Just my guess here but this is what could be holding it up some. The past contracts that was all going to expire before the courts ruled on the Obama health care,was most likely all put on hold. It is difficult enough for both sides to figure out the cost of Health care over a 3 or more year period. Now they also had to figure or wait to see what the government was going to do. Are and what they had to cover. Once that was settled, in June, union and kroger officials would be able to come up with a cost of health care. Kroger will not do anything on a contract until they know what the cost of health care will be for the length of the contract.
Now the other thing is this. If there is any other locals with expired contracts before yours, then your local will not want to settle until all those before them got done. To do that would set a bad precedence to other locals and could cause problems for there negotiations.
Best guess is this. Once the cost is established then the company and the union will make progress and get one done but not until those before you get theirs done first. Here is what else to expect. You will here the local and others claim that they will give back pay to all those effective on this contract. More likely you will see a ratification bonus check instead. They will figure something like 25 cents per hour times 40 hours times the weeks you are out for that bonus. That times less for part timers and probably more for department heads and red circle people. That usually sucks as it never seems to come out to what you may have really worked.
The negotiations have not gone well. The companys position is they want to get completely out of the insurance and leave the total cost to the employees. There seemed to be no negotiating on this point so the union walked out. Possible leading to a strike? I dunno, I do know we are going to be in limbo for a long time. The company offered up a nice raise but it would not have touched the new cost of insurance. ( all this came from our union stewart so how accurate it is is up for debate)
-- Edited by Frozen on Sunday 9th of September 2012 05:48:51 PM
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I was afraid that when ObamaCare passed Kroger would use it as an excuse to not have to offer us insurance. Rumor has it they are also trying to get out of having to pay ANYONE back pay for the last year since the contract expired. Hopefully these are just rumors and not the truth.... but I'm not holding my breath.
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If it doesn't make sense, then it must make perfect Kroger sense!
kroger is not ready for a strike and i doudt that anyone else want it either. best guess is that they still have to figure out the true cost and kroger is trying to set an example for all other contract negotations. If they can get you to bite on this ( higher pay and you pay your own insurance) then they set the presidence for all other contract talks and cutting the balls off of the union.
best of my knoledge, you will not see back pay but you will see a ratification bonus. If they give in to covering the health care and benifits, it will drive up the cost of the contract to have to pay back pay to everyone. Paying a bonus will make financail sence to Kroger and they will promote it that way, in that they expanded their cost to cover everything and neede to cover the back pay issue with bonuses.
