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As Stop & Shop Negotiates With Unions, Mass. State Treasurer Offers Unique Take
New England Public Radio ^

Posted on 04/04/2019 11:29:27 AM PDT by matt04

Stop & Shop returns to the negotiating table with its unions on Wednesday. The state treasurer of Massachusetts has criticized the company's proposals — and she has a unique perspective.

State treasurer Deb Goldberg's family started, but no longer owns, Stop & Shop. Her ancestors opened the Economy Grocery Store in Somerville in 1914, and she and her family ran what became the Stop & Shop chain until the late 1980s.

In a video for the 2014 state Democratic convention, Goldberg presented herself as a friend of labor.

"We brought in the unions ourselves," she says in the video, "and created a company where literally thousands of people from multiple generations had jobs they could count on, with good pay and good benefits."

Goldberg has sided with the unions in their battle now with current owner Ahold Delhaize. The unions say the company is offering inadequate wages and wants to cut some benefits.

"This behavior is the opposite extreme of what my family and I represented and what our relationships were with our families, our workers, our unions," Goldberg said.

But according to published reports, while Goldberg's family was involved, labor relations weren't all sunshine and roses. There were attempts to use non-union workers.

And there were strikes in 1985 and again in 1988, while the company was contending with takeover bids.

...

Jeff Jones started at S&S as a part-timer on the night crew in 1984, and agreed with Goldberg's take.

"It just seemed like it was giant family-managed business," he said. He's now vice president of United Food and Commercial Workers 1459...

"There was a local New England origin to the business, where you don't really have that now," he said. "You have people who are professional bean counters."

(Excerpt) Read more at nepr.net ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Delaware; US: Massachusetts; US: New York; US: Vermont
KEYWORDS: antifa; berniesanders; clowncar; debgoldberg; delaware; elizabethwarren; fauxahontas; joebiden; joeclowncarbiden; massachusetts; newyork; ocasiocortez; occasionalcortex; slingingbull; somerville; stopandshop; ufce; unions; vermont
Strange. Her family started the company, willingly brought in the Union, had labor issues, tried to use non-union labor, had strikes and eventually sold it. I wonder why?

I don't know why things might be different from 1984 in the industry, Jeff. Not like WalMart, Target, Aldi, and a whole host of other non-union competitors moved in to you're once nearly elusive market.

1 posted on 04/04/2019 11:29:27 AM PDT by matt04
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To: matt04

Stop and Shops are generally dirty places. I worked in one of their produce departments and the first step of the day was to empty the rat traps.


2 posted on 04/04/2019 11:40:37 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (If we get Medicare for all, will we have to show IDs for service? Why?)
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To: Vermont Lt
Stop and Shops are generally dirty places.

Concur.

Mahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhkit Baskit (DeMoulas for us old timers) is a better option. A few years ago, employees there went on strike to protest a management change...that right there should tell you something about the way the workers feel about the owners.

3 posted on 04/04/2019 11:45:05 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost (Spirit of '75)
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To: matt04

Publix. A little more expensive but well worth it IMO.


4 posted on 04/04/2019 11:52:47 AM PDT by V_TWIN
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To: matt04
Giant Eagle in W PA are almost immune from strikes as 50% of the stores are company owned and union and 50% are independently owned and non-union {but the workers receive about the same hourly rates}.

The unions realize that Giant Eagle faces brutal competition from Walmart, Target, Aldi's etc and the workers are treated fairly.

From a customer perspective, we have excellent choices at competitive prices {but we always bitch about how much the prices increase, which is human nature}.

Contrary to what bill maher thinks about our eating habits, we eat better than kings and queens from medieval times {and most of the people in the world, today}.

5 posted on 04/04/2019 12:29:09 PM PDT by USS Alaska (Nuke all mooselimb terrorists, today.)
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To: matt04
If I had a business, and it became unionized, I would liquidate it immediately. No way would I bust my hump operating a company only to have to give into union demands. Her family decided that selling out was preferable to dealing with union demands. If unions were so great, why didn't they just give in on everything and live in an economic utopia? They wouldn't be in business very long, that's why.

