So they have a temporary contract ready and union members will be voting this week. It includes our meat cutter union as well. No terms have been leaked and the union reps are keeping lips sealed. Managment is encouraging everyone to attend the meetings.
It is about time. Now maybe we ( local 540 ) can get our contract done soon. Our health and wealfare or finacail part of the contract is directrl tied to the houston one.
as always they'll be taking away more than they'll be giving. although we never get anything good anymore. they like to give raises to dept backups but what about those who do the work? jack s***!
as always they'll be taking away more than they'll be giving. although we never get anything good anymore. they like to give raises to dept backups but what about those who do the work? jack s***!
Here is what they count on. They do not have the problem giving the rates to the department heads and back-ups for the simple reason that there is less of them and they are the ones that is most likely to stay. They do not care to give muck to the clerks because there is more of them and that would take more of the budget for wages out of the contract. The clerks are the ones that the company places less value on because of the higher turnover and sheer numbers. Past negotiations has proved that . Besides that is the group ( clerks) that seldom ever shows up at meetings and ever cares to vote on contracts. I still believe that if you get this group to a vote and give them the honest opinion of what the company thinks of them, that a contract will be voted down.
Just look at Fuel clerks that are given nothing and the unions afraid to take a stand and get them anything.
how would us low-life workers go about making a change though? Would they allow us at the meetings to stand up and say, "what about us?" they'd probably do like the union reps almost always do and start rambling off about stuff that doesn't matter and make us more angry than we were before
how would us low-life workers go about making a change though? Would they allow us at the meetings to stand up and say, "what about us?" they'd probably do like the union reps almost always do and start rambling off about stuff that doesn't matter and make us more angry than we were before
Here is how you make a difference. You get all the lower clerks to show up and vote on the contract and vote it down if you do not like it. problem is that not many members ever show up and vote. Most of the long term and hire paid ones do and they vote for it. here is the sorry thing about it. I did not like the contract that we ( local 540 in Dallas) got two contracts ago. The clerks got screwed bad but out of 500 members, in our meat cutters local, only about 50 people showed up to vote. And then by the time I had to go vote east Texas, it did not matter because there was only about 40 votes in those 4 stores and the ones that showed up to vote ( only a few clerks) out of the 50 people, it already had passed. I herd many clerks bitch and moaned for 3 years about it but none of them came to vote. The last contract only 38 people showed up to vote. Kroger knows what ones show up and they structure the contract that way. If they thought that 200 or more pissed off clerks would show up and vote it down then they would be willing to do more for the clerks.
So how does those that consider themselves low life's or bottom of the contract food change make a difference?
Easy
Show up and vote
Attend union meetings in more numbers and vote on things there.
stop paying dues without getting your voice heard.
That is what I did 15 years ago and I have been on 3 comities.
I'm going as a low paid overworked part time clerk.
Just remember that the company can not stop you or dock you for being late to work to go vote on a contract. The only way to change things is to show up and Vote. Our clerks ( local 540 meat in Dallas) has only theirselves to blame for the most part. When you have 500 members and only about 40 to 60 people ever show up to vote on a contract then what can you say? The ones that do not show up are the clerks. I even offered to dring them and they do not sow up. I personally drove to 6 stores to vote east texas stores ( the last two contracts) and the clerks do not come to vote. So if the low paying clerks want to do something about it then show up and vote.
Got back from My Dallas union meeting and they said you ratified your contract. Any details ? Good or bad?
HR staff is busy going over it with their people and one on Vacation. Hoping that wee ( local 540) can get back to talks in the next week to finish ours now.
Houston said yes. There us still one more meeting so one more vote. Most of the $ went to health and welfare. DH get $1000 and three raises starting in July 2011 its like seven five cents over three years. FT get $750 and three raises starting in July 11. PT gets $450 and .15 in July, 2012 .20 then one more.
I have it written down but not in front of me. They also created a few positions with pay rates at .35 above the highest rate.
A whole year goes by without a raise. Part time raises are now in months not hours. For the record I've been topped out at part time for the last two years. We also voted to allow Kroger to screw over new hires. Part time employees will no longer get plan a. We also allowed kroger to charge new hires to pay more money for benefits.
Houston said yes. There us still one more meeting so one more vote. Most of the $ went to health and welfare. DH get $1000 and three raises starting in July 2011 its like seven five cents over three years. FT get $750 and three raises starting in July 11. PT gets $450 and .15 in July, 2012 .20 then one more.
I have it written down but not in front of me. They also created a few positions with pay rates at .35 above the highest rate.
Yea I figured health and welfare. Since the Obama care is starting and the changes that are coming from that. The cost of health care was going up and it will come out of wages some how. Pension plan too. Could be wrong but I think you are in the same pension fund as us. The last several years has taken big hits on it and if we do not get more money in it then the payout will be a lot less. If nothing changes in our pension contributions then we would see a more than 50% reduction in it.
Kroger is paying more into our pension then before. There were numbers left and right but it's good. Very good. One other thing was our wellness/preventive care they currently cover up to $500 of preventative in January they will cover everything that is preventative unlimited. Unlimited. That's cool, if you catch it before it gets bad then we have lowered the amount of money we spend on health care.
