen how shamefully the corporation is saying that they should have an in-person vote, knowing that this could depress turnout during COVID. I recognize that under this legislation that the Council will be voting on today, hazard pay will be evaluated again in a few months. I hope that when this happens, the pay will be made permanent. And I stand with all your CWA members in fighting for this, the companies and certainly afford it as you have CWA 21 leader Joel Mizrahi noted last week. Grocery chains have seen some of the largest profit windfalls in the pandemic, while workers have faced new hazards every day. Brother, brother. Joe Mizrahi notes that Costco's profit is up 19% to $3.4 billion. Profits at Kroger, which owns KFC and Fred Meyer, have doubled to 9.7 billion profits. And Albertsons, which owns Safeway, are now over $1,000,000,000, a 270% increase. Also, I would note that we need to keep strengthening union organizing even at smaller grocery companies like PCC, where we see that under the tremendous pressure that small businesses and cooperatives come under in this system of capitalism, they are increasingly facing pressures to get corporatized. We know PCC just hired a new CEO last month who is a former vice president of Kroger. So we have to continue getting organized to continue fighting back, building a fighting labor movement to win the gains that workers need, and congratulate the UFC members again for their work and the leadership in pushing this legislation and congratulate you , as you have said, elected leaders as well. Look forward to voting for it and look forward to joining with other front line workers who are organizing to make similar demands. Thank you. Thank you, customer swamp for those comments. Next in the queue is Councilmember Morales and then we will hear from Councilmember Peterson and then Councilmember Luis Morales. You. As I mentioned in briefing this morning, I will enthusiastically support this and have asked to co-sponsor this bill. I think it's really important that it acknowledges that those who are putting themselves on the front lines every day should be compensated for the work that they're doing. Our ability to feed our families relies on grocery workers showing up every day to stock shelves and set up produce displays and check us out. Now they're also sanitizing carts and reorganizing the bulk goods and more frequently cleaning surfaces. I mean, they really are in uncontrolled environments and interacting with the public for most, if not all, of their shift. So I want to thank the good folks at S.W. 21 for advocating for these workers and for ensuring that they're paid for the extra work they're doing while they keep our communities fed and help keep us healthy . So I look forward to supporting this legislation. Thank you. Councilmember Morales. Councilmember Peterson. Nikki Council President Thank you again, Councilmember Moschino, for bringing this forward. After reviewing, after rapidly reviewing and researching this proposed ordinance to have larger grocery stores boost the pay of the frontline workers during the pandemic, I have decided to support it. I consulted with both labor and employers. I do want to acknowledge that I think this legislation moved fast. To hear the legislation at a Friday committee and then adopt it on a monday can make it difficult for some to review it thoroughly. At the same time, I recognize we are in the midst of a public health and economic emergency and therefore would not want to further delay the temporary pay boost these workers should be receiving for the hazards they are facing until both shots of the vaccine are administered to everyone. So I'll be voting yes today. Thank you. Thank you, Carl Zimmer Pearson, for those remarks. Councilmember Lewis. Thank you, Madam President. Very excited to be voting for this legislation today and happy to be a co-sponsor. I just want to take a moment to lift up the great organizing work that UFC W has done to really get us to this point today. Like I said during briefing, I have seen the checkers at my local grocery store, proudly wearing the swag for this campaign, proudly calling in and sending emails. And that solidarity, that organizing makes a huge difference. We may be the policy makers, but it's that organizing that helps get this policy over the finish line. So I want to first just thank all of the the work you have, CW and our other brothers and sisters in the labor movement have done to bring us to this point. I also just want to recognize Councilmember Herbold and the work that we did last year on similar legislation for four workers in the app based economy . You know, I say we're app based workers and I say app based workers instead of gig workers because, you know, these aren't gigs, these are livelihoods and these aren't it's not a gig economy. It's the economy. I mean, it's how we deliver goods and services now in this technological age. And it's important that as technology changes, living standards keep up with that work. To that extent, it is a very logical policy to pursue that we extend the same hazard pay considerations to the folks that are working in our supermarkets on the front lines and providing this essential service day in, day out, interacting with