Unions eventually destroy everything they get their hooks into. Union workers know this (or should), but they don't care as long as their bed is feathered.

6 posted on 04/04/2019 1:54:19 PM PDT by fhayek
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To: matt04

Mom said that Stop and Shop was ok.. but she loved Big Y and Shop-Rite.


7 posted on 04/04/2019 2:25:40 PM PDT by ConservaTeen (WFLA's Jack Harris: Brooklyn is missing their village idiot. Right you are, Jack.)
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To: matt04
Goldberg has sided with the unions in their battle now with current owner Ahold Delhaize. The unions say the company is offering inadequate wages and wants to cut some benefits.

I'm really surprised that more companies don't go into a part-owner type setup with their employees/union. Obviously unions are bad news to start, but once they're in there it's a simple process.

Give employees regular pay, then their only benefit is a bonus based on company profit at the end of the year (25% of profit is split between them, or something like that). (You can include 401k or other benefits as you want.) This makes the employees have some skin in the game, and bases their pay on how wellthe business does, so all these ridiculous more-pay and more-benefits CAN'T hurt the business - it's all based on how much (and if) the business makes any profit.
8 posted on 04/04/2019 3:12:42 PM PDT by Svartalfiar
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To: Svartalfiar

For most retailers, the net profit is tiny compared to labor costs. It would not motivate much.


9 posted on 04/04/2019 3:17:05 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 ("Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." -- Voltaire)
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To: V_TWIN

No Publix in the New England, but we have a local chain in CT/MA called Big Y. They are non-union, American owned and offer Publix style service at similar prices. Always spotless, plenty of staff and the staff they have are always knowledgeable, courteous and presentable.

S&S offers the same high prices with a union workforce that work at their pace and would often rather finish a person conversation before helping a customer. Of course, the union has the habit of protecting the people who should be fired, thus keeping dead weight on the payroll.


10 posted on 04/04/2019 7:32:53 PM PDT by matt04
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To: fhayek

One of the locals was bitching how it wasn’t fair that vendors like Coke, Nabisco, breads, etc. were stocked by outside vendors and “stealing” jobs. Of course they were really upset that the UFCW wasn’t doing it because that would be more dues to the union bosses.

One of the other complaints was that currently a FT employee only pays $20/week for insurance for their whole family. They were saying how unfair it was that S&S wanted them to pay more. Boo-hoo. They also have a pension so don’t have anything removed from their check for retirement.

A few years back S&S had opened some stores in northern MA and VT. They were forced to closes them and layoff all the employees and the non-union competition beat them on prices and service. The Union still seems to operate under the impression that Aldi, whole Foods/Amazon, Target, wal-Mart, etc. don’t exists or are just to be ignored.


11 posted on 04/04/2019 7:45:03 PM PDT by matt04
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To: matt04

“the union has the habit of protecting the people who should be fired, thus keeping dead weight on the payroll.”

You nailed it there, and that my friend is the problem with them. IMO why the big 3 US car manufacturers can’t hang with Toyota, Honda etc.


12 posted on 04/05/2019 3:57:33 AM PDT by V_TWIN
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To: V_TWIN

When you have dead weight you have two choices:

1. Hire more people to do the work the lazy people won’t, thus increasing costs to the consumer.
2. More for retail side, don’t hire more and have customer service suffer as a s result.

Either way the customer looses, causing the company to loose business and eventually lay-off or go under.


13 posted on 04/05/2019 7:31:28 AM PDT by matt04
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
Goldberg has sided with the unions in their battle now with current owner Ahold Delhaize. The unions say the company is offering inadequate wages and wants to cut some benefits. "This behavior is the opposite extreme of what my family and I represented and what our relationships were with our families, our workers, our unions," Goldberg said. But according to published reports, while Goldberg's family was involved, labor relations weren't all sunshine and roses. There were attempts to use non-union workers. And there were strikes in 1985 and again in 1988, while the company was contending with takeover bids.
Gosh, but the unionized employee the "journalist" cherry-picked agrees with Goldberg anyway? Stop the presses! And from the FRchives:

14 posted on 01/13/2020 7:17:42 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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