Unions could strike at 3 big grocers

[salin]

Unions could strike at 3 big grocers

Kroger, Albertsons, Safeway face strike threat as 70,000 workers protest planned health care cuts.
October 10, 2003: 3:50 PM EDT



NEW YORK (Reuters) - About 70,000 U.S. supermarket workers, protesting planned health care cuts, could authorize strike action as early as Friday against Kroger Co., Albertsons Inc. and Safeway Inc., a union representative said.

Ellen Anreder said workers at the three leading Southern California grocers, spread across one of the country's key grocery markets, spent the last two days voting on the proposed action after a deadlock in talks with their employers about a week ago.


More: http://money.cnn.com/2003/10/10/news/companies/supermarket_strike.reut/index.htm

[FlemingsGhost]

1. So what. Shut 'em all down.

Folks should be supporting small, locally owned stores anyway.

[SharonAnn]

9. No, these are good stores that employ union labor.

I support them and always have.

[FlemingsGhost]

11. I've worked in one of Albertson's corporate offices...

Trust me, you are mistaken.

Safeway is fondly known as "Slaveway" from a myriad of folks that I know who have be employed there.

I'll admit, I've never shopped at a Krogers, so my scorn is unfounded.

[lumpy]

2. Good news

nt

[Nottingham]

3. These people are fighting for Health Insurance

if we had Universal Health we wouldn't be fighting for this

:bounce:

[FlemingsGhost]

4. If we had a proper government, they wouldn't have to. (n/t)

Dems

[expatriot]

5. This is so sad... the only answrer is unionizing Wal-Mart

The large unionized grocers will suffer tremendously from this strike, they will lose market share to Wal-Mart... if they cave in and increase benefits, it will only raise their labor costs and decrease their competiveness with Wal-Mart. It is clear, the only hope is to unionize Wal-Mart. All unions in the country should make this their NUMERO UNO goal... it needs to be made very clear, if we can not unionize Wal-Mart, unions will die because they will kill their companies because they can not compete with Wal-Marts non-union labor costs.

[htuttle]

7. Wal-Mart has been seeing other pressures lately

The vast majority of Wal-Mart's merchandise is manufactured in China. As the dollar has been dropping against the yuan, Wal-Mart has been having to pay more to buy their stock.

Wal-Mart's profits are probably so huge that I'm not sure whether it's a significant factor, but the more the dollar drops, the more it might be.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

6. I'm glad to hear that.

The conglomerate grocery chains treat their employees like shit.

I avoid them whenever possible.

[nayt]

8. have you actually worked at one?

i work at albertson's and the raises i get are ridiculous for the work i do. i don't have a problem with the benefits package either, although the cost of health insurance did go up by $8.75/week for me (one person) last summer.

[lumpy]

10. I quit shopping at Albertsons after 25 years

when they installed their preferred shopper discount crap and being stiffed on their 2 for one specials ( three time already I had to make a trip to straighten those out) The preferred shopper card crap is a ripoff to occasional shoppers who pay the full over-inflated price. I will not shop at any store using this form of ripoff.

[jmowreader]

12. Then don't move to Fayettenam, NC

We have four basic choices for groceries: Food Lion (part of the Delhaize system), Bi-Lo and Winn-Dixie, all of which are card stores; and Wal-Mart, who is the devil.

There are a few other choices, but they're all ethnic stores, very small and pricey. (Most are Latin grocers, but some are Oriental.)