Nice post..
Was going to post the same thing...

They are waisting their time striking...
Unions are a joke...

OP!! Get back to work....
Nobody supports unions except their own employees.. and most of you are striking not realizing there is no benefit to this outcome..

Unions are the leech of our society.

They do nothing but protect the lazy.

How come you guys dont support people that try and make an honest living. When the employer wont come back to the bargaining table, that basically means that the employees are locked out. If any of you guys were out on the road i would support you all in a second because we are a club. Why has everyone come on here and shit all over the place in my thread.
I work in Labour relations as well and i am assuming from your comment that you are on the management side; Well i am on the workers side. Not only have they done this to the extra foods members in Maple Ridge but they have tried to propose the same thing to the Prince Rupert Extra Foods.
The Contract that they are offering means that they take wage roll backs by more than 4 bucks an hour. Think about it, you have been living your life working there for 20 years and you are used to living with the money that you get, but all of a sudden your employer says that he wants to give you 4 bucks LESS an hour. How would you survive?
I am honestly just asking for support for those workers here from people I thought would help out a fellow revscener.

A business operates with the intention to earn a profit. They do not operate at a loss to subsidize the worker’s well-being. When the revenue-liabilities (read: union dues, employee expenditures) equation is bleeding red ink, the business has no reason to remain open.

I’m sorry to hear your workers are getting a 20% pay reduction. Think of it this way, the company can do one of two things:

1) Reduce work hours/wages, so everyone still gets to keep their jobs; or
2) The business can simply shut the bloody thing down!

A business is not a charity, it works for a profit!

We’re not even going to touch on the topic of how your pay should be linked to your performance + your skillset.

I certainly do support people making an honest living.

I don't consider stocking shelves or working a cash an "honest" living.


No, it means management feels employees are not negotiating in good faith and chooses not to negotiate with them.

I would expect you to support me cause of merit, not blind faith.

I make good money, if I was striking asking for more I'd expect others to kick my ass.

Its not about which "side" you are on, its about merit. Read the book "Getting to Yes", its a great perspective on negotiating.

So what? They could do this worldwide... what's the actual problem?

When 911 happened government contracts took a long time to get through all the new legal paperwork. My company had 2 choices: pay everyone for only 3 days/week, or close. I had a choice: accept this, or apply for EI while looking for a new job.

Guess what I did.

I am more than willing to help someone out, yet based on merit. Sympathy is for chicks, save the drama for your mama.

So since you know so much about all this, answer some questions:

- why are they striking? (exact reason, no general "wage and benefits" crap)
- what is their current wage/benefits?
- what are comparable stores paying in the area?
- why is management requesting salaries be rolled back?
- what is the chance the store will just close rather than negotiate?

How much support are you getting from other UFCW workers? They should be your main support and if they really supported you, every loblaws own location would be on a sympathy strike (if it's allowed). But they're not....because they don't care either.

Its illegal to strike while you have an active collective agreement. (thats called a wild cat strike). Employees are in support of the maple ridge members, I cant give to much information out on this as privacy becomes an issue. I am sorry I cant answer your questions. If you feel that you dont support them based on merit thats fine. I will be at the event with my skyline, if anyone wants to come, they can send me a PM.

Thanks,
Good Luck.

BS. Typical hiding behind the issue. Not only do you get no support on merit, now you get no sympathy either.

Wages/benefits for grocery store employees is not a privacy issue unless they are making enough that it'll be embarrassing to post.

You didn't give us any merit to support them. Don't blame us for not supporting them, blame yourself for not giving us a reason to support them - other than sympathy.

Go support them and stop posting here. No-one cares, and you won't post the information to allow them to make a decision to care.

You'll learn that the majority here hate unions like they hate the police, that is, until they need them.

