Temporary Workers Made to Think Twice Before Taking Union Jobs

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.ufcw1459.com/informational-picket-stop-%2526amp%3B-shop-hiring-hall

Submitted by superuser on March 1, 2010 - 8:27am.

UFCW Local 1459 gathered with some 70 workers including at least nine other local unions at a Springfield Stop and Shop hiring hall on Friday afternoon. The union and its labor allies held an information picket to draw attention to Stop & Shop's confrontational plan to use replacement workers if there is a strike.

Chanting "What do we want? Justice!" the workers made it clear to the community that Stop and Shop, which reported record profits last year, has no intention of sharing those profits with its loyal workforce, instead it would rather have inexperienced scab labor doing the work of its loyal employees.


Local 1459 Executive Vice President Rick Brown Talks to Newsman Ray Hershel


"We are sending a message out that we believe Stop and Shop has an obligation to the community and that they are taking advantage of the unemployment rate bringing in temporary workers," says Rick Brown, Executive Vice President of Local 1459.

Brown says that the workers' hours have been cut a little more each day and those on the job are doing the work of two people, sometimes three. With $6.8 billion dollars earned last year, the workers say they just "want a piece of the dream."

"It just seems that every year a little more is taken from us," Stop and Shop employee Jay Babineau says. "And I just don't think that's right. Not for a company that made the profits they made this year."

FULL story, news video, and more photos at link.

[ThomWV]

1. Unions are the very essence of democracy at the first and most important level

The workplace even before the greater community is the first place where people come together for common purpose under agreed on rules - and if the people do not set those rules for themselves then this is the first point at which they are enslaved. Unions are the essence, the essential part, of any working community, economy, and nation.

[Bluebear]

3. beautifully said

[zbdent]

4. Unions are probably why the United States of America went from

being a third-world country to the greatness that it is ... well, I mean, was ...

[aquart]

5. Yes.

Says proud granddaughter of the ILGWU.

[anigbrowl]

2. I wonder how many employees own shares

It strikes me that unions might well gain more bargaining power if they or the employees owned a part of the business, or sought stock options as part of the pay bargaining process. Many managers like getting paid part of their salary in stock since they'll get a slice of a company's economic growth as a result, but few collective bargaining agreements seem to include that.

[old mark]

8. My wife worked for another chain, Turkey Hill, that paid workers little, while

demanding a lot...managers and above made a very good living, workers were amaking around $6 an hour.

They profit by screwing their own workers.

mark

[Little Star]

6. k&r

[Omaha Steve]

7. Kick