Safeway CEO stands firm (SoCal grocery strike)

CONTRA COSTA TIMES ^ | 10/17/2003 | Janet Adamy

[Snerfling]

Safeway's chief executive said Thursday that striking Southern California grocery workers won't get a better contract offer as the Pleasanton grocer reported another quarter of lackluster sales.

The nation's third-largest supermarket chain said it is willing to take a temporary hit at its 289 Vons stores -- where picketers are turning customers away -- in exchange for cheaper labor costs in the long run.

[Joe Hadenuf]

and you can't make money without employees willing to work for you...especially in grocery. If it was possible it would already be taking place across the country with a fury.

I agree. However, once they break these unions, the companies will continue to reduce wages and benefits.

Thats what it's all about.

I imagine eventually most all the people working at the stores will be making near minimum wage with little or no benefits.

Eventually there will be few employees working at these stores, as soon as they develop a shopping cart that scans and totals it's contents. I understand they are looking at several different ways to significantly reduce their work force..

The real goal is no or few employees.....

[Joe Hadenuf]

I work for a small company (where my employer pays 100% of healthcare costs for employers not their families) and our controller was telling me that premiums rose about 30% on average last year.

They are just politely preparing you. Eventually, few companies will offer any real benefits....

[Joe Hadenuf]

The most inane part of this whole thing are those that support the strike as if higher wages will add more money to the local economy.

Well, you understand this isn't about higher paid wages. It's about hanging onto their benefits. But but bet the rent, the companies will beat these unions. I am confident of this.

As I told another poster, eventually they will all be paid as little as possible, and there will be little or no medical benefits...This is the clear trend..... No debate...

[Smogger]

The real goal is no or few employees.....

For an example of this goto Food 4 Less. No stockers (they just cut open a case and stick it ont the shelf) and no baggers (you bag your own). Most rich people don't like bagging their own groceries so Food 4 Less tend to be in low income areas. They want people to wait on them hand and foot with a smile, but don't want to pay. Personally I have no compunction about shopping at Food 4 Less, but most of you would cry about the lack of baggers.

As for completely automated systems they have systems like that installed at the Ralphs here in San Dimas, CA, and I have also used them at K-Mart. They are the biggest piece of crap every invented. You scan your own groceries and place them in the bag. If you can't place the paticular item in the bag because say for instance it doesn't fit the machine will whine and implore you to "Place the item in the bag" and won't let you scan the next item until you comply. If you decide you don't want something and try to delete it the entire machine has to be reset by a person. These things are a joke, and it's not like the grocer's pass the savings along to you for doing the scanning and bagging yourself.

In the meantime while the Grocery store workers union are just trying to hold the line (an endeavor I doubt they will be successful in) LA County Sheriff's are threatening to walk off the job unless they get a 3% salary INCREASE! Amazing...

[Joe Hadenuf]

I agree. As I said, the goals and trends of todays companies are clear. In the end, these employees will all lose.

[BurbankKarl]

I had SAG extras manning the picket lines at a Ralphs store here in Burbank...they said they were getting paid $5/hr by the Grocery Workers Union. yes, the numbers of picketers are dwindling...the ones I see at the stores that I normally shop at are the married ones...all the single ones are probably trying to find temp work.

It is just frustrating...there is a Ralphs next door, and I usually hit it up for either a salad or sandwich at lunch, then get cash back when I check out. Now I actually have to drive around looking for an ATM (got some new $20s though) and then go to some other place...takes up more of my lunch, which I use to read the WSJ

[Snerfling]

Seven local chapters of the union representing striking supermarket workers are suing Albertsons and Ralphs for locking out employees in response to the job action against Vons.

Link

The lawsuit is about the lockout. If they give notice of a layoff, then it's within the confines of the law.

[BurbankKarl]

I signed up under "Peter North" (porn star), tossed the card and used our work phone number...then told all our employees to just enter our work phone number for the 5% off. hahaha. Must give their computer fits with up to 3 to 4 different shoppers a day, ranging from Starbucks beans, microwave popcorn, sushi, candy, deli, gum...


>>>>I don't shop at any store that requires me to carry an ID card in order to take advantage of sales so they can track my purchases and build a database of what I buy)

[Snerfling]

eventually they will all be paid as little as possible

Joe, at some point you should become more familiar with economics. Higher wealth is not generated by higher wages/benefits - it's created through higher productivity.

Average living standards continue to rise because each successive generation develops previously untapped markets and/or invents new products/services.

Merely demanding higher wages/benefits through collusion and restriction of trade is always a losing proposition; onc which these poor deluded fools are going to soon find out.