members of the public and going home to their their families, having exposed themselves to potential hazards, and being in a position to have that additional support in recognition of their service and their sacrifice. So I am happy to vote for this today and I look forward to being able to get this release out there. Thank you. Councilmember Lewis, are there any additional comments on the bill? Councilmember, please. Thank you. Just very quickly, I really appreciate the comments of all of my colleagues. And I appreciate I want to thank Councilmember Peterson for his weighing the the the need to act quickly as relates to this bill, while also recognizing that acting quickly is not always ideal. But in this case, when we are actually passing hazard pay, that is an act in emergency ordinance, it's it's necessary. I appreciate Councilmember mosquito's leadership in this in this area over the last several years and and also in responding to COVID related workforce impacts. Appreciate working with Councilmember Lewis on the hazard pay legislation for food based or app based food delivery drivers. I wish we could require hazard pay for all of our essential workers, and I'm really grateful to the work that essential workers are doing, putting themselves in harm's way, particularly as it relates as as as in as we are expressing with this legislation, making sure that families and individuals are able to to feed themselves and their families and just, you know, really, once again, back to the fact that this is an area of our economy that has seen windfall windfall profits during COVID because of the importance of this part of the market in and in the shift in consumer practices. An average of, I believe, nearly $17 billion in profits in the first quarters of this year as compared to last year, according to Brookings. This hazard pay recognizes the essential nature of this work. It helps retain employees to keep stores running safely and again, provides essential food chain workers with extra compensation that can allow them to afford childcare to deal with the physical and emotional health risks of a work, stay sheltered or find housing options that could limit risk to family members and more different from other kinds of businesses, many of which were previously closed by order of the governor. Grocery workers are the absolute essential workers whose companies have again profited handsomely from the shift to consumers. And during this very difficult time in our our. Our. Globe's dealing in our nation's economy, dealing with COVID 19. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Herbold, for those comments. Are there any additional comments on the bill from any of my other colleagues? Also, I'll say a few words really quickly. I'm going to start off with a note of gratitude to, of course, the chair of our Finance and Housing Committee, Councilmember Mosqueda, for being the champion and the prime sponsor of this legislation. I know that you and your chief of staff, Sigal Perich, did a lot of work in a in preparation to advancing this legislation. So I hope that you will have an opportunity to talk about some of that advance preliminary work that predated the introduction and referral of the legislation and our debate in committee today to really show folks that there was some thoughtful deliberation behind behind the ordinance in crafting the policy that I think was critical to influencing the substitute bill that we considered and approved and recommended that the full council approved in the Finance and Housing Committee this last Friday. So thank you, Chair Mosqueda and to your team members for the hard work that I know that you all put into this legislation together with our council central staff policy analyst Trina Bull, who is no stranger to the work of labor standards, particularly in this era of the pandemic. So deeply appreciative for her work as well. I also want to express my deep appreciation and gratitude for the leadership and members of your CW Local 21 They have been screaming from the highest points of any tower they could find, talking about the the extremely dangerous conditions that their members and and other non represented folks experience every day going into their job that is at a grocery store. It is absolutely important to acknowledge that they have spent much time organizing workers in this space, that they have done a tremendous job in making sure that we, as policymakers are hearing directly from impacted workers from from from their members who've been exposed to COVID in grocery stores and have survived and are able to be in the fortunate circumstance of even sharing their story with us, because they made it through that through the infection is remarkable. I just really am deeply appreciative for their ongoing commitment to making sure that they're centering their members in and making sure that policymakers understand why the policy choices we are making are so critically important. That's why I'm really also appreciative that Councilmember Peterson is made. The remarks they made with regard to weighing the the the the need to pass this with a sense of urgency versus pursuing a longer deliberative process. We have in this last year considered many pieces of legislation