Grocery Workers Strike

[MrZero]

I was wondering what you all thought of the Strike going on right now with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and the 3 main chains (Ralph's, Albertson's and Vons) out here in California.

News Article (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20031016-9999_1b16length.html)

Personally I have chosen not to frequent my local grocery store (Albertson's) out of respect for many of the employees which I have known for several years now. The problem is that the 3 companies basically have the market cornered and the alternative stores are far and few between. Though I support their right to strike and picket, I am not exactly sympathetic to their cause and frankly, it has all become quite annoying.

1. It is inconvenient and out of my way to shop at grocers not involved in the dispute. There are 2 stores from which I can shop but both are several miles out of my way and both have extremely long lines and one of them is considerably more expensive.

2. I live in an apartment complex directly above the shopping center where I usually shop and the picketers have taken to yelling and screaming as cars pass and the cars honk (in support I assume) until late into the night. So, there cause is effecting my peace and quite at home.

3. Some of the picketers have taken to some pretty nasty tactics to keep shoppers away. They have been blocking the entrance to shopping centers so people cannot get in (which causes traffic and safety issues), they have been hindering peoples ability to enter stores by standing in their way and blocking entrances, they have turned to verbally assaulting people who cross their picket lines to shop, they have been scarring children of parents who continue to shop at these stores by telling them that all the food in the stores are poisoned, they have been assaulting shoppers by throwing eggs at them and they have been vandalizing cars while shoppers are in the stores amongst other things. I am not saying all of them are doing this, but enough of them to make some think twice about shopping at any of the picketed stores.

4. Up until 1 1/2 years ago I managed a Gas Station for 8 years that offered no benefits (medical, retirement, paid vacation, sick days, paid holidays, etc.) and I was appreciative to have a reliable and secure job. In these times and with the economy such as it is, shouldn't these people just be happy to be working and feel blessed that even with the reduced benefits offered they would still be getting a lot more benefits than many people in this country?

On a side note, I know very little about Unions as I have never been a member of one, but I was curious as to why or if, assuming the current contract with the union is expired, the companies just can't lay all these people off and hire all new employees who would jump at the chance for such an opportunity? Just as the current employees are free to leave and go seek better opportunities elsewhere.

Just my $.02, interested to hear yours.

[up2date]

Well, the strike goes on: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1020Strikes-Calif-ON.html

It seems the main issue is rising health care costs and companies' attempts to pass the extra expenses onto their employees. It also seems this issue is a nationwide one, and this may be a harbinger of more to come.

[Blueangel]

As a former union rep in the U.K., I'm unfamiliar with the laws regarding strikes and picketing in the U.S.
Over here, strike action is rare because of legislation passed in the early 1980's after the miners strike.
Union's have to notify their employers of impending strike action and there is a legal limit of 8 people on a picket line at any given time.
Where I worked, there are three entrances so we had to split our 8 pickets between them. This led to me accidently crossing my own picket line once because someone had gone to the toilet...but that's another story :p
You have my sympathy for the noise and inconvenience caused by the pickets. The recent strike action by U.K. firemen caused massive inconvenience in my town, as the main fire station directly faces the local Asda (aka Walmart).
I'm sure you are aware that no worker takes strike action for the fun of it these days. All the strikers will probably be in breach of contract and liable for dismissal, thus, they will not have taken this action lightly.
The problem with employing alternative employees is that they will be for ever blighted as 'black legs' or 'scabs' for breaking a strike action. This is a blight that never leaves an individual unless they blatantly lie on their C.V.

[NetxMan]

Unions=Bad, nuf said.

[MrZero]

UPDATE: (sorry it's so long)

Last Thursday on my way home from work I am on my motorcycle and approaching the Albertson's by my house. There is a store delivery truck slowing and signaling to enter the shopping center only to be blocked at the last minute by the picketers which causes the driver to slam on his brakes and the car behind him who seemed not to be paying to much attention to swerves at the last minute into my lane. I hit the brakes hard, lock up the rear, get a bit loose and miss being hit, injured or killed by a matter of inches. So, now I am steamed and I circle around and confront the picketers about the incident and between their shrugs and whining about how they just want whats fair I am left with the disticnt impression that they are either oblivious to or just don't seem to care that their actions nearly caused me serious injury or worse, death. This makes me more heated and before my temper gets the best of me, I leave them to contemplate a rather creative string of explitives and a few well intentioned hand gestures.

