Nor will I.

Why would we want to support a return to serfdom and feutalism?

It's a tougher call this time around compared to the first strike, where I marched right across it.

Realistically speaking, though, it would hardly affect my shopping behavior, since I absolutely will not shop at Vons, and only shop at Albertson's if there's something that I can't obtain anywhere else, or if they're selling our favorite things at give-away-the-store prices.  (And then, we buy only the wildly discounted items.)  (But then, significant discounts have all but disappeared from the Albertson's shelves nowadays...)

Vons started that club card crap, and I will eternally punish them for that.

Albertson's is ever trying to trick shoppers using the ole' bait-and-trick, advertising killer discounts and the stocking full price products where the sale items should be.  (Generally, they do this by stocking the same product, but in a size that is not the discounted size.  Example: boldly advertising 2/$1.00 on 16 oz. bottles of BBQ sauce, and then stocking more expensive, full-price 12 oz. bottles there.  (And they're making customers perform increasingly difficult math problems, such as figuring out how much "7 for $2.50" is.  Easy for me, but difficult for many other people.)

I won't shop at a store that is forever trying to "pull one over" on people.

I'll cross that line in a heartbeat.

My family needs to eat, and I'm sorry but I put my family above grocery workers I don't know.

And I don't feel like I should have to go to independent grocery stores that are waaaaaaay overpriced.

Grocery workers make a decent wage for being uneducated, so they should be a little more willing to accept proposed contracts.

I don't care about unions and I don't care about their picket lines. I don't shop at union stores and pay far less for goods than I would if I did.

My husband once was in a union and they cared  more about him showing up for a meeting to vote on the union rep getting a new car than they did about his employer putting him on the outside scaffolding of a 4 story building without workman's comp coverage.

Grocery workers make a decent wage for being uneducated

I'm friendly with many of the grocery workers at the two Vons stores I shop at.

Several of them are working their way through college at CSUB. Others have college degrees and work in retail because they either enjoy the contact they have with people or they can't find work in the field of study they graduated in and they stay in Bakersfield because of family. I don't know anyone who has less than a high school diploma who works there.

It's ignorant to believe grocery workers are uneducated.

It is ignorant to believe that a high school diploma is an education.

That statement alone is ignorance.

You're calling millions of U.S. manufacturing workers uneducated.

Remember that the next time you get in your car, fly in a plane, ride a motorcycle or any other activity which utilizes something made in America.

would a grocery store hire someone without at least a HS diploma?

Maybe as a night shift stock boy.  But doubtful.

As a cashier or someone in charge of a section? Not likely.

Any1 sounds like an elitist snob.

He sounds like someone with only a high school education.  ;)

Anonymous of 11:49

No, I am someone with not much more than a high school education with no diploma. ( They don't pass them out with the GED.)

My last job was mowing on a golf course for minimum wage, not exactly anything to get snobish about.

I WILL ABSOLUTELY cross the picket line.  NO one is holding a gun to these people's heads, making them work there.  If they are so unhappy, they should get another job.  Are they going to pay for my gas to drive to another store?  Do they give a crap about what kind of benefits you and I or anybody else gets at our jobs?   Of course not.    So they've got a personal problem.  waaah

This victory strengthened business’ hand even more. Nothing symbolized this more than President Ronald Reagan’s busting of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Association after they engaged in an illegal strike in 1981. Under Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and now George W. Bush, federal agencies designed to protect workers rights—such as the NLRB and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration—have had their budgets cut and their enforcement staffs eviscerated. Meanwhile, business’s violations of labor laws have increased exponentially. A new union-busting consulting industry has flourished.

The weakness of the American labor movement—compared to its counterparts in other affluent, democratic societies—accounts for many troublesome aspects of our society. The U.S. has the widest gap between rich and poor among democratic nations. It also has the highest poverty rate; 13 percent of all Americans, more than 37 million people, live below poverty. The pay gap between men and women is wider in the U.S. than in other affluent countries. We are the only democratic society without universal health insurance; 47 million Americans lack even basic coverage. We spend less on job training, child care, and affordable housing, and more on prisons, than these other nations. Americans work longer hours, get fewer paid vacation days, and have fewer rights on the job than workers elsewhere. Our environmental and workplace safety laws are weak and poorly-enforced.

