Grocery Workers Vote to Strike (then locked-out, St. Louis)

[SaintLouisBlues]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/...

" Grocery workers voted
overwhelmingly this morning
to go on strike against Shop
'n Save, one of three
companies that had offered
a contract that was rejected
last week.

Union workers who
gathered this morning at
America's Center voted
4,252 for a strike, 1,670
against the strike. That
means 72 percent approved
the strike, more than the
two-thirds necessary of those voting."

-snip-

" Supermarket executives say they need the concessions to
remain competitive with non-union rivals, including Costco
Wholesale Corp., Walgreen Co. and particularly discount giant
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. "



These companies offered raises of between $.05 and .25 per hour, then when the union authorized the strike, were locked-out.

Thanks Wal-Mart for bringing us all down to your level. Or at least for giving other companies cover to invoke Wal-Mart
pricing pressure to screw their employees and suppliers.

[rucky]

1. UFCW: Same union as Tyson strikers

expect to see more of this as the anti-WalMart campaign heats up:

www.ufcw.org

[revcarol]

5. The only chicken breasts the supermarket had yesterday

were Tyson's.I refused to buy them.The meat department manager asked me why. I replied,"because they treat their employees like dirt." He said he would tell the management.(Small local supermarket with two stores.)

Taking them down one store at a time. I plan to follow up.

[realFedUp]

2. Retail union worker's strike in CA also starting on Sat.

Vons, Ralphs, Albertsons I think. Gelson's has
signed a halfway agreement...
I don't relish marketing in the next few weeks.

[rucky]

13. alot of contracts negotiated this time of year...

Talk of strike in Oregon, too: Slaveway, Freddies, Albertsons...I think my store will be ok, but if they keep hiring part-timers and cutting our hours (putting us under the minimum for benefits)...

[silverweb]

3. It begins.

WalMart and greedy stockholders are directly responsible for this.

Support the strikers!

Companies would rather screw over their employees than lower stock dividends or executive salaries. The strike is inevitable and necessary.

[brainshrub]

4. Stop Bitching At Wal Mart

I am so sick of people bitching about Wal Mart.
"Wal Mart pays slave wages."
"Wal Mart destroys local bushiness."
"Wal Mart crushes Unions."
"Boo Hoo."

Shut up! All of you!!!

YOU are the ones who keep shopping at Wal Mart.
YOU are the ones who ignore the plight of the working poor as you walk past them in the huge aisles stocked with cheap plastic crap.
YOU are the ones who park your cars in the 4-football field sized parking lots.
YOU are the ones who keep buying products produced by slave-labor in China.
YOU are the ones who did not protest in City Hall when Wal Mart invaded your community.

If you claim to be a vegetarian, don't eat meat.
If you claim to be a Democrat, stop shopping at Wal Mart. That company is evil, evil, evil!!! They symbolize everything wrong with American-style capitalism.

I have been boycotting all things Wal Mart for two years now. It ain't easy, but it can be done.

Every dollar you spend at Wal Mart represents another bullet in the head of a Chinese union leader, or another single-mom who will never earn enough money to spend time with her children, or another mom-and-pop store going broke.

Boycott Wal Mart as if your life as a middle-class American depended on it...because it does.

[Lars39]

7. YOU don't seem to recognize that in some areas, Walmart is the only

place to purchase necessities.

[Tansy_Gold]

10. I haven't set foot in Walbarf or Sam's Gulag in almost five years

And whenever anyone suggests that I look for something at one of those sources, I politely inform them that I do not and will not even consider shopping there. If the person pushes, I push right back with a well-practiced speech about the abuses.

I do not wear clothes with logos either. In fact, I make most of my clothes, but those that are purchased will not go in my shopping cart if they have an identifying logo.

[rucky]

12. Which one is it, dude?

You want us to shut up about Walmart or do you want us to take action?

[Evil_Dewers]

14. I don't shop at Wally World

I used to be a manager at Sam's Club (a Sam Walton Wal-Mart subsidiary).

The Wally World philosophy is to make you worship the company like it is God, when the company acts more like Satan.

[sistersofmercy]

6. I wonder if AB and other big union groups will cross the picket and

lock out line for deliveries? I called Dierbergs main office on Friday and told them I support them against their struggle with Wal-mart (I've been boycotting Wal-mart for quite sometime) but I will not cross a picket line to shop. Time to shop at Hanneke's or go out to eat! Hi from St Louis.

[SaintLouisBlues]

8. I'm boycotting Dierbergs as well as Mall-Wort

The linked story (assuming it works) talks about the Teamsters
not crossing, but delivering just beyond the picket line, where
replacement workers take over.

Dierbergs uses non-union drivers (a new reason to not shop there), but
the fact that they choose not to do business in the City and many
inner-suburbs is reason enough to boycott them in my book.

I notice a lot of local chains that only operate in the whitest of the
suburbs, and they don't get my business.

[private_ryan]

9. they didn't take the $0.05 an hour raise?

what's wrong with them? That's $2 a week if they work a full 40 hour week.

[hatrack]

11. Such ingrates!

And let's not forget that in case of overtime, that would be not 5 extra cents, but instead a full 7.5 extra cents per hour!