On Sunday we (my wife, my 4 month old son and myself) decided to give the local Stater Bros. a try (this is an independent store and on the list being recommended by strikers of alternitive places to shop). So I get there and am lucky to pull in just as someone is leaving and zip straight into a parking stall as the rest of the lot was full. Once inside there is 5-15 people per aisle which makes it nearly impossible to move and even harder to get to the shelves to get what you want. Several of the aisles are at total gridlock as the checkout lines are 2 wide the entire length of the aisle making it impossible to access them. After covering what we could of about 3/4 of the store we had accumilated a total of 10 items in our basket (far less than we expected and needed to buy). A quick trip to the butcher counter reveals flies coming and going on the meats at will and the gloveless butcher with visable open sores on his hands using only square bits of plastic to protect him from the meat and us from his diseases. My wife is furstreated and disgusted at the entire scene and my infant son is becoming restless and fussy. So in the name of sanity and sanitary we abandon our shopping cart mid aisle (returing the items to their shelves would have been near impossible) and head off to our usual and local store of choice, Albertson's.

At Albertson's we find the usual aray of picketers lazily sitting around with their sign propped against their chairs (apparently the task of actually standing and holding a sign has become to exhausting for them) and unable to look us in the eye. I am beginning to think that even they are starting to realize how silly they must look and have lost any real interest in thier "cause". Inside there is maybe 5 or 6 shoppers total, empty aisles, empty checkout lines, fully stocked shleves (with the exception of meats and breads of which most would expire in a day or two) and surprisingly a nice friendly staff (this is cotrary to a few comments made for our benefit outside that the workers inside were "a bunch of low-life scum"). With a full cart we hit the checkout and are informed by the friendly "scabs" that in Sunday's paper we can find a coupon to save $20.00 if we spend more than $100.00 which we obviously had. She gets us a paper finds the coupon, tears it out and when all is said and done with coupons and in-store sales we saved a whopping $59.00 which to a family on a very tight budget is just what the doctor ordered.

And so goes the story on how I lost what little sympathy I had for the mindless, whining creatons who used to have over-paid low skilled jobs with more benefits than most Americans enjoy but now stand (or sit as the case may be) outside our local grocier stores with signs that basically say "Poor Me" and "It's Not Fair".

Scab Away! Scab Away!

[azov]

Unions - bad for exploiting bosses, good for working people trying to live on the ridiculous nonsense called a "living wage."

[MrZero]

Originally posted by azov
Unions - bad for exploiting bosses, good for working people trying to live on the ridiculous nonsense called a "living wage."

Here is a copy of the actual contract submitted by the companies.

Clicky here for Contract (http://www.ufcw1179.org/kdupdates/offer.pdf) (Adobe PDF format)

Check out the pay scale on page 9 and tell me these people are working on a "living wage." For current employees, the lowest wage earner I can find on the entire list(basically someone who bags grocieries and collects carts) starts at $11.33 per hour. That is a bit more than a "living wage." True, the pay scale for employees hired after Oct. 6th 2003 wiil receive relaitively less pay ($7.55 for bagging gorciers) but somehow that seems more appropriate for such a position. New employee pay scale is on page 18.

Also notice the LUMP SUM BONUS' for employees hired before Oct. 6th giving them up to $.30 per hour worked for the previous 52 weeks. The strikers biggest gripe seems to be going from FREE health care benefits for employees and their entire families to having to pay $5 (for an individual) or up to $15 (for all eligable family members) per week toward their health care premiums. I don't think there are to many places you can work and get a better deal than that. Then there is the extra pay for working Sundays and nights and all the other little perks you will find through out the proposal.

Face it, current employees and new hires are still getting a pretty good deal and benefits plan that a lot of Americans do not enjoy. I can attest to that as I was a manager of a gas station for nearly 10 years and recieved less pay and had no benefits whatsoever. No health benefits, no retirement plan, no paid vacation, no paid holidays, no sick days, etc. I finally went and found a better job that improved my station in life. My opinion is that if these folks think they are getting a raw deal then they should go find something better and good luck to them as most low skilled jobs do not offer the benefits offered in this proposal.

The way I see it in this case is that the Union is bad for everybody.