Portland Whole Foods Workers Ask Courts To Enforce Voter-approved Hazard Pay Initiative

PORTLAND, Maine — Workers at Whole Foods Market are striking back against a lawsuit filed by the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce to overturn a voter-approved minimum wage-ordinance that would grant hazard pay to essential workers in the city during the pandemic. On Thursday, attorneys representing Caleb Horton and Mario Roberge-Reyes, two workers at Whole Foods in Portland, filed a motion to intervene in the Chamber’s lawsuit, which asks a judge to either strike down the city ordinance or postpone its implementation until at least 2022. The motion claims that Horton and Roberge-Reyes have “reported to work in person for months during this global pandemic, at great risk to their health and the health of their loved ones.” The legal motion asks a judge to “enforce the will of the people” and declare that they are entitled to compensation for their in-person work beginning this weekend. Horton earns $15 an hour and Roberge-Reyes earns $15.40 an hour.