I worked for kroger for over 12 years. in that time, i seen blatent dishonesty on managements part, pet Employees that could out right steal, goof off, and keep their jobs. yet honest, hard working employees would get run off, mistreated, and over worked. still, I held strong. keept my nose clean, stayed away from trouble, and kept out of the in store politics. but it still diddn't help, when a unit manager decided she diddn't like me. for years, she tried every means to get me to quit. but i wouldn't. now, i worked in the kitchen, night shift, all weekends and holidays. the dapt, hours, and days nobody else wanted. i figured, it may suck, but since nobody wanted my job, i had a messure of security. then she finally found something she could stick me with. temp logs. my eyesight had been steadily getting worse, and in a period of 8 months, i missed two entries, out of the hundreds i had done. i asked to be moved to another dept, after the the second write up, because I wasn't willling to risk my job, over these things. with ,a s, smirking smile, she said "no, deal with it." combing though logs, she managged to find one missing a initial. not a temp, or a time, a initial. no proof it was mine suppossed to be there, but that gave her what she wanted. suspended indefinate. 12 years, and i get canned, simply because she had a vendetta against me. so, i get the union. the meeting was a joke. he barley put up any fight, as she made smart remarkes. of coarse, she refused to let me back. so, we went to step two. this has been over a month now, and the zone manager is refusing meetings, saying i have no case. isn't it wonderfull how kroger thinks it's "employees are great"?
It has been very rare that I have ever known of a District or Zone manager to ever side with the employee on any step two lever of a disciplinary action ( termination or sustention) on a grievance. Most of the time is ends up going to the next level and after that a grievance hearing.That whole process can take a few months from the actual separation to the completion of the grievance. But if/when won they will have to make whole. That would be full back pay, continued insurance and benefits. Everything as if you wan never off. Arbitration hearings can get expensive. I was told it can run up to $5000 to completion with the loosing side paying the bill.
So,do you think i should ride this out ? What are the chances are of me winning ? My union rep acts pretty possitive we will eventually win, but it's hard for me to be so sure, after the weak showing he gave at first step. my wife says, he wasn';t really trying act that point, because he knew it wouldn't do any good, with the unit manager, and iS saving his ammo for the next step. he did take two pages of notes, i will give him that.
I would pursue it completely. Now the thing is it could take time and I have known some to be done in a few weeks and I was told of a few that took a few months but was won. last meeting I was at our business agent left us know of a guy that was just reinstated after almost 4 months where the store director and zone manager was after him. He picked up another job while he was terminated and the grievance procedure was going on. He got back pay and made whole as if he was never off the job. As to pursuing it? I would. That is what you have a union for and then there is the Pension that you are accumulating also. It is like this, Why spend years at a job and pay union dues only to be unjustly terminated and take advantage of the grievance process.
i agree with grumpy. stick it out fight for your rights as a union member. My union rep had to come in for diffrent occations with me and at the first meeting i did not see much of a fight from my union. i did see end results though the union managed to get my write up erased and my pay rate fixed with compensastion for the weeks i was not payed right. stick it out!
Keep MAKING the union rep work to get your job back. The other post is right. All of these meetings get expensive. YOU payed the Union to work for you. Call them daily if that is what it takes
OK, talked to my shop stewart today, and she said kroger is just playing a stall game, trying to wait me out, because they know they are going to loose. makes sense. If they thought they would win, they would just go ahead, terminate me, and quit paying in on pention and insurance. so wait it Is. been 5 weeks thou, and still havn't even step two. getting frustrating. oh, she also said, my union rep, not putting up much of a fight ? she says he knew it was no good to try with the store mamager, so all those notes he was taking was ammo for someone a bit less closeminded. playing the cards close to his chest, so to speak. everyone seems very convinced i''ll win this, no question. dosen't stop me from worring thou
the fact for being fired because she had a vendetta. would give her the death penalty if i made the laws. making a man lose his job is just as bad as murder. i would take her to the cleaners. get her fired for wrong firing.
It's been over six weeks now since my suspension, and still haven't ven gotten to stage two yet. my shop stewart says kroger is just stalling. but my hopes are getting a bit low.Do i have a chance at this, and this just the way it works, or should i take a job with the two nonunion grocery chains, that said come to work for them ?