very, very quickly in response to the COVID 19 pandemic, everything from direct cash assistance to modification of land use rules to to additional labor standards and practices related to other categories of workers. And so I think that this is still a period of time where we're experiencing a lot of need and a lot of urgency to act quickly to make sure that we are being flexible and nimble and in meeting the needs of a critical workforce in in our city. So really, really am appreciative of the opportunity to be able to consider this legislation and to be listed as a as a co-sponsor of it. I also know that we have spent a lot of time talking about the windfall corporate profits that have been made by many of the grocers in this period of time. And it is absolutely true that consumerism has has really shifted in a way that has funneled consumption of food towards every single grocery store that is available in the city. That's because our restaurants are closed for the most part. It's because our bars are closed for the most part. It's because the places that would ordinarily be frequented by people outside of the grocery context no longer exist in some instances. And so grocery stores are the place where almost everyone, if not everyone, in our community goes to. That means more volume and higher exposure. And in many of the studies that we have seen that talk about the risk of exposure, talk about the risk of exposure from the customer perspective, from the consumer perspective. And in one report that I recall seeing last year, it talked about how the risk of exposure to COVID by nearly being inside of a grocery store for a limited period of time was 80% higher than in any other setting, whether it be a restaurant, outdoor dining and an outdoor park. That is an astronomical risk from a consumer perspective. Now, imagine what that number would be if we were looking at the exposure to risk. The risk to exposure of COVID from the worker perspective, from the grocery worker, grocery store worker perspective, it would be astronomically large. It is astronomically large. So I think this is an absolute public health response. It is absolutely needed. And again, we're not in a position where we can just shut down our grocery stores. They are the only thing left in our communities where people can go and find food in the absence of a different kind of economic model that is safe and available to people. So we need to acknowledge that there is a hazard in working in this environment and that workers need to be compensated in order to feel that their work is respected and that their role in this response to COVID is is seen and dignified. And I am so proud to be able to stand with Councilmember Mosqueda, with all of you colleagues, and, more most importantly, with the members of Local 21 and all other grocery store workers in making sure that we take a strong stand here and say yes to hazard pay and making sure that we continue to advance these these policies, that will really make a huge a significant difference for people if they do find themselves in a unfortunate situation of being exposed or in just the basic mode of trying to figure out how to make ends meet while also trying to stay safe. So that being said, I'm going to go ahead and conclude my remarks and see if anyone else has any remarks. And if not, we are going to hand it over to the prime sponsor, Councilmember Mosqueda, for closing remarks. All right. Hearing on camera was going to. You have the last word. Take us home. Thank you very much, Madam President. Council colleagues, thanks again for your comments today, your incredible deliberation of this important topic. And as Councilmember Lewis and Herbold noted, the way in which you all have stepped up to provide much needed relief and support to frontline workers throughout this pandemic. This is one additional piece of the puzzle as we serve to protect the public and the broader public health and to make sure that those frontline workers are having their workplaces respected and that we are recognizing the hazard in which many of these frontline workers are facing every day. The hazard pay ordinance in front of us that we are about to pass will compensate grocery store employees for the risk of working on the frontlines in this global pandemic, to make sure that we're improving the financial availability, to be able to access resources, to stay safe and to stay healthy. It encourages them to continue their vital work in our supply food chain. And this, in exchange supports the welfare and the health of our greater community that is depending on grocery store workers for safe and reliable access to food and services. Making a choice between keeping a job and providing for a child, for example, should not be a situation that any worker is facing. Making a choice between going to work and putting yourself in harm's way should not be something that any family should have to experience. But this is the experience right now of grocery store workers in Seattle. I mentioned an example a few weeks ago as we began to deliberate this piece of legislation, which really underscored for me the urgency of why we need to act now and act in the city of Seattle. Over the holiday break, I was told about a story