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| Home Front: Politix |
| A Strike - For Obamacare? |
| 2009-11-12 |
| As a statewide strike deadline nears for Safeway and Fry's supermarkets and the union representing about 25,000 of their employees, the sides are plotting their strategies. For the battling parties, the idea is to inflict brutal economic damage on the opponent, to force the other side into swift compromises on contract terms and end the walkout. United Food and Commercial Union Local 99 hopes a strike will hurt the grocers' sales and pressure them into agreeing to higher wages and a strong benefits package. The companies hope to outlast the union by hiring temporary workers and eventually forcing the union, pressured by its cash-strapped employees, to accept their proposal, particularly a plan that could charge new workers for health benefits. The union has given the companies until 6 p.m. Friday to submit a contract proposal agreeable to its leadership. An existing contract expired Oct. 31, and the sides have been unable to agree to a deal largely because of a split over payments for health insurance. Workers already have given the union leaders authorization to call a strike. With the local economy in the throes of the worst recession in decades and Arizona unemployment hovering over 9 percent, some have questioned the union's wisdom in calling a strike. The union believes the stores have been weakened by the economy and would do anything to avoid a strike during the busiest and most highly profitable grocery-shopping time of the year. The companies believe that the workers also have been weakened by the recession and that they are worried about losing their jobs, racking up debt and joining the large ranks of the unemployed. What is not seen is the behind the scenes fight between the AFL-CIO, a wing of the Democrat party, which has been pushing the UFCU, one of its unions, to strike *now*, in an ongoing fight against Kroger Foods, the parent company of Fry's, the #1 grocery store chain. Kroger is mostly in Right to Work States, and is being attacked both to force it to hire *only* union workers *and* to back Obamacare. So the union is doing this despite the wishes of the employees, who are being used as expendable pawns. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |
| #1 What's amusing is that these unions have pretty good health benefits, but the economics of their industry and of Obamacare will cost them those benfits and force them into the public option. Newspaper guilds will get there even quicker. Their companies can only cut so many workers. Their declining revenues are forcing them to cut back on comp and benefits for existing workers. The public option is the next logical step. |
| Posted by: DoDo 2009-11-12 11:18 |