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 ...
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.
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.
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.
Publix. A little more expensive but well worth it IMO.
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}.
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.
Mom said that Stop and Shop was ok.. but she loved Big Y and Shop-Rite.
For most retailers, the net profit is tiny compared to labor costs. It would not motivate much.
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.
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.
“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.
When you have dead weight you have two choices:
1. Hire more people to do the work the lazy people wont, thus increasing costs to the consumer.
2. More for retail side, dont 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.
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:
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.