KROGER'S ON STRIKE - - 3 states involved- - guess what they want???

passing thru · Dec 2, 2003

P.S. What Sam Walton did was not unethical.

In the history of the entire world, what he did is legendary.

He opened up a store. Told people, "If you want to work for me, I will give you a job. I promise you will always have a paycheck. It won't be the highest check in town. But you will never be laid off. You will be my associate. If you stay with me, I will give you stock in the company, in twenty years, you will be well off."

Every company in America looks at what he did with awe.

Since when is it unethical to offer people a honest job?

No strings attached.

The vast majority of the employees have no higher education, many haven't even a high school diploma.

Spend a hour or two in the coffee bar where they interview prospective employees and take a look at the folks they are interrviewing with respect and dignity.

Many of these folks have never had a job that lasted for more than a month or two.

Besides low prices, I hear people say they prefer Walmart because it is "one stop" shopping. Groceries, clothes, pots 'n pans, lawn and garden center, toy store, coffee shop, beauty shop, photographer, stamps and mail box, eye glasses, insurance, pharmacy, rest rooms.

You see all your neighbors and friends.

No need to drive all over the hill or town to 5-6 stores. Just park it at Walmart and do all your weekly chores in one place.

That is what I hear.

When I transferred up here in May, I knew I would be 2 months without insurance coverage.

I went to two single standing pharmacies, Rite Aide and Walgreens.

I WANTED to avoid Walmart.

BOTH stand alone pharmacies charged double for my one prescription. $199.00ss

I talked face to face with the pharmacist at Rite Aid and explained I would be paying cash until my insurance with the new employer kicked in. I nearly pleaded with him to cut me a better deal.

He said he "can't do it."

I drove out to the highway, handed my prescription to the Walmart pharmacist and said, "I do not have insurance. I will be paying cash. How much will it be? I want to know BEFORE you fill it. "

"$ 98.00 "

"I'll wait." I said.

What's unethical about that?

God bless Sam Walton.

iliel · Dec 2, 2003

Originally posted by SmilingBluEyes

I would not cry to see Wallyworld disappear tomorrow here.

AMEN!!!!!!!

I do not shop there, I would rather run to the ends of the earth for something than go down the street and support walmart!

pickledpepperRN · Dec 2, 2003

Here is southern California three contracts were up at different chains. Vons (owned by Safeway), Albertsons (Safeway again), and Ralphs (Kroger).

Vons gave a notice to strike and the other two chains workers were LOCKED OUT!

NOT on strike!

It is way more complicated than the ads by the companies.

Healthcare would cost the worker more, deductions would go up, and new hires would be paid MUCH less with having to pay a larger amount for healthcare.

The CEO of Safeway took $34 MILLION in stock options and went to the Bahamas after the "last, best, final offer" was presented.

Workers decided to take the picket lines from the Ralphs/Kroger markets. Then became aware of a previously secret agreement to SHARE the money with their "competition".

I know a nice single woman who has worked VERY hard at my local market for 43 years. To talk to her you would never know but she has a learning disability and cannot count change. She makes $8.00 an hour as the most helpful, pleasant, efficient boxer ever. Her insurance would increase to more than $1,200 a year. With her diabetes and hypertension her medications cost too. Her take home working full time is less than the average rent in this city. She always has a room mate.

If she has to pay the increased insurance her healthcare will be paid for by TAXPAYORS!

As a working RN I can afford healthcare.

I have seen her help many many disabled shoppers to their car. Her life has been of service to us. She is locked out and says her unemployment is almost as much as what she made working.

This may be the wrong thread but a few facts may help. I know nurses are kind people.

Why take it out on the workers?

Why not be upset with the HMOs and the millionaires?

passing thru · Dec 2, 2003

My neighbor and I went to high school together. She quit school in the 10th grade.

She started working at Safeway when she was 25. From the age of 35 on, she has exceeded me in hourly wages.

I understand what you are saying SpaceNurse.

Kroger employees, with the highest wages in the grocery category, (as a result of 25 years of strikes and union representation CAN ALSO AFFORD to pay for their health

insurance.)

WHY should we shoppers do it?

Your poor pathetic example is criminal and I would be on the phone to the t.v. investigative reporter and the evening news.

ID BE SHOUTING THIS SITUATION FROM THE ROOFTOPS !

If a 60+ years old disabled employee is making $ 8.00 an hour, after FORTY THREE YEARS WITH THE COMPANY, this is criminal abuse. !!!! It cannot possibly be called anything else.

The state's attorney general should be informed ! Plus a dozen other disabled organizations. I'd sue them til she would be a millionaire !

