A contract that covers 70,000 workers for 3 different grocers in So. California has expired. Negotiations broke down because Grocers are seeking concessions to compete with non union (read Wal-Mart) competetors and also due to the rising costs of health care. They have chosen to strike Vons. The UFCW had the nerve to request that Ralphs and Albertsons, who operate under the same contract, not lock out their employees. Ralphs and Albertsons have indicated that they will INDEED lock out their employess and a show of solidarity. I HOPE THE GROCERS SMASH THE UFCW. I will be crossing picket lines at my earliest convenience and giving picket holders a big smile as I come out with a basket full of groceries.
The employees get $18.00/hr now, and they want more? It's un-skilled labor. They should be getting minimum wage. Can you imagine paying some air-head $18 to put crap in a plastic bag?
People with a college degree can't find jobs in this market and they walk out? What a joke.
'Cuse me. It's $17.50/ hour, and that is what goes into their pocket. The store also pays 50% of their social security taxes. Plus other health benifits.
Actually the stores are asking them to pay more of the insurance cost that the stores have been paying all along.
Name another part time, no education, job that pays any health care.
Because the 3 stores are trying to break the union and pay the dumb idiots what their worth (minimum wage)
Think of every item you buy as paying and extra dollar to some moron. Because that's what you're doing.
Thanks Fubar for setting us straight. Apparently some of you think that working as a grocery clerk is demeaning and all clerks are stupid. Wake up!
*No* job is demeaning. If I had to work to supplement my retirement annuity I might wind up as a grocery clerk because I'm not qualified to do much else by virtue of my age and recent qualifying experience (former fighter pilot, Air Traffic Controller, very ooold degree in Aeronautical Engineering). I might be able to get a job in my LHS .
Be a little more tolerant of those who are not as fortunate as you. I apologize for the light rant but every day as I read the news I become more aware of the fact that virtually all of the world's problems would be solved if we were all stopped hating and became tolerant.
You don't even have to be old. Here in Colorado HP, Agelant(Sp?) and other high tech companies in the last two years have laid off so many of the tech degree folks that they are working any where they can. I know a good electrical tech that is now working for slave wages at Wal Mart just to keep food on his family's table. I spent four months laid off from the company I work for and found that every postion I applied for had anywhere from a 100 to 300 people fighting for the postion that a couple of years ago the company would have been lucky to get five applicants. Many of them are way over qualfied folks that are fighting to just find a job. You know you are in trouble when you see experianced project managers in construction that were getting six figure salaries fighting for estimating, sales and project engineer postions. I never thought I would be happy to get called back at my old company to hold down two postions, take a pay cut and get less than 40 hours a week, but brother I was wrong.
I also agree with you there is no lowly jobs. We all depend on each other to make things work. Not everyone needs or wants a PHD. I have been a janitor to office engineer in my lifetime and to me the guy that cleans the toilet is part of the team as much as the guy that sits at a desk.
To me the whole concept of economic recovery is a joke as long as Americans keep losing jobs and trading living wage postions for minimum wage jobs. This week 900 grocery store workers in the Denver Metro area lost their jobs because Cub Foods pulled out. I am certain they are pleasd that the other "economic indicators" are up.
I never expected in my life time to get hit as hard as I have this year and what is worse is that I know way to many good hard working people that are in the same situation. I wish what I have experianced on no one else.
I know just how you feel. I went through the same thing in 1981 when the last big crunch hit. I was unemployed for 5 months. I still don't know if I recovered from that financially yet! I was an R&D tech for ESS (second largest speaker manufacturer in the world) and I loved the work! Company died overnight from mismanagement. Went from there to cutting subfloors for mobile home manufacturers. Finally got a good upward mobility job with the DoD and been with them ever since. Sure, my wages are 25% below what the industry folks are getting, but I have had job security for 201 years!
I have a problem with the fuel tank mounting for the Avance 46. The hole in the firewall is not large enough for the fule tank cap to fit through. Would anyone with the Avance please tell me how you solved this problem?
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