[Solson]

Thanks for the clarity.

[BurbankKarl]

Catalinans must boat to market or go past friends in picket line


By Laura Wides
Associated Press


AVALON -- Residents of tiny Santa Catalina Island have a tough choice during the ongoing grocery clerks strike: Cross a picket line staged by friends and neighbors at the only supermarket in town or cross the ocean to shop on the mainland.

The situation has strained relations in the close-knit community and forced its 3,500 residents to get creative about shopping while coping with their mixed feelings.

Some residents are scouring health food shops and convenience stores to find the items they need. Others are giving shopping lists to neighbors who aren't shy about crossing the line.

Lorrie Blakley got a frantic call before she left the mainland to visit the resort island.

"My mom called and said, 'Bring eggs and cat food,"' Blakley said, explaining that her mother would rather travel 26 miles across the sea to the mainland than cross the picket line outside Vons.

Ana Jimenez, 66, doesn't feel that way. She made no apologies for going to the supermarket to get eggs and produce. Strikers didn't give her any trouble.

"They've known me for years," she said. "And they like me well enough."

Striking clerk Carlos Cubillo said things are different on the mainland than the island, where it's hard to ask neighbors to stay away from the store.

"We love our community," said Cubillo, who is also a volunteer firefighter, church leader and radio disc jockey on the island. "We apologize for these problems."

A total of 70,000 grocery clerks from three chains -- Kroger Co.'s Ralphs, Safeway Inc.'s Vons and Albertson's Inc. -- went on strike or were locked out Saturday from San Luis Obispo to San Diego in a contract dispute involving the cost of health care coverage and other issues.

Despite the steady presence of pickets on the sidewalk, Catalina's main Vons has stayed open through problems like temporarily running out of meat Thursday.

A handful of clerks picketed outside the store a block from the ocean. Passers-by honked in support as they cruised by in golf carts used to get around the island. In recent days, local businesses have donated pizza and drinks to strikers.

Clerk Carmen Seybole, 43, said it was hard seeing people she knows shop in the store.

"It hurts a little bit," said Seybole, who was joined on the picket line by her 3-year-old son, Shane. Among the shoppers were mothers of Shane's friends.

"They apologize and say 'we don't want to do this,"' Seybole said as Shane chased pigeons with a picket sign in hand. "They are our friends. I want to say something, but I hold back."

Helen Howard, 43, a personal trainer and cross-country coach at the local high school, had refrained from shopping at the Vons market, relying on food bought on the mainland, but crumbled Thursday.

She darted into the store to buy baking supplies for her daughter's school carnival.

"I really don't want to have to run all over town" gathering ingredients, Howard said. "I have to go in because I have to get the baking stuff. ... It's awkward. I know all these families. I teach some of their kids."

City Manager Rob Clark, 50, said the town's mayor had unsuccessfully petitioned the union to exempt Avalon from the strike. Clark has avoided shopping at Vons, relying on his wife to fetch groceries from the mainland, where she works.

But he regretfully acknowledged that he might eventually have to cross the line.

"Some of them are parents of my kid's friends," he said of the striking workers.

[Lael]

BTTT!!

[Roughneck]

Or better yet, sue the union itself as the responsible management entity with oversight of the striker. That would do much more to end the "aggressive" nature of these strikes.


Absolutely! Union Goons need to be brought DOWN a peg or two...

[2kids2cats]

"Ridiculous. Who the Hell is going to the doctore all the damn time anyhow? I never go."

I'll tell you who....the people who don't have to pay a cent for health care, the grocery clerks, that's who. Those of us who at least pay a portion of our costs use health care responsibly.

[dc27]

My wife works at Safeway and she really pisses off the union idiots bacause she can actually use logic. These idiots are whining about paying 3% insurance premium costs.
Remember when the Teamsters went on strike at the Safeway warehouse in Tracy? They got their ass kicked. After months of being on strike, the drivers came crying back to the table to find a worse contract than what was offered in the first place.
This is what will happen here. The only tough part about hiring replacement workers was that each chain had their own produce codes. That is not the case anymore. All codes are uniform in the U.S. and most produce is labeled with the codes. I was in management at Safeway the last strike and it didn't take much to train a replacement worker. The stores will bust the union this time.

[2kids2cats]

"Many of the picketers I have seen ARE teenage school kids."

Drive by the Ralph's and Von's in Anaheim Hills. You'd think this is a freakin pep rally. All these little "daddy made me get a job" cheerleaders are picketing, and then get into their brand new Beetle Convertibles and go to the mall. They have no clue. I just laugh as I proudly stride by them to shop.