| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 8:01:52 AM | So, these guys are striking because a 14% raise over the next three years is not enough. Oh, that and because they don't want their work week raised from 37 to 40 hours a week.
Gee.... I wonder if their other PART TIME JOB is unionized.
No support from me on this one.
I'm thinking $20/hr for unskilled labour is good enough. And striking to AVOID working 40 hours a week? Let 'em rot on the road.
Incidentally, Safeway is paying $18 an hour for replacement workers... in case there's anyone in POF land who needs a job. | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 9:05:15 AM | | I think I will save my sympathies and support for those who have to work like dogs for under $10 per hour .... | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 9:12:00 AM | I can't say I'm very moved by their cause.
40 hours a week isn't that much. | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 9:27:13 AM | Gonna agree with the rest - 40 hours aweek - how terrible! LOL
let 'em go get a 'real' job where 40 hours is usually acheived by 3 pm thursday!
no sympathy from me either. | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 11:29:01 AM | | Yeah for unions eh..!!?? Unbelievable.. | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 11:50:14 AM | hey golfing..can you be a tad more specific..have not had time to watch the news lately
are all the worker's striking?, or just truck driver's???..what ??who??
and these replacement worker's..is this just until the strike is over..or are they hiring permanently... | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 12:13:45 PM | You know, waaayyyy Back when, Unions had their place
and maybe for somehtings they still do, but for the most part I am not a fan of them, they do more damage to the economy as a whole than the good they do for workers rights.
NOW, back in the time when coal miners made 30 cents per day and lived in tin huts and worked 18 hour shifts..... Absolutely, they were needed!
but when I hear of the cost of a vehicle is 50% union benifits.......
sorry had to get that out, We now return you to your regularlly scheduled postings.... | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 12:56:51 PM | I hear of the cost of a vehicle is 50% union benifits.......
Actually the total cost of manufacturing a vehicle is close to 20% of the cost. That includes wages/pensions and benefits
the rest is Research and Profit... and of course executive bonuses | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 1:02:13 PM | | The strikers are at the Edmonton distribution center and the Lucerne ice cream factory in Edmonton. The staff in the store are not on strike. An FYI..the staff in the stores do not make $20 bucks an hour, they start around $10. I know this because the Safeway in Mission was forever hiring and had the wage posted. I have to wonder why someone making ice cream gets paid almost double what someone enduring angry, impatience customers makes. Having had to do CSR work before, it's one of the most difficult and stressful gigs there is. WAY harder than driving a forklift picking orders. | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 1:11:51 PM |
sorry had to get that out, We now return you to your regularlly scheduled postings....
Definitely no need to be sorry there. There was a time when unions leveled the playing field for workers to make a fair wage. Unfortunately, some unions got out of control and overinflated wages. But not ALL unions were created equal. I'm in the Iron Workers union and I couldn't agree more about what's being said about this union at Safeway. As much as workers have a rite to being protected by an entity (in this case, union and labour laws), sometimes some of these unions go WAY too far with their demands. 3 more hours per week? Oh noes! I work 12 hour days. And our union has never gone on strike. Not at this mill anyway.
I sometimes think the union I'm with would rather sit back and do nothing, which sucks. From personal experience, my union sees us as a number. I don't even get a christmas card from them. Heck one of my co-workers recently got a "welcome to the union" letter even though he's been in it for six years. LOL. Slick. But at least we get paid a fair wage for what we do... though at every other pipe mill, they get paid more than we do. It's probably due to politics and such.
It's pretty obvious that some unions are to blame for the loss of jobs (anyone familiar with what's happening with GM workers lately?). Paying someone WAY too much money to press three buttons over and over is absurd, and results in profit loss and eventually, with a lack of sales.. job loss.
I remember reading a story earlier this year about a large chunk of GM workers being laid off, while down the road in a town in Ohio, the non-union Honda plant (incidentally, where my "non-American" car was built), has been paying their workers about $28/hour, and all are still working.