of a local grocery store worker. She has a child and she works here in a grocery store in Seattle. She made an impossible decision to be able to keep her job, which in order to keep her job, she needs childcare. But because she couldn't afford any of the childcare in her local area, she's been driving to Lakewood about 45 minutes away from here, dropping her child off and driving back to Seattle to do her shift at a local grocery store. Driving back to pick up her kiddo. And sleeping in their car because she does not have the resources that she needed to be able to both afford childcare and to pay rent. This is the situation that our frontline workers, our grocery store workers are being placed in. In addition to being in Hazard's way every day when I heard that story, there's so many issues that I know we have to address to address the underlying insecurity of that situation. But I knew that we could act. We could act and provide hazard pay to recognize the hazard that this employee is in every day. And hopefully that additional compensation will help to make sure that it's not just child care that is being paid, but also greater stability and access to housing. These are the situations in which we find our workers in Seattle facing and hazard pay as one additional component for how we're stepping up to helping to make sure that nobody's making these impossible decisions. Grocery store workers face serious risks of COVID infection, and the least we can do is provide them with the protective gear, access to vaccines and the city council action today, helping to make sure that they're able to access hazard pay. You heard the story from Maggie, who testified during last week's hearing and again this morning where worker after worker testified about the hazards that they are facing every day. One person said, I've come to work early. Every day. Crying already. Already shaking with anxiety over having to deal with unmasked customers and the worry of contracting COVID. One person said, I didn't sign up to sacrifice myself to keep my community fed during the worst public health crisis in a lifetime when I originally took this job. But that's exactly what I'm being asked to do and being asked to do this at the same pay I was making when the greatest risk last year before this COVID that I faced in this job was crossing the parking lot at the end of my shift. The tremendous risk that workers are facing, the hazard in which they encounter every day during COVID and as my colleagues have mentioned, the additional work that they are taking on to help clean our grocery stores and make sure that their sanitation sanitary services allowed at the checkout counter in each of our aisles and making sure that they're providing excellent customer service needs to be rewarded. Up and down the West Coast cities, jurisdictions are not only following suit. Some of them have already acted on the very type of legislation that we're considering today. The city of Berkeley has already passed their legislation offering $5 an hour minimum wage, additional enhancements for hazard pay. The city of Long Beach is offering $4 hazard pay. This current schedule is in front of us for the city of Los Angeles, which is taking this issue on tomorrow, on January 26, with a potential vote on February 9th, Los Angeles County potential vote on the 26th of January as well. Montebello this week on the 27th. And Oakland and San Jose expected to act the first week of February. And those cities, just like Seattle, are not doing this overnight. Appreciate the council president's comments. And I'll also reflect on the timeline here as well for the viewing public and for our colleagues and to reflect the incredible work that has gone into this legislation. We began hearing about the the wave of interest across the West Coast and in other parts of the country to enact hazard pay prior to the holiday break. And I began by asking questions about what the data shows to try to get stories and a better understanding from frontline workers themselves. We began the research with the Office of Labor Standards and our central staff immediately when we heard that there was the potential for potentially passing this in other cities and jurisdictions as well. Again, I want to thank Carina Ball and her incredible work who responded over the holiday break to say this will be the first thing I get to when I get back to the office. Working with United Food and Commercial Workers to have a better understanding from the qualitative stories that they had been receiving, in addition to the quantitative of quantitative analysis that had been provided. I mentioned the October 2020 Boston study that looked and found that grocery store workers in that study alone had encountered COVID rates five times higher that than the general public. These are the type of stories in the data and the analysis that went into the initial question about whether or not a policy should be pursued. Early in January, we began working with the Office of Labor Standards, also in conversations with the Mayor's office. And I want to thank the Mayor for their ongoing express support for this effort to take a look at what the strategy and policy discussions should be. And we crafted this this this draft