Kroger Stores To Close Due To Striking Workers; 44 stores in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky

Associated Press ^ | 10-13-03

[Guillermo]

Hopefully Kroger's "U-Scan" will make these clerks obsolete soon.

[Xenalyte]

I was just thinking that. I use those on every purchase except the big monthly fill-a-cart bonanza.

[Voltage]

Soon only gov't employees will be union members, as unionized companies are all broke.

When gov't employees want more, they can just arrest us if we won't pay, so it will be just fine, but the jails will be full.

[getget]

Mal-mart

[Support Free Republic]

Got a minute?

I'd really like you to rub my ears,
or help out FR.

[Semper Paratus]

To paraphase Dirty Harry, "A (union) has got to know its limitations".

[Weimdog]

The Walmart effect in living color.

[Mad Dawgg]

It seems Unions are just about as Clueless as you can get.

Wal-Mart is gaining share on Krogers every day and the Unions want to close them down?

Gee I wonder where all those Kroger shoppers will go now those stores are closed due to strikes?

Let's see Galipolis has a nice new SuperCenter; store I wonder if any of those former Kroger Customers will check it out?

[kingu]

$946.96 a month for health care?!? (Taking the 8 percent increase, that figures to roughly 112 million for 3,300 workers, assuming a 3 year contract..) And the fund will be short?

$20 million shortfall works out to be $168.35 a month per worker.

If they've got health care benefits that run $1115.31 a month, then they should be more than pleased to pay part of it. Bunch of whiners!

[50sDad]

I never fall below 33% off on my Kroger Card...last week with careful hunting, I got 52%. It is the last bastion of the Male Hunter.

At this tough time, I have to have little sympathy for the Union members and their harsh working conditions there in the grocery store. (That is probably why all the great folk songs were set in coal mines, where things were actually really bad and they really needed unions.) I have been in and out of jobs in a half-dozen fields in my life, and the working conditions and perks in Union jobs have generally been a lot better than I ever made. Good for them. In the good times, when the company is making a lot of money, the company can pay those kinds of payouts.

In bad times? The unions never stop. They seem to think that the company exists only to provide padded jobs for them. Well folks, the company exists to make money for its owners and/or stockholders. And if you push, really, really hard...your jobs will go someplace to some backwater third-world country, where they are happy to make enough to eat!

And the union's solution to jobs that stream to other countries? (Gotta love this!) Of course, you try to unionize the third world...so that the jobs can flee from there as well! Won't they be grateful to you!

[oceanview]

Hopefully? You want to see people put out of work? Its one thing to make an observation that new technology might cause them to lose their jobs, but "hopefully"?

keeping hoping people get put out of work, its the surest path to a Dean presidency. If Krogers doesn't pay these employees wages and health benefits, we will pay them through tax dollars for social programs they will be receiving.

[jess35]

If they've got health care benefits that run $1115.31 a month, then they should be more than pleased to pay part of it. Bunch of whiners!

In California, They're being asked to pay $5 per week for individual coverage and $15 per week for family coverage and they find that unacceptable. They've been getting full coverage at no additional cost for years. Every time the insurance rates go up, they are getting a RAISE in benefits but they don't seem to understand that concept.

[zx2dragon]

I had to belong to a retail union once. They were horrible so I quit the job the day my dues and membership were supposed to kick in. I did manage to start a war on the way out though. They had no union rep for the second shift employees. I mentioned something about taxation without representation and that one line is all it took. :) I probably would have been fired for that if I hadn't quit. The union had a rep available to second shift personell about two weeks after I started the whole rukus. :)

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

Yes, or hopefully the Kroger's stores will stay closed, giving the union members exactly what they want. No work for your pay (although it will be my tax money in the future).

[WVNan]

If they close here in WV it's no great loss. Wal-Mart will take up the slack. Our local Kroger is going broke anyway. In fact most grocery stores in our area are the lonliest people around. Why would I shop at them when I can get more selection and better prices at Wal-Mart and at the same time keep my Wal-Mart stock growing? It is very hard for the grocery chains to compete with Wal-Mart. I know that WM is taking over the world, but how did they do it? Lower prices.

[Guillermo]

What about the people that develop, make, install and service the U-Scan devices? Those are better jobs than some $8/hr clerk.

Using your logic, any labor-saving device is bad because it would replace obsolete workers.

You would have whined when the automobile was invented, because it put the horse-and-buggy maker out of business.

[asformeandformyhouse]

Problem:

The proposal doesn't provide enough money to pay for our benefits. They ought to be providing for the families that helped earn that money," Lowthers said.

Solution:

"Get another job.", Asformeandformyhouse said.