However:

I hardly think this person is representative of any "average" employee of the Kroger Corp.

obrnteacher · Dec 2, 2003

I just felt I had to reply since there are so many negative comments about Kroger.

First, I'm an RN that lives in WV. My mom works for Krogers and she does not get paid more than me. In fact, since I started working in 1985, she has never been paid more. Right now, she's been there for 20 years, and gets paid about $10.oo an hour. So, you figure if she makes more than nurses.

The past several years they have had pay cuts to keep benefits. As an employee of Krogers, my mother DOES PAY for her health insurance. The Kroger company is wanting the employees to pay a higher percentage of their health insurance. Here, the percentage is 20 % this year, then 20 % more the following year and they can open up the contract at any time and make additional changes. For my mother, that would cost her quite a portion of her pay check.

Keep in mind also that Kroger employees do not work 40 hours a week on a regular basis. Some employees have to work 25 years or more to get 40 hours. If my mom gets 40 hours, its because the store calls her in to work. Sometimes only for 4 hours. She is never scheduled to work 40 hours. How many of us do that?

If you want more facts, let me know... I do see both sides of the issue but I more of a personal reference with the employees and not the company.

SmilingBluEyes · Dec 2, 2003

Originally posted by obrnteacher
I just felt I had to reply since there are so many negative comments about Kroger.

First, I'm an RN that lives in WV. My mom works for Krogers and she does not get paid more than me. In fact, since I started working in 1985, she has never been paid more. Right now, she's been there for 20 years, and gets paid about $10.oo an hour. So, you figure if she makes more than nurses.

The past several years they have had pay cuts to keep benefits. As an employee of Krogers, my mother DOES PAY for her health insurance. The Kroger company is wanting the employees to pay a higher percentage of their health insurance. Here, the percentage is 20 % this year, then 20 % more the following year and they can open up the contract at any time and make additional changes. For my mother, that would cost her quite a portion of her pay check.
Keep in mind also that Kroger employees do not work 40 hours a week on a regular basis. Some employees have to work 25 years or more to get 40 hours. If my mom gets 40 hours, its because the store calls her in to work. Sometimes only for 4 hours. She is never scheduled to work 40 hours. How many of us do that?

If you want more facts, let me know... I do see both sides of the issue but I more of a personal reference with the employees and not the company.

now I am interested in words from "the other side"

cause there are always at least 3 sides to any story. do tell.

pickledpepperRN · Dec 3, 2003

My anger is directed at the multimillion dollar insurance industry. They (with the exception of Kaiser & maybe others) do nor provide ANY HEALTH CARE!

They do have big buildings and many executives with $$$$$$$!

Why be angry with a worker who stands all day or night waiting on the public and is not rich?

The $12.00/hr worker blaming the $15.00/hr worker is sad to me.

http://www.calnurses.org/supstrike1003/setrecsupstrike.pdf

http://www.calnurses.org/supstrike1003/supstrikefacts.pdf

http://cna.igc.org/supstrike1003/

Action on Healthcare Crisis Imperative

Los Angeles' supermarket workers now on strike, as well as those employed by the city's transit system and in the Sheriff's office, deserve the full support of all working people and their organizations. The attempts to cutback their health benefits are a crude assault on them and their families. It is a cruel rebuke to thousands of workers who have remained on their jobs serving the public in part because they have had a compact with their employers that has left them free of the pain and anxiety being experienced by the millions of people across the nation who are either uninsured or underinsured. Employers complain about the high cost of healthcare insurance, however, supermarket profits have climbed 91 percent over the past five years. That's 10 times greater than the rate of increase in their contribution to employee healthcare coverage.

The reality of the current strike, repeated in highly contentious collective bargaining across the country, has brought into sharp relief the basic issue of how healthcare is financed and delivered in our country. It's a problem the solution of which can hardly be put off any longer.

What we are witnessing is "the life and death struggle of the employer-based healthcare system," said the leader of a Los Angeles union local involved in the grocery workers strike. True. And, it raises an important question. Is the healthcare insurance system that ties coverage to employment - and requires that working people continually battle to save it in bargaining with employers who would reduce or eliminate it - really worth saving? It is also the question hanging over the much heralded new law in California requiring employers provide some level of coverage. As long as nothing is done to control the prices set by the profit-driven healthcare insurance companies and the multinational pharmaceutical corporations, healthcare cost will continue to soar. So too will the number of people without any health coverage. Over 2002, the number of people without health insurance increased 2.4 million bringing the total to 43.6 million.

According the U.S. Department of Labor, the proportion of private-sector workers covered by employer-sponsored healthcare plans fell from 63 percent during 1992-93 to 45 percent in 2003 and those still providing coverage are shifting costs to employees. Of those who were insured, most were in plans that required employee contributions and over the past decade those premium payments have risen nearly 75 percent.