bill initially with feedback, not just with the United Food and Commercial Workers and getting input from those who represent frontline workers, but also by making sure that we reached out to the grocers, having conversations with Holly Chisholm and also reaching out ultimately to the chamber to get feedback. Again, not necessarily signaling support, but wanting to make sure that we got feedback so that we better understood how these policies could be applied. That's the type of deliberative work that my office does. We made sure to do it in this case as well, and wanted to make sure that we acted with urgency as much as we also maintained our commitment to working with diverse stakeholders. This type of conversation can't happen overnight, and it's so important that we get the details right. So for everybody who's been providing feedback over the last 3 to 5 weeks, we appreciate your work with us, especially as you've recognized council colleagues that this is a matter of life or death. This is a matter of how we are respecting people in their workplace and also making sure that they feel like they have the support that they need to be able to stay in these places of employment to help us as a broader population, be able to make sure that we have access to food and essentials products at our grocery stores. And we've acted with urgency here today. I really appreciate all of the work that you all have done and the express support for my council colleagues for your co-sponsorship. Again, thank you to Samantha Gratz or Sharon and Jo Mizrahi and President Gunther for all of the work that they have done at U.S. W 21 and the hundreds of grocery store workers who provided us with stories. I believe we received 800 emails in support of this legislation over the last few weeks, so thank you all for writing in green. A bill from central staff just cannot see her presence enough for the deliberative work that she's done, along with several chiefs of staff in my office who is the mastermind behind how we make sure to reach out and get stakeholder input and really look at data driven solutions for crises in front of us. Thank you, Sinjar. Thanks again to Jasmine Murata and Janay Jahn from Office of Labor Standards and our communications team, as well as Amanda's office, especially Kylie . Rolf, really appreciate working with you and the mayor on this. And of course, thank you to the grocery store workers. We know that this is immediate relief, immediate recognition of the hazard that you are in and immediate appreciation expressed appreciation for the role that you are playing in helping to respond to the pandemic in front of us . A small but very important piece of legislation today. And council colleagues, I'm hoping for better days. That vaccine is on the horizon. But until then, thank you all for standing up and supporting the workers today by passing hazard pay legislation. De Guzman must get over those closing remarks. We're going to go ahead and consider it to be closed now on this bill, and we're going to go ahead and move to a roll call. Will the court please call the roll on the passage of council bill 119990. Hmm. Madam Quirk, you might be on mute. There might be some technical difficulties. So I'll jump in. Councilmember Lewis. Hi. Councilmember Morales As I have said, I must gather, yes. Councilmember Peterson. Yes. Councilmember Sawant. Yes. Councilmember Strouse. Yes. Councilmember Herbold. Councilmember Herbold. I can't hear you, Councilmember Herbold. We're having some technical difficulties. That's weird. I'm off of you. I can hear you now. Go say yes. Thank you. And Council President Gonzalez? Yes. A in favor and unopposed. Thank you so much, Madam Clerk. The bill passes and the chair will sign it. Will the clerk please affect my signature to the legislation on my behalf? Congratulations once again, Councilmember Mosqueda, and congratulations to all of the members of your CWA Local 21 and all of all of the frontline grocery store workers who are hustling every day in our city to make ends meet and to make sure that we continue to have access to the food we need to continue to survive during the pandemic. I hope that this hazard pay goes goes a ways towards helping you survive this pandemic as well. Thank you for all of your h for all of the work. Okay, colleagues, that does bring us to the end of the agenda. Is there any further business to come before the council? Hearing no further business to come before the council. This does conclude the items of business on today's agenda. Our next regularly scheduled city council meeting is on Monday, February 1st, 2021, at 2:00 PM. I hope that all of you have a wonderful afternoon. For those of you who might not be in West Seattle, I hope you are experiencing as much sunshine as we are here in West Seattle. And I feel like I need to call on Councilmember Peterson so that the viewing public has the benefit of seeing Bernie Sanders sitting behind him, which is going to be a highlight for me this week. I'm not going to lie. Colleagues, thank you so much for for hanging in there with us and for another long meeting. I want to thank you all for continuing your hard work in these trying times. With that being said, colleagues, we are adjourned the much by.