Sacramento, CA – Today, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Western States Council applauded the California State Senate’s passage of AB 2693 (Reyes), which would extend the sunset date for AB 685 (Reyes-2020), the COVID-19 Notification and Reporting Bill, and it’s subsequent cleanup legislation AB 654 (Reyes, 2021), until January 1, 2024. 2022 has already seen several waves of COVID-19 across California, illustrating why the state must stay vigilant and maintain access to information needed to respond to emerging surges this winter. The following statement may be attributed to John Grant, President, UFCW Local 770:
“The promise of reaching an endemic stage in the COVID-19 fight means ongoing vigilance; COVID cases are continuing to surge in California, and there will be more variants in our future. It’s essential that we remain prepared to react immediately to prevent the virus from spreading throughout our workplaces, infecting working people and their families.
“AB 685’s exposure notifications saved lives by ensuring workers were aware of COVID workplace outbreaks and extending this requirement is essential to California’s endemic strategy to protect workers and the public. UFCW members across the state thank the Senate for supporting this bill to focus our COVID-19 resources while protecting workers and our communities. We encourage Governor Newsom to continue California’s leadership in protecting frontline workers by signing this bill.”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 29, 2022
Contact: Jenna Thompson, 949.246.1620, [email protected]