phinsup

Looks like ones going to happen here, gotta figure out where I am going to get the bottled water filled, fuggin safeway is where I do it now, but I ain't shopping there when they go on strike, I don't cross picket lines and I don't support business's when their employees are on a legal strike, I think it's pretty fucked that they are trying to screw them out of their health benefits.



What's yer take on dealio, I know CA had a nasty one, a lot of people could care less about strikes, it's just something I've always stuck to.

Jeff20B

There was a Safeway strike 15 years ago, wasn't there? Trying to remember...

Nan da yo!

Oh fun. We finished with ours like 5 months ago. The stores were empty and expensive. Not my idea of a picnic. Hahaha, get it, you need food for a picnic and its not my idea for one since the stores dont have any! BWAHahahaha... *ahem*

isamu

Its pretty likely it will happen now but you never know. Negotiations have been extended until the end of June but they have been going on since April. I hope a decent deal can be worked out. I have worked for Safeway for far longer than I expected, but I have no complaints its pretty decent. However the new contract they want is pretty radical. The health benefits are important, but are really not the big issue in my mind. Safeway wants to lower the pay for Journeyman wages almost two bucks for all new employees. This means that people will be working on a two tier wage system side by side, sort of an old vs. the new employees, who are asked to do the same but make less money, to me thats ****! Safeway is also asking to do away with Sunday pay as well as overtime. I'm sorry, but I have worked most every major holiday and weekend, and I can tell you that without any incentives of extra pay most peoples willingness to work will be out the door.

sectachrome

they have sunday pay?? damn i didnt know that. i just started working at genaurdis which is owned by safeway.

phinsup

I don't think it was 15 years, more like 10 if I remember correctly, but it was pretty short. Brown and Cole and all the other chainsin this area have agreed to the contract if I understand correctly, Slaveway just doesn't want to do it and they aren't getting my money if they send their workers out the front door packing, that just sucks.

banzaitoyota

I have mixed feelings on unions. They did serve a purpose at one time, however I feel that time has passed. If a man cannot negotiate his own salary/benefits package he deserves what he gets. Unions have contributed to the demise of MANY industries in this country. For example: Kodak, Carrier, The big three, textiles, Steel Mills etc.



Example One: Carrier: Pre-Union 8000 + workers in Syracuse NY. A welder could complete the 23 welds required for an average cooling plant shell in under 2 minutes. Plant unioinzes: Worker received a pay raise and now gets 10 minutes to perform same number of welds. Hooray you say? Wrong; Carrier is now closing the Syracuse plant and moving it to Mexico because it is not as competitive as the new plant in Mexico. Thank you UNION!!! NOw there are another 8000 UNEMPLOYEED workers in Central NY

phinsup

Yea for the most part I definetely agree I've seen it work and fail miserably. When I worked at BFG that place needed a union, the company simply would not listen to their 3,500 employees, to the extent that at one point they lost over 50% of their employees, a union in that case would have saved both the company and the employees from getting ugly, other then that I would definetely agree, unions have outlived their usefulness, however it still seems to work for some industry's, either way I still won't cross picket lines.

defprun

I hit that ni***r than i broke out!

banzaitoyota

From my understanding, Canada is losing more Jobs to outsourcing than the US.