Workers
need education, not more pay raises
Jason
Garthoffner
The
grocery worker strike has most likely affected
everyone since we cannot go on living without
food. A new contract reportedly reduces
benefits and caps the pay for workers at
Vons. Naturally failing to agree with the
contract the workers now picket and ask
for our support. Who can refuse to sympathize
with them?
I can. If you learn the facts, and
read the contract at www.ufcw1179.org/kdupdates/offer.pdf,
you might too.
Safeway
Inc., the parent company of Vons, experienced
a fall in earnings of almost $80 million
in the last year. The cost of providing
medical benefits has also increased more
than 50 percent in the last four years.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure
that something has got to give. I guess
maintaining a profit margin, a business's
reason for being, is too much for grocery
clerks to understand.
Then
again, they're not exactly rocket scientists.
It has been lost on them and anyone that
supports their strike that they get paid
very well for what they do. The fact they
get any medical benefits at all is astounding.
As
it turns out, the struggling underdog cashiers
can make the slave wage of about $18 per
hour after two years of work. Apparently,
doing highly technical tasks everyone else
can do warrants such wages.
I
suppose we are to believe not everyone can
wave food across a laser (it's all in the
wrist I guess), read a monitor that automatically
adds prices up and then push a button that
automatically dispenses change. You know
these skills are difficult to learn because
a high school diploma is optional for employment.
Under
the new contract the top wages for a grocery
store cashier, ahem, general merchandise
clerk is around $11 an hour. Also, there
are several cuts in the extent of medical
coverage that was previously offered. Understandably
the picketing workers don't want to see
these cuts.
What
the picketers won't tell you is their wages
actually don't see major changes in the
new contract. It seems the wage changes
and benefit cuts mostly affect only new
workers hired after Oct. 6. Under the contract
workers hired before that date keep the
wage structure similar to what they had
before.
How
will the poor picketing workers make ends
meet with a contract that doesn't change
their current wage structure?
Also,
under the contract an employee need only
work 92 (23 hours per week) hours per month
to qualify for the medical benefits. They
also get select paid holidays off, if they
work on a holiday they get paid twice their
hourly wage. They also get paid vacation
time and a yearly bonus.
If
the stores cannot afford the high cost level,
labor cuts should be made. If the workers
don't like it, they should leave. I defy
them to find a better setup than the one
they have. Even the new hires under would
have it pretty darn good.
How
will these poor workers struggle to survive
if they lose this fight? They can start
by getting advice from fast food workers.
I'm sure they will be sympathetic considering
their jobs are similar in many ways, and
they only get minimum wage. Also, with perks
like a 10 percent discount off the price
of a Big Mac, who needs medical benefits?
I'm
sure somewhere along the way the revolutionary
idea of saving money from a paycheck will
come to mind, especially when they realize
they get paid two and three times more than
the burger flippers, and that's not counting
the benefits and paid vacations. That is
also not counting the $7.50 per hour stipend
the workers get for striking. Even when
they're not working they get better pay
than fast food workers.
What
about the true recipients of the wage and
benefit cuts, the newly hired workers? How
can they get better pay?
I
suppose a college education is out of the
question.
Jason
Garthoffner is an art major at Cal State
Long Beach.
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