just spoke with a picketing supermarket worker

[jjyiz28]

he came off as a cool guy. saying that they are taking away his benefits by 50%, and basically fighting to preserve what they had before. which i understand. asked him how much he makes, he said top cashiers make 17.50/hour. i said thats pretty good. he said, well, my nephew is an insect extermination and makes like 25/hr. i then say, well, i only make 12.50/hr doing data entry, and that ALL industries and suffering like the IT field. he then digressed in talking about how unfair it is getting his benefits takin away, what repercussions this will have, since this means less money for him, and less money to spend on stuff like movies, dvd, etc =| and how this will affect other industries.

then he goes on to say that his job is not as easy as others think. how his knees and shoulders and busted, etcc... cry me a fking river.

greedy mutherfker is all that i was thinking.
i hope they get FIRED. went in and bought my milk. the cashier there was nice. i hope they don't get hassled after their shift.
those bastards picketing are just that, bastards.

 

[Keego]

Your insight has touched me. NOT. When you have a family, benefits are very.. BENEFICIAL.

 

[digitalsm]

Originally posted by: jjyiz28
he came off as a cool guy. saying that they are taking away his benefits by 50%, and basically fighting to preserve what they had before. which i understand. asked him how much he makes, he said top cashiers make 17.50/hour. i said thats pretty good. he said, well, my nephew is an insect extermination and makes like 25/hr. i then say, well, i only make 12.50/hr doing data entry, and that ALL industries and suffering like the IT field. he then digressed in talking about how unfair it is getting his benefits takin away, what repercussions this will have, since this means less money for him, and less money to spend on stuff like movies, dvd, etc =| and how this will affect other industries.

then he goes on to say that his job is not as easy as others think. how his knees and shoulders and busted, etcc... cry me a fking river.

greedy mutherfker is all that i was thinking.
i hope they get FIRED. went in and bought my milk. the cashier there was nice. i hope they don't get hassled after their shift.
those bastards picketing are just that, bastards.

Hes obviously is talking out his ass.

They arent wanting to take away insurance benefits, they are wanting the people to pay $20-80 premiums per month.

 

[Colt45]

unions own you

 

[Dragnov]

I'm sure you yourself would just love to take a cut in your benefits!

They are just trying to maximize their money, the company is just trying to maximize they're money, YOU are just trying to maximize your money. I really don't care for them, but I don't blame them for what they are doing either.

 

[digitalsm]

Originally posted by: Keego
Your insight has touched me. NOT. When you have a family, benefits are very.. BENEFICIAL.

The companies arent trying to take them away, they are wanting the employees to pay a premium of $20-80 a month, where as no they pay no premium and all the insurance costs are put on the companies.

 

[amnesiac]

It's not 50%.

The supermarkets are wanting to eliminate their FREE HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE.

OH NOES! That means they'll have to put out $15-75 a week out of their $18/hr jobs.

I hope they realize that they're overpaid as it is, and almost NO INDUSTRIES offer free health insurance anymore, especially in CA.

 

[digitalsm]

Originally posted by: Gr1mL0cK

I'm sure you yourself would just love to take a cut in your benefits!

They arent trying to cut benefits, the Unions/strikers are talking out their asses.

The companies want the employees to pay a premium for their insurance, and its a low one at that.

 

[sygyzy]

I have and I didn't lose an ounce of sleep. I have seen what it's like to have to pay 100% benefits for a family of three. (My dad's employer was an ass who didn't cover one dime). Now I am working and this year we had a sizeable decrease in how much my employer was paying.

I hope the picketers all die as well.

 

[StageLeft]

$25 as a bug exterminator? GOD.

And $17.50 to be a freaking cashier? I don't care what living expenses are there - that's a job that you should NOT be doing out of highschool. $7/hour for a senior person IMO. It's a totally and utterly skilless job.

If that guy is pissed about his benefits being lowered guess what? He should quit and find a new job. I took a 50% paycut last year (put me below his $17.50/hour). Did I protest? No, I'd have been freaking fired (I couldn't get another job due to visa issues). You either take what you're given or you find a new job. Striking generally doesn't sit well with me. It's a very mememe gimme gimme gimme mentality, as if your employer owes you something...kind of like a kid crying to their parents for not buying them more toys.

 

[digitalsm]

Originally posted by: amnesiac
It's not 50%.

The supermarkets are wanting to eliminate their FREE HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE.

OH NOES! That means they'll have to put out $15-75 a week out of their $18/hr jobs.

