UFCW strike, please support

[yz250roost]

Hey guys,
This post is to inform everyone in Southern California (from Mammoth to the Mexican border, from the coast to the Arizona Border) to not shop at Vons, Safeway, Albertsons, Ralphs or their branches (vons=pavilions,ralphs=fresh faire) due to a labor strike that fights for our health care and pension plans. Please do not cross our picket lines! We are fighting for a worthy cause, we are not asking anything from our employers except to keep what we already had. If you need a list of alternate places to shop, please go to this link----

http://ufcw324.org/altshop.html

Thanks for your support from a fellow DRNer
Jeff

 

[gasgasman]

That's kinda like a "double edge" sword.
If no one shops at your store, you will be out of a job.

Just my $0.02

 

[truespode]

With all due respect roost I disagree with the strike. However, since I don't live in California it doesn't make much of a difference.

Ivan

 

[BunduBasher]

I just hope you guys come out all right in the end.

 

[KDX1]

Here where I live in the east, employees of the chain "Krogers" grocery store are on strike too. I personally will go out of my way to NEVER shop at another Kroger's store. The workers here are striking for the same reason, their health insurance co. wants more money. The botton line is that unions are ruining this country. For example, Levi Strauss is closing down it's last 2 plants in Texas and moving it's operations to none other than Mexico. This is a tragedy and a perfect example of what is wrong with companies in this country. Unions may have been good at one time, but they are slowly raping this country of it's companies with deep heritage.

 

[jaction125]

Don't lay all of the blame on unions, sure they are part of it, but the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is what opened the doors to Mexican and Canadian production. As soon as that went through, the big three in Detroit started buiding plants in Mexico. Navistar, Paccar, Freightliner all followed suit in short order. None of those plants employ skilled labor, they just drive to town, load up a bus with the days workers and drop them at the end of the day. :flame:

Would you rather pay someone $30 an hour or $30 a day?


As far as health care goes, take a look around, nobody gets free insurance anymore. Most people must pay more now than they did in the past. Why? Rising insurance costs across the board. Why? What insurance companies do you think paid to clean up and rebuild New York two years ago? Thay are the same ones that sell your company the health insurance that you use. Do you think that they are going to lose money? What about the way they do use the money from premiums? They invest them, and get HAMMERED just like the rest of us when the economy turns down.

ramble ramble ramble growl growl ;)

 

[Smit-Dog]

jaction125 - BINGO!

My health insurance premium (my portion) went up 61% last year, and 16% the year before. I'll find out in 2 weeks what the increase will be for 2004.

My homeowner's insurance premium has increased 202% compared to 2 year ago.

My life insurance premium has increased 50% compared to last year.

All of these increases came along with fewer benefits and/or higher deductibles.

... and I haven't had a raise since May of 2001.

Should I go on strike?

 

[ktmboy]

I can't support the strike for the same reasons jaction cited. Most workers in the US now foot at least part of the bill for their healthcare because premiums are now going through the roof. If the strikers get what they want we'll all be paying for your healthcare in higher prices because you can bet the supermarket chains won't be willing to cut into their already thin profit margins.
I can see this strike opening the door for a new Walmart superstore in my town. I say bring it! I'm getting tired of hearing my regular checkers whining!

 

[BunduBasher]

Originally posted by Smit-Dog

Should I go on strike?

you should strike something :p

talk about getting poorer by the day :ugg:

 

[zio]

I think it's nice that employers sponsor benefits for employees. I think employees should be grateful, as there's no law that says an employer has to do so.

I also think that when insurance claims go up, the employer must do what's best for the company. If increasing profitability & improving the value of the stock is important to the company, then let them cut benefits a little. Or increase the amount of the cost they pass off to the employees. Or increase the price of their product to cover that cost. You gotta do what you gotta do. But in most cases, the last option isn't feesable. there's always someone who's waiting to come in & undercut you & put you out of business. This is a free market economy, afterall.

Employees are a part of that equasion. If they don't like what their employer is offering, then they can go seek employment elsewhere. If the employee is valuable (meaning a good employee versus a bad employee), then he should be able to find another job. If the employee isn't valuable, well then he'd better decide quickly whether the cut in benefits is worth losing his wages. And especially in areas like grocery store checkers, you've got to take whatever job you can get. There's not much you can do to show another employer your "stuff".

Unions really pisses me off. Everywhere in the country, the cost of healthcare is rising. Employers all across American are facing the same situation- the cost of their health insurance premiums are going up 15-40% each year for the last 5 or so years. That's a difficult number to sustain over such a long period of time. Small employers are forced to reconsider offering benefits altogether. That's sad. Really. But I see firsthand these folks having to make this tough decision. It's especially worse when the employees are like family. But you know the saying- sink or swim.

So why shouldn't union employees be subject to the same hard times? I don't get it. I hear of unions demanding no increase in cost and no cut in benefits. What the hell? Are the business that employ union employees in a given field or market making that much more money than the non-union workforce? Are union-employees that much more valuable? Someone please shed some light if I'm grossly wrong here.

I'll die before I ever join a union. Those thieving commie *******s can kiss my a$$.



and yz250roost- I'll support you, brotha, but I won't support your comrads. Those commie *******s piss me off. Everyone should know by now that unions are to our country what jalapeno's are to Dickie's anus. It's just luck that they also happen to benefit union workers somewhat.

How's this for dumb- certain contractors can't bid on a gov job unless they hire a certain percentage of union labor? That's BS! Nevermind the fact that they might get the job done faster, better and under budget with or without the unions.

I'm not even going to knock union workers. Because saying that they suck compared to non-union is bull. I'll judge each employee individually, not based on their status as union or not. I know some

 

[Smit-Dog]

Originally posted by zio
... How's this for dumb- certain contractors can't bid on a gov job unless they hire a certain percentage of union labor? That's BS! Nevermind the fact that they might get the job done faster, better and under budget with or without the unions.

Because unions have PACs which collect money from their members to help fund/support political candidates that help the union's agenda.

Non-union businesses do it too. They don't collect from employees, but do contribute to politicians that will help their business.

Not to get completely off-topic, but a recent incident with my health insurance company proved to me that insurance companies need to scrutinize and force medical providers to lower their costs.

I have had tendinitis very bad in my right elbow for about 5 months now. The doc wrote a prescription for a compression strap to be worn around the forearm to relieve the tendon. I took the prescription to a medical supply business that was covered by my insurance plan. The charge for the strap was $70. I said thanks, but no thanks, and went to my local drugstore and picked up the same thing for $9. I called my insurance company to let them know that this "approved" medical supply business was raping them (actually me, my employer, and them) for charging such an exorbitant amount for the strap.

Sadly, the insurance companies response was "... well, that's the contracted price for the device." Nice friggin' due diligence in negotiating rates to help save on health care costs.

I have yet to submit a claim to be reimbursed for the $9 strap - my initial thought is that the claim will be denied because it wasn't an "approved" device!

:flame:

 

[Rich Rohrich]

Take it somewhere other than DRN kids, cuz this thread is DONE.