Subject: Food Businesses Struggle to Form Politics on AIDS
Date: Published: 1/13/88 74 lines
Source:  WALL STREET JOURNAL. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

   Food Businesses
   Struggle to Form
   Politics on AIDS
    ---
   Aim Is to Calm Public, Staff
   If Employee Gets Sick;
   Customer Panic Feared
    ---
   By Albert R. Karr
   Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

   The National Grocers Association originally planned to
name a workshop it was going to hold in San Francisco, "AIDS
in the Workplace."  But wary of arousing public concern,
especially in that city, the trade group changed the title to
"Current Developments -- A Labor Relations Review."
   The Reston, Va.-based group's euphemistic title reflects
apprehension about AIDS among everyone in the food business,
from food producers to restaurants.  Many food concerns are
starting to develop policies on what to do if workers are
found to have AIDS. Their aim:  to calm other employees and,
if necessary, to tell the food-buying public not to panic,
that medical experts say AIDS can't be transmitted by casual
means like handling food.
   But many in the food business are approaching the problem
gingerly for fear of arousing alarm.  "They're all grappling
with a policy, but they aren't anxious to tell their
customers about it," says Dennis Zegar, a vice president of
the National American Wholesale Grocers Association.
   Super Valu Stores Inc., a big Minneapolis-based food
wholesaler and retailer, sent its 35,000 employees a pamphlet
published by Reader's Digest and the World Health
Organization on how AIDS is -- and isn't -- transmitted.
Super Valu also is showing its regional managers an AIDS
videotape prepared by the federal Centers for Disease
Control.  And it offers advice to employees at 3,000 retail
firms on how to head off public fears about AIDS
contamination.
   The advice emphasizes the need for workers to keep AIDS
cases confidential for the privacy of the victim, the company
says.  But that policy "has to help" prevent the word from
getting to the public, too, says Michael Gallagher, Super
Valu's personnel chief.  Without such efforts, he says, news
of an employee suffering from AIDS could start "panic in the
work force" that could spread to shoppers, with "disastrous
effect."
   The wholesale-grocers group, which is based in Falls
Church, Va., asked BursonMarsteller, the big New York public
 relations firm, to draft a manual that will inform workers
about AIDS and seek to "quell the fear" that might arise
among workers and the public if someone develops the disease.
    Food companies say that removing an AIDS victim from the
job isn't the answer.  Aside from showing no regard for the
worker, such a step would expose the company to a
job-discrimination lawsuit.
The National Restaurant Association has provided
brochures, entitled "Basic Facts about AIDS," to its 12,500
members, that say that "food service operations are safe
places in which to work and dine."
   For the moment, though, the food industry isn't seeking to
publicize its efforts.  Says Michael Sansolo, managing editor
of Progressive Grocer, an industry trade magazine:  "A lot of
companies want to do something, but they want to do it
quietly."

[This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the 
personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the 
hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering 
from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.]