LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Essential businesses are staying open, like grocery stores and restaurants.
However, a group of baristas from Heine Brothers' is questioning just how essential their job is, with a few of them calling out sick today.
Many of the baristas we encountered, were happy and joyful. Happy to do their job.
Shift Lead Hannah Jones and others working for Heine Brothers' say a love for the job, shouldn't mean employees and their families risking their health.
Hannah says, “that level of exposure seems really high for a service that doesn't feel essential to a lot of us.”
According to her, when Governor Andy Beshear started asking people to work from home in early March, more people actually came into their cafes.
They’d come into contact with nearly 200-300 patrons daily.
Her concerns, “it’s the opposite of healthy at home we were just having a lot of contacts with the public in very close quarters.”
She and others took those concerns to management, but feel they weren't heard.
The company was then forced to go drive-thru and carryout only, following an executive order from the Governor.
Hannah says those options aren't enough.
She started an online petition demanding the company take action: “what we have asked is that Heine Brothers' give us an option into a voluntary lay off so they can claim unemployment / with the understanding that we would love to come back to work when the stores are ready to fully operate again.”
They've also asked for a $3 raise in hazard pay.
In a response from Heine Brothers', they say their sales have dropped 40% and they're waiting on approval from a government loan to help with hazard pay but can't afford it right now.
They also say they gave out unemployment information to their employees.
Heine Brothers say they're in the process of installing plexiglass at their cafes and are looking at payment options to limit in-person contact.
Hannah says she loves her job and doesn’t “necessarily believe that they're not trying to do the right thing,” but she does say “we have been excluded from all these operational conversations and we are the ones who have active experience working with the public.”
Heine Brothers' also gave us an update saying On Wednesday they learned one of their employees at the Veterans Parkway location tested positive for COVID-19.
That employee hasn't been at work for 2 weeks, and since learning of that status they closed the location for cleaning and have reopened today.
In response to Heine Brothers' statement, Hannah claims she has worked a shift in the last two weeks.
Full statement from Heine Brothers':
We did receive a demand letter yesterday threatening a walkout if those demands weren’t met immediately. The person who wrote the letter asked to be taken off the schedule two weeks ago and has not worked any shifts since then. However, baristas showed up for work this morning and all stores are open.
There is no road map for the current situation. We are just trying our best to simultaneously balance three equally important goals: 1) do our best to keep our employees and our customers safe, 2) keep as many people employed as we can, and 3) keep our company in business. I founded this company 25 years ago with a commitment to being about more than just profit, and we have and will continue to, walk that talk.
As far as demand for masks, we have told employees they are absolutely allowed and encouraged to wear masks, but we cannot and will not acquire PPE at the expense of frontline healthcare workers. We try to minimize touchpoints as much as possible and encourage customers to use the touchless HB Perks app whenever humanly possible. As an additional precaution, we are currently installing plexiglass shields at drive-thrus, and we’re looking into any and all options as it relates to safety.
On the pay demand: Sales have declined 40% in the last three weeks. We’re working wherever possible to reduce rents and defer bank payments. We have applied for government loans and are awaiting approval and funding. However, we cannot commit to any additional pay because we simply do not have the money to pay it at this point.
On March 20, we provided all Heine Bros. employees information on how to access unemployment in both Indiana and Kentucky. We relayed the additional flexibility Indiana and Kentucky are providing and encouraged those who feel it is their best option to take advantage of this benefit. I hate that everyone has to deal with the anxiety the coronavirus has created and I wish I could take away the uncertainty. I remain committed to keeping our employees and customers safe. I am fighting with everything I have to make sure those employees who need or want to work have a job and so that our company still exists when this pandemic has passed.
-Mike Mays, Heine Bros. President & Cofounder
As to Veterans Parkway store:
We learned on Wed. that a team member at our Veterans Parkway store tested positive. The team member had not been in the store since March 11 (21 days) and had not been near another team member of the VP store for 14 days. We immediately called the Clark Co. Health Dept and they informed us that if the remaining team members are symptom-free and had been out of contact with the employee who tested positive for 14 days, we were able to continue operations as normal through the drive-thru. Out of an abundance of caution, we decided to go ahead and close the store and have it professionally cleaned and sanitized by an FDA certified company. We hope to reopen at Veterans parkway today.
-Mike Mays, Heine Bros. President & Cofounder
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