Southern California Grocery Workers Vote to Strike

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J-Man
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Southern California Grocery Workers Vote to Strike

Post by J-Man »

Los Angeles Times story. Because it worked out so well for everyone last time?
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Re: Southern California Grocery Workers Vote to Strike

Post by klkla »

J-Man wrote: June 26th, 2019, 9:01 am Los Angeles Times story. Because it worked out so well for everyone last time?
It's actually a standard practice to hold a strike authorization vote during negotiations and it always passes by a large percentage. 2006 was a long time ago and the unions have actually negotiated good contracts since then. The companies are just as apprehensive about strikes as the workers. The companies lost a lot of market share during the last strike that they never recovered .
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Re: Southern California Grocery Workers Vote to Strike

Post by steps »

I was at Ralphs tonight and a lot of workers called off according to the only person working in the service deli.
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Re: Southern California Grocery Workers Vote to Strike

Post by klkla »

A couple of days ago it looked like the Union was ready to go on strike against Ralphs but at 6:00 yesterday morning after an all night bargaining session an agreement was reached and the members started voting on it today.

https://www.latimes.com/california/stor ... nsion-bump

The article mentions that there are 47,000 members in SoCal and parts of Central California. In 2003 when they last went on strike there were about 60,000 members. This is the first time I've seen a number for how many UFCW job have been lost in that time period.
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Re: Southern California Grocery Workers Vote to Strike

Post by CalItalian »

There was never a chance of a strike. Albertsons never even accepted applications for temporary workers.
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Re: Southern California Grocery Workers Vote to Strike

Post by klkla »

CalItalian wrote: September 9th, 2019, 10:07 pm There was never a chance of a strike. Albertsons never even accepted applications for temporary workers.
They were going to call the strike on Ralphs. Albertson's would have had to have locked their workers out. Albertson's wasn't hiring temporary worker's in 2003, either, and wasn't prepared for the strike then because they didn't think it would happen, but it did.
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Re: Southern California Grocery Workers Vote to Strike

Post by Alpha8472 »

Working at a grocery store years ago seemed like a good job. You had the union to ensure good pay and wages. Now, the wages seem lower and the employees are constantly quitting. I have had friends who worked for Safeway as new employees and quit for other retail jobs. The old union workers might have better pay, but the new ones seemed to start at a much lower pay scale.

I rarely see any old employees anymore. It is always a bunch of younger people and they do not last long. In the past, the employees would have rejected any offers and would have held out for the absolutely highest wages and benefits. Now the employees are willing to accept any offer and not strike. What has changed?
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Re: Southern California Grocery Workers Vote to Strike

Post by CalItalian »

klkla wrote: September 10th, 2019, 9:04 am
CalItalian wrote: September 9th, 2019, 10:07 pm There was never a chance of a strike. Albertsons never even accepted applications for temporary workers.
They were going to call the strike on Ralphs. Albertson's would have had to have locked their workers out. Albertson's wasn't hiring temporary worker's in 2003, either, and wasn't prepared for the strike then because they didn't think it would happen, but it did.
There was no strike planned at all. My friend is a very high management official in another union and I've heard all along about this. UFCW locals in SoCal are in very bad financial shape and a strike would have been their final chapter.
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Re: Southern California Grocery Workers Vote to Strike

Post by CalItalian »

Alpha8472 wrote: September 10th, 2019, 10:55 pm Working at a grocery store years ago seemed like a good job. You had the union to ensure good pay and wages. Now, the wages seem lower and the employees are constantly quitting. I have had friends who worked for Safeway as new employees and quit for other retail jobs. The old union workers might have better pay, but the new ones seemed to start at a much lower pay scale.

I rarely see any old employees anymore. It is always a bunch of younger people and they do not last long. In the past, the employees would have rejected any offers and would have held out for the absolutely highest wages and benefits. Now the employees are willing to accept any offer and not strike. What has changed?
For one, you don't get healthcare until a year after joining the union. Plus most jobs only pay whatever the local minimum wage is for the first year (plus a small differential depending on what time of the day you are working and Sunday pay which is .50 cents an hour higher). And you still have to pay union dues. You can't buy a home on supermarket wages anymore. Except for the holidays, don't expect 40 hours a week either. Ever.
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Re: Southern California Grocery Workers Vote to Strike

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: September 10th, 2019, 10:55 pm Working at a grocery store years ago seemed like a good job. You had the union to ensure good pay and wages. Now, the wages seem lower and the employees are constantly quitting. I have had friends who worked for Safeway as new employees and quit for other retail jobs. The old union workers might have better pay, but the new ones seemed to start at a much lower pay scale.

I rarely see any old employees anymore. It is always a bunch of younger people and they do not last long. In the past, the employees would have rejected any offers and would have held out for the absolutely highest wages and benefits. Now the employees are willing to accept any offer and not strike. What has changed?
I think the employees as you point out are young and not terribly vested. Those career grocery people who got on in the 70's and retired out 30-35 years later with excellent benefits had a good thing going and they knew it, but they had to fight for it. The grocers as they moved to more and more of a part time workforce ended up with more and more employee turnover and these employees who are not in it for the long haul are disengaged and really their main concern is either how are they going to make ends meet and pay their bills and only concerned about immediate financial needs, or for the younger ones, where they are going to go out to after work, not the next labor contract.

The old employees are still around, but not very many, working the 7-3 shifts and just waiting for retirement. Many can retire in their 50's if they started in their early 20's or teens and they do.

What is surprising me lately is seeing previous grocery store managers and I am talking people who had 20-25 years in management with the grocer, now at other non-grocery retailers managing those stores. I thought sure that managing a grocery store is better paying and generally a more stable job than managing a pet chain retail store.

The grocers haven't made it any easier for their management by going to this lower paid labor model either. The quality of labor is not what it was, with the better paid more full time employee model of the past.
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