Workers who unionize are choosing to stay and improve a company instead of walking away at a time when job opportunities are plentiful, says Pam Egan, director of the labor management program at the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California, Berkeley. In a tight labor market, that’s no small benefit to employers.

The COVID-19 crisis comes in the middle of a fundamental shift toward more automation and online ordering in grocery retail. In fact, the pandemic is likely to accelerate that change.