[CounterCounterCulture]

Bust the unions!

[Cinnamon Girl]

I heard a chick on the picket line tell KFI news that "people should stop yelling from their cars for us to 'get back to work' because it's not helpful."

GET BACK TO WORK!

[philetus]

Ever been frustrated by slow-moving supermarket lines? Or thought you could scan your own groceries faster than a cashier? Kroger is giving impatient shoppers a chance to prove it.
The Cincinnati-based supermarket chain is the first company to experiment with the U-Scan Express in Houston.

The high-tech automated checkout system lets diehard do-it-yourselfers scan their own groceries, pay for them with cash or a credit card, and bag the items all without the help of a cashier.

But don't get too excited just yet. U-Scan only works for customers who want to go through the express lane with an order of 16 items or less.

Kroger unveiled the concept this week at its Signature Store at Kuykendahl and Louetta in northwest Harris County. While it's a long way from perfect, industry experts are expecting the time-pressured customer to embrace U-Scan much as they did Automated Teller Machines.

Across the country, Kroger and competitors are installing the U-Scan and similar technology at a rapid pace. At the Kuykendahl store, if customers are still using the U-Scan after the novelty wears off, Kroger will begin installing the machinery in all 85 of its stores here.

[cajun-jack]

safeway and kroger both priced themselves out of buisiness here in NE Louisiana several years ago...there is one albertson's here but it is less than 2 yrs old and in the most affluent part of town. Even their sale items are too expensive for me.

I have been a supermarket manager and have owned 2 very small stores..there isn't as much profit in the grocery biz as everyone thinks there is...there really has to be a lot of volume to really make money. There is always employee pilfering and breakage and numerous other things to take the profits away.

Honestly, how many people do you know that can afford to walk a picket line for $50.00 a week right here before Christmas...methinks there just might not be as much sympathy from the folks drawing a full paycheck everyweek as they think. (but i have been wrong once or maybe twice in my life)

Hell, even an illegal mexican girl can drag an item across the scanner and the cash register tells you how much you owe...pedro can throw your stuff in a sack and take it to your car...they will both work for $6.00 and hour and actually work...that's $12.00 an hour between them...they will live (compared to what they're used to) like kings..and support half a village at the same time.

But now, I'm just a dumbass old truckdriver so what the hell do i know??

[Ignored]

Right after college I recall a grocery workers strike for higher wages. I had just spent 4 years of self deprivation and hard work while I watched my friends from high school, some of them grocery workers, enjoy weekend trips, parties, and relaxation that I couldn’t partake in because of classes, studying, and lack of funds. When I got out, the only job I could get was paying $3.40 an hour and my old friends working in grocery stores were making 4 times that much. In the face of all my sacrifices and hard work the grocery workers were striking because $14.00 an hour wasn’t enough to work at a job that was never intended to be made into a career. After postponing my life in pursuit of a college degree, it was several more years before I earned more money than a grocery-bagger who had spent the equal amount of his life in relative ease and joy. It was hard to swallow the fact that all of my hard work was worth less than some under-achieving can-stacker’s collective bargaining resources. Could I ever count on these strikers to support me if I approached my boss for a raise?

So now the grocery workers want another strike. These are jobs that were never intended to be made into careers. These are jobs for young people trying to make a start or for people who have some spare time and want to earn some extra cash. In fact grocery store chains even offer tuition benefits to help employees move on with their lives. If you were a store manager and somebody came up to you and said, "I want to be a grocery-bagger and can-stacker for the rest of my life," you would think he was crazy and refuse to hire him. Yet these people are picking one of the easiest jobs in the country and complaining because it doesn't pay enough to raise a family on. Like all strikers, they ask us to support their demands for a raise in spite of the fact that they don't support us when we ask for a raise. The strikers say that the company made a profit and that it should be passed on to them. Is that what this country has come to? Trying to dig in to each other's profits? Picture this, the kid who mows your yard coming to you and saying, "I know you just got a raise, I demand a piece of it. Fork me over a chunk of that money or I'll slander you in front of your neighbors and make sure your yard doesn't get mowed for weeks."

[sonofatpatcher2]

Many years ago here in my small hamlet of Corsicana, Texas, we had a Safeway. The union checkers went on strike for higher wages. Today, there is not any Safeway here...

Or in Texas that I know of. The unions were a good idea when they began, but between the Mob and the DemocRats, they have become a festering sore...

[justa-hairyape]

Union goons are probably getting marching orders from Democrat party operatives. The only chance the Democrats (and therefore the unions) have to safe their party now is to tumble the economy. A landslide for Bush will spell doom for their party. Look for strikes from Unions in all sectors and in all states, eventually.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Apologies if you're already here - I don't have time to check, but thought you'd be interested in seeing this.

[gipper81]

I think I'll stop at Safeway tonight and pick up a few items.

[Central Scrutiniser]

I sure hope they do, nothing is more satisfying than pissing off a bunch of uneducated people who feel they should get a huge salary for doing something that can be done by a small computer. The stories I've heard out of LA on KFI have been hilarious! Bring it on low-tech entry level clerks!

[Jennikins]

** Bust the Unions*
I can't tell you enough how I wish this strike was over!
The union leaders are not getting shorted in their pay, but the strikers are getting only strike money. Personally, as much as it would be wonderful to have free health care for all, it is NOT possible. We have to pay approx $400.00 a month for ours (hubby and me).

[Alouette]

We will not allow the elimination of health care benefits. We will not allow workers to be starved into giving up health care for their families

Screw them. As an IT contractor, I have gone without health insureance for the past two years.

[Publius6961]

Wonderful!
Hope they go the way of the Air Traffic Controllers.

They thought they were indispensable too.
And they were highly skilled and trained...