WOW, i didnt expect to see this leak onto RS

I've seen these guys striking for what seems like years, you'd think they'd take the hint that the employer doesnt give a damn...

well they kind of did take that hint because i saw these teenagers/kids standing in front of the Superstore in Pitt Meadows handing out flyers telling people not to shop at the Loblaws store because of the mistreatment of the Extra Foods employees, who are Part Time workers who want higher wages btw their argument is many of them are single parents who need more $$

they should realize there's no way in hell loblaws is going to be paying them more $$ when superstore is 5mins away making them $$$ and that particular Extra Foods was dying people hardly shopped there (because its a dump) coupled with the economic situation

im going to bet that Loblaws is going to stick a T&T Supermarket in its place its the only way they can compete with the Save-On-Foods/Coopers Food and Safeway that are like 2mins away as it wouldnt make sense to stick another superstore in its place




edit: i should add i have no issue with employees and their unions working to get better paying jobs, but you have to realize when the games lost and either change your tactics or admit you've lost and look towards perhaps another job & retraining

http://fashiontribes.typepad.com/fas...yes_bage_2.jpg

no bagel no bagel no bagel no bagel!!!!!

Thing is, police are are needed. They're an essential service. Unions, on the other hand, are not really needed in today's society. There was a time when they served a purpose, but i would argue that today they are largely unnecessary.

Remember, unions are another business. They're in business to make money. Their business is convincing idiots that they need their representation.

you quite literally took the words right out of my mouth. for years i've been saying that.

shut the fuck up u lazy dog fucker.

OK let me chime in,(for what its worth). Ive worked in the grocery industry for close to 10 years, and as time has gone on ive seen that it is not clearly as black and white as people seem to think. Does everyone who works in a grocery store deserve to make $20 plus/hr? HELL NO. Are there those who do? Certainly. There are far more things involved than just put canned corn on the shelves. Do I work for Loblaws? No. But I have in the past, and it wasn't fun by any stretch of the imagination. Millions upon millions of dollars go through grocery stores every week, and wages very regularly account for less than 5% of the stores operating costs.

Has the ufcw union ever done anything for me personally? Nope. But anyone who tells me that i dont work hard, and is simply convinced that all I do is put out cereal for 8 hrs a day can certainly come and try to do my "unskilled labour". Are there massive dogfcukers? You bet. But the vast majority of them are the weiners making $8/hr. I cant speak for the Extra Foods in question, but if the Loblaws model holds true, I'm sure they were getting treated like shit well before there were any contract disputes.

I just think the general misconception that grocery workers are lazy,uneducated simpletons is quite comical. Go into a grocery store and ask somebody in a produce dept. what their day consists of. I'm sure the list will be far more involved than you think it is.

if a job doesnt pay enough, quit and find another one. no one is pointing a gun at your head to force u to work.:)

Never said I didnt get paid enough, what I was saying is people who work in grocery stores arent lazy, like people seem to think.

I've worked at 2 jobs that had unions. The one (KFC) had a sweet union that got us more than the union dues were (I started at 10.18, bumped to 11.68 after 3 months, and we got $1/shift for cleaning our uniforms. Dues were something like $3/paycheck). The other one, when I worked at Superstore, was a joke. After the union cuts and such, I was making $7.07/hour. Sure there was a health plan and stuff but I was covered 1.5x already under my parents, and I couldn't opt out of the SS one. I hate that union.

Easy solution you want more job choices? Get more skills the more skills you have the more options you have. Or you can sit around complaining to each other and RS while attempting to do the same work for more money. If your making 4$ less an hour you've already been riding coat tails for how long you've had that extra money.

I will have to disagree with this. Unions aren't talent agencies. They're about shifting the market power from companies to labor.

Sorry to take a shit in your mouth but how about you put some money aside go to school and get a better career. You can be making double $24/hr if you go to school and start a career in something or do a trade.

You work at a food store, you're not going to get a raise.

Walmart



if anyone thinks unions aren't needed they're idiots. the extra foods issue isn't about whether there should be unions or not... its whether they should give up their fight or not... and they SHOULD give it up

You must work for a union.

Salaries in unions themselves are sickening.

Oh I know what you mean. Nurses make waaay too much. Same with police officers, paramedics, firefighters, and teachers (they're the worse, and that's not even a joke).

- For the amount of money Police Officers make here in Canada vs the amount of bs they face ( from perps to stupid lawmakers and Judges who are to lenient on repeat offenders) ? I would say they are underpaid.

-As for teachers: to have a high quality public school system, you have to pay top notch dollars.

- Nurses in the states make way more than the nurses here. In addition, there's barely any growth in salaries. Have you seen a Nurse who's a millionaire b/c of his/her earnings?


From my paradigm, they don't make enough money and I belong to the private sector. Then again, everyone wants more than what they earn.