GrpThink:

Sorry to inform you, but there ARE many undeducated people who work in grocery stores. Do you think it takes a genius to fill a paper sack full of groceries? What do you think that job requires? A Master's degree?

And as for the ridiculous line you drew towards factory workers... who do you think are the people designing the products? The guys with the college degrees, or the guys who have the education to snap two pieces together on an assembly line?

The bottom line of all of this is... if the grocery worker's aren't happy with their jobs or their wages, then it's time for them to move on. I work for the school sytem here in Bakersfield, and if some of us went on strike, would you stop your kids from going to school? It's doubtful... and why? Because you care about your kids (or at least you SHOULD) more than a bunch of disgruntled school system workers. The grocery system ordeal is no different. People shouldn't have to shop at expensive independent markets because a bunch of grocery store workers are pissy.

Dusty

I just wonder what good a union does when you lose your job thru no fault of your own . Did the retail clerks union help them find new ones?  Did the union say call us when you find a new store to work for?

That was my point.

Is the point of a union to represent you only when things are good?

Spacemonster, my kids are out of school, but if there were a teacher's picket line at the school I'd just drive them to the *OTHER* school that didn't have a picket line.  Oh, there aren't alternatives like just shopping at another grocery store?  Maybe your analogy--and your line of argument--don't quite hold water.

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I'll not cross a legitimate picket line (and I'm not currently a union member.)

"NO one is holding a gun to these people's heads, making them work there.  If they are so unhappy, they should get another job. 

They can get another job as individuals but as a union they have the leverage to stop labor en masse. I would think that is the idea behind a union. Management tends to listen to grievances more if more than one person complains.

but there ARE many undeducated people who work in grocery stores

Since I can't find "undeducated" in the dictionary, it's hard to refute this point.

And as for the ridiculous line you drew towards factory workers... who do you think are the people designing the products?

Talk about being ridiculous.

Who cares who's designing the products? It's the people who are manufacturing the parts and putting the product together that matter.

Do you blame the designer of the building or the contractor when the roof caves in?

Yeesh.

I work for the school sytem here in Bakersfield, and if some of us went on strike, would you stop your kids from going to school

If you were getting screwed over in pay and benefits, yes I would keep my kids home to support you.

"If you were getting screwed over in pay and benefits, yes I would keep my kids home to support you."

.....So then, you would place the "rights" of bickering worker's over the education of your children?

interesting.

to each their own, I guess.

Dusty

I 'm clueless as to what the union did for them and it sounds like you are too.

I am glad that your union got your job back but the union my husband belonged to did nothing about making sure that workman's comp paid for his front teeth when they were knocked out on a job. His new teeth were paid for out of his boss" pocket and the incident was never put 'on the books' consequently we are SOL if anything else happens to them.

So then, you would place the "rights" of bickering worker's over the education of your children?

You're assuming I wouldn't home school them during the strike, which I would. It would be a valuable lesson for them on worker-labor relations.

You said you work for the school district. It's apparent you're in administration and not a teacher. And that makes you biased.

Any1, it helps if you realize that the grocery union workers *LOST* the last strike.

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And Spacemonster, I too would keep my kids out of school if I thought the teachers were being shafted.  I would use the opportunity to *TEACH* them about collective action for the collective good...

You said you work for the school district. It's apparent you're in administration and not a teacher. And that makes you biased.

Nope.

I'm a grunt without a degree, and that's why I don't pity the uneducated grocery workers.

I'm working on my degree, as are many grocery workers.

But for now, I'm "uneducated" as far as the work force is concerned.

The work force doesn't care if you're "working" on your degree... the work force only cares if you have it or not.

And until you have it, you are at the mercy of your occupation.

The occupation that you CHOSE.

And if your union takes you to strike, you shouldn't expect people to alter their lives just for little old you, because that's not the way of the world.

It's a dog eat dog world, and it really is as simple as that.