The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union is stepping in where it says the government has failed, running its own coronavirus contact-tracing program for 1.3 million members.
Since the covid-19 outbreak hit, the union has sent agents into grocery stores, meatpacking plants and food-processing facilities. They talk to workers and comb work schedules to figure out who might have been exposed. Then, they notify the employer's human resources department and direct workers to free testing sites, some provided by the union.
The program fills a void left by the Trump administration in the absence of a national test-and-trace regimen -- and is an active advertisement for a labor movement that's been waning for decades. Local health departments, which usually perform the function, have been overwhelmed by a disease that has sickened more than 5 million Americans and killed more than 160,000. And in any event, testing delays make contact tracing impractical in many areas.
In such disarray, workers must fend for themselves, said Marc Perrone, international president of the union.
"The counties really don't have the resources at this point in time to ultimately be able to do that, and they haven't," he said. "In the vacuum, we are trying to serve that role."
The union is using business agents and shop stewards to fill in the gap. Among its grocery, meatpacking and food-processing members, there have been at least 223 deaths from covid-19. More than 34,000 front-line workers have been infected or exposed.
"We track down every time we hear a rumor about someone out sick," said Jonathan Williams, a spokesman at UFCW Local 400 in the Mid-Atlantic region.
The union collects information through its officials, via phone and from a form workers can fill out on its website. It also checks out posts on Facebook. The union keeps a tally of workers who have covid-19, as well as those who are quarantined while awaiting test results.
The union also keeps track of all workplace outbreaks and reports them to health authorities if employers don't.
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In Dallas, Candice Oglesby, a 35-year-old shop steward who works at a Kroger Co. store, this summer investigated a rumor that a member at another location was sick. Management, she said, didn't notify employees. She made a few calls, tracked down the person, who had tested positive for covid-19, and took down the names of those she might have infected.
"I am doing the investigative work," Oglesby said. "I can usually talk to people and figure out who it is, and figure out who isn't there."
The union typically blasts text messages to all employees of an affected store, warning them that there's a case.
Kroger said in a statement that it follows U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and usually completes its own contact tracing within 24 hours. "We are in regular communication with our Dallas union partner, and they have not provided any indication that our contact tracing process is unsatisfactory," the company said.