Meanwhile, the cost of the employees' contribution to employer-sponsored healthcare is rising far faster that their wages. That growing gap is causing many to forfeit healthcare coverage and that in turn has become a major factor in the continual increase in the number of uninsured. In many cases workers are being pressured to bargain away wage increases and other benefits in order to remain insured.

The strikes over healthcare - and there will be more - are only the latest illustration that we are experiencing a healthcare crisis. As the prices charged for delivering healthcare continue to rise, there will be no remedy to the situation unless decisive measures are taken. The best answer lies in abandoning the employer-sponsored health insurance paradigm altogether. The alternative is government-sponsored health insurance on the "single payer" model with guarantees of a single standard of patient care. Healthcare has emerged as a central question in the current Presidential election campaign. With public attention focused on the issue, it is a good time for unions and others to press forward the campaign for a comprehensive, universal healthcare system.

pickledpepperRN · Dec 3, 2003

Originally posted by passing thru
If a 60+ years old disabled employee is making $ 8.00 an hour, after FORTY THREE YEARS WITH THE COMPANY, this is criminal abuse. !!!! It cannot possibly be called anything else.

The state's attorney general should be informed ! Plus a dozen other disabled organizations. I'd sue them til she would be a millionaire !

However:

I hardly think this person is representative of any "average" employee of the Kroger Corp.

Nope not average at all!

I would notify the media except she wants to be treated like another worker. She is physically strong at age 61, knows the location of every item in the store, and always has a smile for customers.

In otherwords she doesn't think of herself as disabled. Her work is expotentially superior to the teens who often do the same job.

I doubt if she is oficially listed as disabled and has supported herself for all her adult life.

We are friends.

Noney · Dec 3, 2003

Our Krogers hires a lot of "partime" help usually teens. They don't get the bene's.

On another note, why shouldn't the kroger union workers stand up for any losses? Just because I pay for my health insurance doesn't mean they should, I was hired into my job knowing I was going to pay for it, just as they were hired in knowing they weren't paying for it.

When I stop at our Krogers in the evening I can expect to stand in line for a long time if it's busy, I can also expect to pay higher prices This is why I usually shop at Walmart, less waiting lower prices.

What's my point?

darned if I know:D

Noney

Sheri257 · Dec 3, 2003

Originally posted by manna
I live in a small town, but we are due to get a WM supercenter sometime within the next year - I'm actually looking forward to it.

Sure, I would love to support the smaller stores, but they could use some competition so as not to rob the consumer blind....

Last time I bought a block of cheese at my local grocery store for $5.29 when the MSRP was clearly marked on the box as $2.99.

You may not like Wal-mart as much as you think. The store in my area is absolutely horrible.

There's no space in the store. You literally have to fight to get through the tiny pathways between shelves, there's so many people and no room for shopping carts --- which are constantly bumping up against each other.

And when you finally get to the shelf with the item on sale, it's all sold out. If it's a popular item with a marked down price, chances are they won't have it in stock. This has happened to me on several occasions.

It's kinda hard to save money if they don't have the items that you want in stock. It completely eliminates the reason for going there in the first place.

I realize I'm in the minority, but I think Wal-Mart is completely overrated. I'll never shop there again.

FullMoonMadness · Dec 3, 2003

reguarding the quote of sam walton who stated "you will never be laid off"...there are 4 walmarts within 40 miles of my house,the closest being 2 miles away. three of these stores laid off large amounts of employees just 2 months ago.the store closesest to my house let 40 people go. that kind of downsizing makes news and it was a hot topic of conversation around here.i live in a year round vacation destination, we have a huge and constant influx of tourists.you would think that would afford the employement of these people. all it means is there is an even longer wait at walmart to check out.and the posted prices at walmart are much higher than krogers,the only difference is that walmart says they will match any advertised price.who has time to bring in sale papers from 5 different stores?i no longer use their pharmacy and avoid stopping there at all costs.you will never be laid off

passing thru · Dec 3, 2003

OBRNTEACHER, It has been in the Charleston, WV newspaper for months that the WV Kroger's employees are not paying a cent for their insurance....never have.

It has been written every week that the strike is about ONE issue: The company wants the employee's to start paying part of their insurance...a very small part .

I work with several people whose spouses work at Kroger's.

They all say the strike is about insurance payments and we have arrgued this topic at work. They all say their Kroger spouses get their insurance "free" and always have.

Space Nurse: You are the best. I love your information and,

as usual, you are hitting the nail right on the head.

I read all of your post. I agree.

The insurance industry is the culprit....but they are elusive.

Too big for anyone but God to touch.