Adam Kaat, author of Life on the Grocery Line: A Frontline Experience in a Global Pandemic, joined America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss his book. Kaat discussed the experiences he wrote about and the poor treatment of grocery and retail workers throughout the pandemic.
Before the pandemic, Kaat said he had bounced around in account service positions in the corporate world. After having a bad experience at a new job, Kaat took a break from the corporate world to try and pursue a life as an author. He was forced to put that on hold to pick up a job at a local high-end grocery store where he would work in the morning and write in the afternoon. Shortly after beginning the new endeavor, the pandemic started, and Kaat took his experiences at the grocery store throughout the pandemic and turned them into his book.
He took a deep dive into the poor treatment of the workers at his grocery store. Kaat wrote about the health risks and stresses. Throughout the pandemic, there were conversations about unionizing and receiving protections, but nothing was formalized during Kaat’s time there. With each day creating new health risks and more hazards for workers, union protection could have improved the standard treatment of workers, he said.
Many union leaders now use Kaat’s book to showcase the poor workplace environments that grocery and retail workers face daily. Kaat shared how hard it was to be treated poorly by shoppers while simultaneously being told they were heroes and essential workers. He hopes his book provided insights into the problems faced by grocery and retail workers and why they deserve union protections, Kaat said.
Listen to the show above to hear more from Kaat, then get a copy of his book here