Makes ya wonder....
4.67% raise per year? Heh... lucky **stards. I wonder if they're getting a signing bonus as well. I think on our last contract renewal we got 3%, and we had to practically THANK the company for that. 3% is the bare-minimum for COLA, isn't it? | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 1:27:22 PM | ^^^ I mostly agree with you man, but I don't on one point. I think the failure of GM and Chrysler was due to lousy management that had no vision. Ford is CAW and they didn't require a bailout. I'm not a Ford fan, but their product line up strikes me as higher quality and more memorable than GM and Chry.
But CAW workers ARE overpaid. Few auto plants are located in major cities, most are in smaller cities in Southern Ontario where prices are lower. In a place like London, Ontario or Windsor, it's still possible to buy a condo for less than $100 (do an mls.ca search in South London near White Oaks Mall for starters). Head to a place like Windsor and you'll find that the lifestyle of many auto workers is that of a nice house on the Lake, with an SUV, a trailer for the weekend and a boat in the driveway. These dudes whine about how "tough" things are..when in fact they live like gluttons.
Could you imagine if auto plants were located in Calgary and the unions demanded wages to keep up the same standard of living (big house, boat, trailer, SUV). We'd have to pay them 250K a year just to "survive". | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 2:45:46 PM | | You're right, I should have said that the UAW (with GM and I THINK Chrysler?) was not the only reason for their downfall... but it was definitely a contributing factor. Management was pretty hilarious, and of course unions negotiate with management for their contracts. To me, there was a lot of "what were you thinking?!" regarding some of their decisions in the past 15 years.. | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 5:18:57 PM | considering most companies put a freeze on pay raises since the reccession hit let alone cutbacks on paycheques these guys are lucky to get a raise at all. I used to work for a different food services warehouse and can say, the pace you work at and for freezer crews the pay around 17-20 bucks an hour comes with minimum of 4 years expirience. But consider working in a blast freezer for 8-10hours a day. the only things that disgust me is the fact they wont work what most warehouse workers work which is usually over 8 hours a day, or at least 40hours a week and odd overtime, and actually want more money while others are out there working harder for less paying jobs.
as for the union thing, they call it job security....was the worst 60bucks a month i used to pay out because if your a good worker, what do you have to worry about at work other then gettign the job done. | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 5:37:09 PM | | I imagine that they already do work 40 hours ( 5 ~ 8 hr shifts)...but do not get paid lunch..so it works to 37.5 hrs in a week. So, for the company to make them work 40 hrs, they would, in essense, be there 42.5 hours a week. | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 6:57:24 PM | Well Ford was all ready restructuring before GM and Chrysler needed the bail outs and went bankrupt.They hired Boeings former CEO Allan Mullaly and he has stream lined the company and lowered the wages since 2006.
So the Safeway workers don't want to be at work an extra 30 minutes every day.That's what it boils down to.I work 10 hours days.Their not getting any synpathy from me either.
So we know what they are asking for.What were they offered?Besides increasing their hours to 40 hours of work a week. | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 8:04:36 PM | | the way I look at it..no one is forcing those workers to stay at safeway..if they dont like the hours or wages offerred ...go somewhere else...no need to **** about how hard they have to work..or is that the key word..work..maybe the employer is just tired of a bunch of slackers and wants some real work done. We work 12 hrs a day here..and no one complains | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 8:16:46 PM | Not to start anything here but you guys seriously need to get your heads out of your asses. Do you acutally think that theses people are going to strike, possibly for months, over 3 hours a week??! Ofcourse not, in any collective agreetment bargaining situation there are MANY many factors. This is just one small one.
