Grocery strike in So CA

[tired_pilot]

Just wondering what you guys in CA, think of the grocery strike. The cashiers who can make over $40,000 a year, have pensions, 0 premium, 0 co-pay medical insurance are involved in a hard-core strike because the stores Albertsons, Safeway and Ralphs want the employees to pay some part of their medical insurance.

I dont know what I think in the matter looking at it from the regional airline perspective. I feel unions still have a place (especially in with airlines). As far as the grocery stores here we have mostly unskilled labor, alot of people that started out of High school and just never quit. People that are making good money just to scan items. I think in a big way they are being taken advantage of by their own union forceing the strike. I do give them credit for standing firm in their demands whether or not they are realistic is another story.

I was at Mesa during their contract talks I wish we could have held as firm. I know its like comparing apples and oranges, interesting to think about though.

Any thoughts?

 

[labbats]

I disagree with their position.

That said, let's not skew the facts. Working from 18 until you're 60 doing the same job, and making $40,000 a year in So Cal isn't exactly something to aspire to.

 

[BornAgainPagan]

Just wondering what you guys in CA, think of the grocery strike. The cashiers who can make over $40,000 a year, have pensions, 0 premium, 0 co-pay medical insurance are involved in a hard-core strike because the stores Albertsons, Safeway and Ralphs want the employees to pay some part of their medical insurance.

I don't know your source for those numbers but, I have a feeling that it would take a few years to reach 40K/yr as a cashier. That being said, it is a reasonable salary and benefits package for someone that has shown some loyality and consistency to their employer even if it is unskilled labor. Remember, the public's perception of pilots is that we all make 200k per year and work 7 days a month. We should be careful not to fall into the same trap of the media using anecdotal information.

I really don't know anything about the intricacies of the issues in this strike....just a thought based on your post and reading a couple of clips in the news.

 

[F70pilot]

"So Cal" Isn't that the place where you can have a 250K job and still not be able to afford a house?

 

[Gulfstreamlover]

And how about those pilots on strike, and they all make 300k a year.......are you positive about those facts, or are you just like all the reporters out there only talking about the highest paid of all the casheirs.

 

[LAZYB]

Median home price in the "Valley"...

$413,000!

 

[GogglesPisano]

I don't see a problem with workers (skilled or un-skilled) bargaining collectively to increase their standard of living.

Unions help workers negotiate in the labor maket.

 

[tired_pilot]

numbers

I have friends that clerk starting pay for cashiers is 19.00 an hour based on 40 hour week 38,000 a year, granted you may start out as a bagger or something else at lower wages. (Starting pay for strike breakers is 20 an hour.) I guess what got me thinking about this subject was a 2 page article in the San Diego Union it followed a few of the grocery families around. The story ended with a quote from one of the ladies saying that if they dont get a good contract her family wont be able to shop at Nordstorm anymore.

Dont get me wrong I know 40,000 is not alot for San Diego at all. Thats about what the school teachers make out here also. I have plenty of friends that are Skywest pilots in SAN making alot less then that.

I just thought it was interesting more then anything else....

 

[altimaklr]

I was a grocery checker in Texas (non-union) at age 17 after being a bagger for a year. Obviously, the skill and education required to scan barcodes isn't the same as flying a multi-million dollar jet.

I don't agree with the employees, and if the grocery stores can't lower costs, they're going to die when Super-WalMarts begin popping up next year.

 

[chperplt]

If you do some research on the strike, they actually went on stike to protest a $5 copay for future employees. A whopping 5 fukin bucks for people who don't work their yet... They should all go bankrupt over it!!

 

[JediNein]

Stupid Union Tricks

Well, the Union should be happy, they emptied their member's strike chest and have now brought in OTHER PEOPLE to be the picket line. Those clerks that had a cushy job are now scrambling to find anything near the same level of pay and in a position of having to take what is offered, even having to pay for their own health benefits, just so they can put food on the table.

Most of the stores were empty the first few weeks of the strike, now the stores are generally at the same level of shoppers as before.

In the meantime, the grocery stores have hired and retrained most of the striker's replacements. It doesn't take that long to train the job, but the extended strike has allowed many of the stores to be at full operational staffing levels.

And, before some of the workers left on strike or were locked out, they were damaging their stores, petty theft, graffiti, vandalizing displays, little things like that.... most of the stores probably don't want some of their former workers back.

And it is a localized strike (CA only) on a nation-wide grocery store chain. Yeah, it hurts the companies a little, but not that much.

The stores have offered a few concessions, but the union leaders are not budging. The union has no one to blame but themselves for when their members are no longer able to come back because of their union's unwillingness to bend.

I fully expect the union to break, and the stores to be very selective about what former employees are allowed to return, non-union.

If I ever have to walk a picket line, it's not going to be over an issue that is less than the cost of a Starbucks Mocha!

Now if it is about prohibiting the consumption of the Starbucks Mocha, that's a completely different issue under which we may hear arguments over was it justifiable homicide or an obvious suicide on the part of the party prohibiting such consumption.

Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein