Grocery
store strikers should pay fair share
Matt
Logan
Crossing
the supermarket picket lines puts a smile
on my face and food in my grocery cart.
These days it isn't hard to find people
doing stupid things, and golly, all you've
got to do is walk down to your local grocery
store and bam, there they are, holding their
little signs and demanding justice. So here's
the skinny, the corporate jerks are offering
a new contract, were health benefit prices
are going up from next to nothing to $60
a month per family or just $5 per month
for an individual. Contracts move in three-year
spans, and by the end of those three years
employees could be paying around $200 a
month or more. Jessica McCormick, a picketer
in front of the Seal Beach Ralph's said
it would be a fair deal, "If it stayed
there, but it's going to go up in the next
three years." I myself pay about $170
a month for just my wife and myself. Moreover,
in three years America's health care system
will be even worse and more over run by
insurance companies that it may well cost
around $200, for any couple or small family.
"We all know that there is going to
be a change we just want it to be a reasonable
one," McCormick said.
Attention
all United Food and Commercial Workers,
like it or not there is a change coming
so you better start getting your resumes
ready. Let's face it, America has a horrible
health care system littered with politician's
empty promises. I believe it is time that
grocery workers pay their share. Their pensions
are not being taken away. Their 401K plans
will just not be as they once were. If you
know how 401K plans work then you know that
the employee puts money into an account,
sort of like a time sensitive stock portfolio.
For every dollar the worker puts in, the
company matches it with a percentage, like
40 cents on the dollar or something like
that. What the CEOs want to do is lower
their contribution and in many cases stop
contributions all together. This is bad
for workers, but that's life, sadly this
world is run by money. It is a bummer, but
deal with it, because no matter how much
whimpering you do in front of a grocery
store, it isn't going to change that fact.
"It's
their greed thing, and that's their bottom
line," said Thomas Allen of the Seal
Beach Ralph's. "Their deals are all
cuts and barely any offers."
Yeah, thanks buddy for explaining how corporate
America works. Life sucks and then you die,
just deal with it and get back to stocking
the shelves and checking the groceries.
UFCW worker co-pays are going up from $10
to $20 and maybe even $25 in the near future.
Boo hoo, I've been paying $20 for over two
years, and been lucky to have health care
to cover my butt when I really needed it.
f
the employees feel unfairly dealt with and
it enrages them to want to make a change
and motivates them to take up picket signs
in protest for weeks or maybe months, maybe
there does need to be a change. Maybe their
energy would be better spent looking for
another job or enrolling in a night class
to further their education and careers,
rather then working in a grocery store till
retirement.
At
a grocery clerk that jockeys a cash register
and stocks shelves is making near $18 an
hour, time and a half on Sundays and triple
time on contractual holidays. Now of course,
not every one is making that much, but there
are those who do. Lets come to grips with
reality and remember the most important
thing here folks; they work in a grocery
store! So if you walk the picket line you
will see me passing you by as I enter the
store to help support an American family,
me and mine, because we're hungry and the
prices are low, so get out of the way.
Matt
Logan is a journalism major at Cal State
Long Beach.
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