I hope they realize that they're overpaid as it is, and almost NO INDUSTRIES offer free health insurance anymore, especially in CA.

Its $20-80 a month. $5 for the employees and up to $15 for their family per week. Thats what the companies wanted, and the employees refuse to give any concessions.

 

[jjyiz28]

ok my bad, they want the employees to pay the benefits. =|

anyways, they are overpaid, and the people taking over are doing a fine enough job.

man, lets all go to our local supermarket and buy $100+ in goods.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: digitalsm

Originally posted by: amnesiac
It's not 50%.

The supermarkets are wanting to eliminate their FREE HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE.

OH NOES! That means they'll have to put out $15-75 a week out of their $18/hr jobs.

I hope they realize that they're overpaid as it is, and almost NO INDUSTRIES offer free health insurance anymore, especially in CA.

Its $20-80 a month. $5 for the employees and up to $15 for their family per week. Thats what the companies wanted, and the employees refuse to give any concessions.

Holy sh*t batman, what a bunch of greedy bastards (the employees).

Course I know little about this issue other than what I've heard here.

 

[digitalsm]

The unions claim that the companies are trying to force millions of dollars in insurance costs on the employees.

They are but like I said the individual employee would only be paying $240-960 a farking year, which is way way way below national average. Hell I pay $1200 a year just for myself(and its no where near as good as their policies are).

Yes the companies are wanting to shift $50-60million of insurance costs on to their 70,000 employees, but truth be told, the companies would still be picking up several hundred million in insurance costs.

The Union employees are being greedy, not the companies.

 

[Dragnov]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
$25 as a bug exterminator? GOD.

And $17.50 to be a freaking cashier? I don't care what living expenses are there - that's a job that you should NOT be doing out of highschool. $7/hour for a senior person IMO. It's a totally and utterly skilless job.

If that guy is pissed about his benefits being lowered guess what? He should quit and find a new job. I took a 50% paycut last year (put me below his $17.50/hour). Did I protest? No, I'd have been freaking fired (I couldn't get another job due to visa issues). You either take what you're given or you find a new job. Striking generally doesn't sit well with me. It's a very mememe gimme gimme gimme mentality, as if your employer owes you something...kind of like a kid crying to their parents for not buying them more toys.

If your employer was going to cut some of your benefits, but you could protest so that you could keep them (and not get fired.) What would you do?

Are you honestly going to tell me you're just going to accept it because you think you don't deserve it and that you are overpaid already?

I understand your point, I'm not a fan of unions either. Like I said, I don't really care for them but I don't see how anyone can blame them...

 

[digitalsm]

Originally posted by: Gr1mL0cK

Originally posted by: Skoorb
$25 as a bug exterminator? GOD.

And $17.50 to be a freaking cashier? I don't care what living expenses are there - that's a job that you should NOT be doing out of highschool. $7/hour for a senior person IMO. It's a totally and utterly skilless job.

If that guy is pissed about his benefits being lowered guess what? He should quit and find a new job. I took a 50% paycut last year (put me below his $17.50/hour). Did I protest? No, I'd have been freaking fired (I couldn't get another job due to visa issues). You either take what you're given or you find a new job. Striking generally doesn't sit well with me. It's a very mememe gimme gimme gimme mentality, as if your employer owes you something...kind of like a kid crying to their parents for not buying them more toys.

If your employer was going to cut some of your benefits, but you could protest so that you could keep them (and not get fired.) What would you do?

Are you honestly going to tell me you're just going to accept it because you think you don't deserve it and that you are overpaid already?

I understand your point, I'm not a fan of unions either. But again, like I said, I don't really care for them but I don't see how anyone can blame them...

They arent trying to cut benefits, they are trying to make the employees pay a really low weekly premium of $5-20. All I can say is cry me a river grocery guys and gals, you can fvck off greedy bastards.

 

[miri]

 

[zer0burn]

Ive worked in supermarkets for 7 yrs now but im still in college.

In Canada over here its different cashiers cannot make that kindve pay all those contracts were taken away... Used to be like that a few years back.

At my store after 2 years Im making around 17.75/hour except theres a difference Im a meat cutter... In each deptartment the pay scale is different, although that pay scale sounds crazy and needs to be lowered...

Top I can make is 24 bucks.

edit oh ya unions suck our contract just went threw we got a .25cent raise for the year....