Hourly wages at the affected workplaces range from $14.41 to $20.41. A 14% pay increase equates to $2.65 an hour. the CEO pulled in 10 MILLION in compensation yearly. I know i sure as hell cant live off 21 bucks an hour. $2.65 for these people cound be the difference of keeping their lights on, feeding their children, or buying christmas presents.
anyways rants over - Live Better, Work Union. | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 8:23:49 PM | I am going to call in AE on this one as he has the best stats out the bunch of us (usually in my mind/reads anyway)
so someone do the math for me $2.65 per hour gross would equal what take home?
oh, and don't forget, some of these 'deserving' individuals might go up a tax bracket.....
yeah there is more to the arguments, but come on, striking for a full time work week being 40 hours......
how about someone in a trade or maybe a roughneck that works minimum 12 hours per day?
for the record, most roughneck jobs are getting better, now a maximum of 15 hours per day including travel, and of course 7 days per week for 24 days, before the government mandated 4 days off.......
ahhhh, 40 hour work weeks...... how I msss thee!!!! LOL
I work in management and until the slow down I still worked way more than 40 hours per week! | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 8:37:48 PM | | I know many people who live on less than $21 an hour..maybe it isnt the high cost of living..but the cost of living high..standards that is | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 9:22:54 PM | I don't make $21 an hour and I manage to support two kids. Things are tight and I'm living paycheque to paycheque,but I'm getting by. $21 and hour would definitely give me a little more wiggle room. I'm at work 42.5 hours a week with an unpaid lunch. We used to get a good amount of overtime, but we have an OT freeze at my shop. No OT definitely makes for tighter months. I miss having the freedom to work as a roughneck.
My wages aren't great and we won't be getting raises this year, but I sure as heck wouldn't be striking about it. Having a job is better than no job... | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 9:36:16 PM | Its not a strike, its a lock out.
Completly different. They didnt chose to be on the street.
''Canada Safeway told the UFCW union on Friday that it would lock out employees after talks broke off between the two sides. Union members rejected the grocery retailer's offer last week by margins of 71 per cent and 76 per cent for the warehouse and ice cream workers respectively.'' | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 9:37:34 PM |
I know many people who live on less than $21 an hour..maybe it isnt the high cost of living..but the cost of living high..standards that is
Don't agree. Sorry.
I own my house, and I pay LESS in mortgage payments then my friends pay in rent. Add to that utilities, cost of living, etc... I can't see how someone can make it on their own at even $20/hr.
I have friends renting portions of crappy houses and they pay more then I. I suppose one could live in a room and board situation, but what if they have children? pets?
I don't think it's high standards when you're renting a shitty basement suite for $1000/mo, have to pay for utilities, food and whatever personal expenses one has. It's called trying to survive. Many people are having a hard time doing it this day and age.
Living in the city is not cheap, and for those who don't make a lot of money, I'd guess the majority of them are trying to live within their means, but because it's so expensive to live here, they can't even do that.
It's different if one lives in a small town versus a big city, but not everyone can live in a town, especially those who are going to school or can't even afford a vehicle/gas to get to work and have to bus it. | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 9:37:42 PM | Wow... can't live off $21 bucks an hour?? That almost leaves me speechless ... thinking of all the people who work for minimum wage to $14.00 an hour!
(Ah... coming from a man who works for CNRail ... Now I get it...)
Northern Lights ... you sure aren't kidding about the outrageous amounts of rent some people are paying! One of the most disgusting buildings I've seen ... one where you feel the need to wash your hands in bleach after touching anything in there ... was charging $895.00 a month for a 1 bedroom! | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 9:45:26 PM | and where do those people live?? in room and board situations right? or with their parents, or other family members or friends. No way can someone making that little money afford their own place. not in Calgary, unless they're in subsidized housing... and how long is the wait for that??
And again, what if they have children, or pets that they wont get rid of, as we all know how welcoming landlords are of pets. | |
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| Safeway strikers
Posted: 9/8/2009 9:57:04 PM |
Wow... can't live off $21 bucks an hour?? That almost leaves me speechless ... thinking of all the people who work for minimum wage to $14.00 an hour!
I think you're confusing "living" with "surviving". Big difference. | |
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