I wonder what kindve raise the bigshots at the unions are getting more then 25 cents an hour I bet.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: Keego
Your insight has touched me. NOT. When you have a family, benefits are very.. BENEFICIAL.

Sure, but I believe that these types of jobs are not meant to raise a family on. They don't deserve the pay and they don't deserve any benefits. Good for them that they've managed to somehow be paid so much for what a middle schooler can do, but the majority of people are shocked to hear how much they earn for their unskilled/unknowledgeable work.

 

[StageLeft]

If your employer was going to cut some of your benefits, but you could protest so that you could keep them (and not get fired.) What would you do?

Are you honestly going to tell me you're just going to accept it because you think you don't deserve it and that you are overpaid already?

I understand your point, I'm not a fan of unions either. But again, like I said, I don't really care for them but I don't see how anyone can blame them...

If I was in a position where I could complain to my employer without any repercussions I'd probably do what most humans do and complain. I disagree with them having that power in the first place (the employees). They see their employers as a parental body that has to take care of its young instead of a mutually beneficial relationship. As far as I'm concerned, if you don't like your job you can either bring your concerns to the attention of your employer, or quit if they don't give a damn.

Unions are a way to force employers' hands tied behind their back because they can't do anything. You suck and put up a big stink and generally shouldn't even have a job and they can't even can you, which is quite unreasonable in the grand scheme of things.

And it's clear that this union situation is utterly ridiculous when you have CASHIERS making $17.50/hour. That's a job you can train anybody to do in about 20 minutes.

 

[bleeb]

The UFCW is just trying to protect their benefits. Nothing wrong with that. If you were paying union dues, you would want your union to protect your benefits.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: Gr1mL0cK

Originally posted by: Skoorb
$25 as a bug exterminator? GOD.

And $17.50 to be a freaking cashier? I don't care what living expenses are there - that's a job that you should NOT be doing out of highschool. $7/hour for a senior person IMO. It's a totally and utterly skilless job.

If that guy is pissed about his benefits being lowered guess what? He should quit and find a new job. I took a 50% paycut last year (put me below his $17.50/hour). Did I protest? No, I'd have been freaking fired (I couldn't get another job due to visa issues). You either take what you're given or you find a new job. Striking generally doesn't sit well with me. It's a very mememe gimme gimme gimme mentality, as if your employer owes you something...kind of like a kid crying to their parents for not buying them more toys.

If your employer was going to cut some of your benefits, but you could protest so that you could keep them (and not get fired.) What would you do?

Are you honestly going to tell me you're just going to accept it because you think you don't deserve it and that you are overpaid already?

I understand your point, I'm not a fan of unions either. Like I said, I don't really care for them but I don't see how anyone can blame them...

I would be wary to strike over my job when I have no special skills or knowledge. I'd try to switch into a job that can't be replaced by a highschooler.

 

[digitalsm]

Originally posted by: bleeb
The UFCW is just trying to protect their benefits. Nothing wrong with that. If you were paying union dues, you would want your union to protect your benefits.

And nothing will be wrong when the companies permanently lock these sad fvcks out of their jobs and have new hires permanently replace them. Thats whats going to happen unless these people agree to start chipping in a really low insurance premium to help off set costs and allow the companies to remain competitive.

Either that or the companies could just cave in shut down 1 in 3 stores in CA and fire 20,000 people.

 

[StageLeft]

At my store after 2 years Im making around 17.75/hour except theres a difference Im a meat cutter... In each deptartment the pay scale is different, although that pay scale sounds crazy and needs to be lowered...

Top I can make is 24 bucks

Holy crap you can make ~$50k/year cutting meat?!

 

[cricky]

You guys are rushing to judgement just a bit. As a grocery worker, I can tell you that the majority of the people who work there do NOT make $17.50 an hour. Most probably make $7.50 an hour. The top maybe 10-15% of workers, who have chosen the grocery industry as their careers are making the $17-20 an hour range. For most of the employees, 60-100 a month IS big money.

That said, I don't agree with them striking. It is the top 10-15% I spoke of being greedy. Our union reps in my state have been telling us for the last 6 months to be prepared to take on the cost of health insurance. I pay 2 hours a month for union dues, that's it. And get full medical coverage for me and family, pension, etc. If they tell me I need to pay another 2 hours a month, no skin off my back. I'll do it.

But I worry about those people who are making $7 an hour at my store. Are they willing to do the same? And should I be sticking up for them if they aren't? Labor collectives become a little more difficult in those situations...

--Chris