Becoming a Union steward in my store

[deev]

So you have an unlimited budget? How do you keep control of your cost centre?

No, the harder someone works, the more money we generate and the less other people I have to employ to do the same job.

 

[saugeye killah]

Im happy, I get paid well and am under no illusions about my relative worth to the company, the thing is I could get another job pretty quickly if this one went bust. In fact most folk my level and above are pretty happy. I also betcha my missus is hotter than yours.

You may or may not be happy and/or well paid. But I don't believe any of the rest of that, and no, I won't be posting any pictures of my wife for your viewing pleasure.

I just think it's sorry how quick people are to try and act like badasses with people who are only one level under their immediate supervision. I've seen people with your attitude end up working for the people they talk down to, or worse.

I'm not overly vindictive in nature, but there's no denying the irony in that.

 

[Kevin Rudd]

No, the harder someone works, the more money we generate and the less other people I have to employ to do the same job.

So how exactly does this work, are you saying that there is no cap on your employees wages whatsoever? You can pay them whatever they earn? In theory could you pay one of your employees $200,000 per annum if they earned it?

 

[deev]

You self important imbecile.

As a retail manager, your opinion means fuck-all to your employer. You want to act like you're so much better than the people who work for you, but the fact is you're WAYYYY closer to their level (or to being on the street) than the people at the top of your company. The people five fucking levels above you have systems put in place to get rid of people who make too much money, or have too much vacation time. Hasn't got shit to do with what you think.

If you can't recognize that, well...

I just got a

 

[deev]

So how exactly does this work, are you saying that there is no cap on your employees wages whatsoever? You can pay them whatever they earn? In theory could you pay one of your employees $200,000 per annum if they earned it?

In theory yes, however wages are a corporate level policy and are decided as a percentage of profits/turnover. Obviously

 

[saugeye killah]

You are one of these people who thinks companies exist to pay you money. They dont. They exist to make money for themselves/shareholders.

You're probably too daft to understand this, but I'll try anyway.

There's a two-tier contract at my company that was negotiated 8 years ago. This was a very poor contract and gave the company incentive to get rid of the people who were grandfathered into the old contract. They have since begun to move towards exactly that. Getting rid of the people who work on the old contract would save the company (senior management) millions, but at the cost of these people's jobs and well being.

I don't buy into your moronic "If ya don't like it, get lost!" bullshit. That assumes that you're actually the boss, or the only one who has the power to call the shots.

That's what unions are for. It's no secret that the laborers want to be fairly compensated, and no secret that people like you would rather they were not. So there's no trickery here. It's all about which side can impose their will on the other. I look forward to imposing my will on these guys.

 

[nixkid]

Bollocks. As a manager I don't care what someone earns so long as they earn it. If someones experienced it usually makes them more effective and I would put them in the places I need them most, which are usually the best shifts. Unless they're crap and lazy, which, if you're still in the same role as you started in and have been doing it for ages pretty much marks you out as dead weight as nobody has ever thought you were worth promoting.

Stupid people hate the term, "needs of the business" because they don't equate the money they earn with the profit the stores make and think they're owed a living.

In short, if you don't like the job, fuck off and get another one. If you're good enough the company will try to get you to stay, if you're not then don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

Of course you don't care. You're just a shitty store manager. Its not your job to care. Thats what the suits in corporate get paid the big bucks for. If they decide, during the task of cost cutting in order to hit their targets and secure that fat bonus check, that your store has too many employees making more money than they are worth then and only then will you be informed about what needs to be done (once it travels down the 8 layers of management on the org chart of course because the suits would never talk to you directly)

 

[elmo_1968]

I just got a

 

[crowded]

Prove it.

Haha, ditto.

 

[TeTe]

I worked in a grocery store from the ages of 16-23. I started in high school, worked through college and then part time at night while working a full time job as well.

We were union... and to honest, I wish we weren't. I paid all that fucking money into the UFCW and for what? They never did anything to make our lives any better.. we couldn't strike if we wanted to.. that was written into our contract. Who fuck concedes that?

Over the seven years I was there I watched each contract that passed take away more and more benefits... no more time and half on Sunday... lower pay caps.. less vacation time for part timers, etc. Luckily I was grandfathered in before a lot of that shit took place.

As far as the old timers.. they never tried pushing any one out because of their time there and their pay. They only got rid of people because they were shitty workers. Honestly, I deserved to get fired 50 times over and it didn't happen. They revered most of the old timers.

 

[deev]

You may or may not be happy and/or well paid. But I don't believe any of the rest of that, and no, I won't be posting any pictures of my wife for your viewing pleasure.

I just think it's sorry how quick people are to try and act like badasses with people who are only one level under their immediate supervision. I've seen people with your attitude end up working for the people they talk down to, or worse.

I'm not overly vindictive in nature, but there's no denying the irony in that.

This is the internet and my personal feelings. I don't act like this in front of my staff, that'd be stupid and they'd hate me and wouldn't work hard for me. It has to be a mutually beneficial relationship. Unions just interfere with that and while they were vital in the early days of industrialisation, the things they fought for are now enshrined in legislation, unions now a days only serve to foster a "them and us" type environment.

Why do they do that?

Because they're filled with bitter people who failed in their primary careers and need the union to prop them up and give them a feeling of worth. They also foster that feeling to scare staff into paying their dues to prevent them from the "innevitable" forthcoming sacking attempts by the "evil" management.

Unions now a days are leeches existing by taking money from a companies lowest paid workers by spreading fear and slowing a companies progress by doing all they can to frustrate attempts to get rid of the laziest workers who drag everyone down.

 

[deev]

Have you considered the possibility that there are companies where working harder won't get you further up the ladder, and there is a tipping point where if most companies are doing that, yours can get away with it too since your employees don't have meaningful alternatives?

If this sounds like crazy talk, please explain the collapse of wages in the working class via some other model.

Make yourself worth more, I don't care what some uneducated unskilled person gets paid. The market decides your worth, if you pissed about at school or didn't bother gaining skills through work and now get paid nothing then tough titty, I'll get a Polish person to do it for less.

 

[saugeye killah]

We were union... and to honest, I wish we weren't. I paid all that fucking money into the UFCW and for what? They never did anything to make our lives any better.. we couldn't strike if we wanted to.. that was written into our contract. Who fuck concedes that?

You're right. The Union has been very weak and ineffectual for a long time. They've accepted bad contracts and dug themselves a big hole.

These corporations are run by extremely intelligent people. The fear mongering tactics they employ keep people complacent with merely keeping their underpaying jobs; for fear that they may have their job stripped away completely if they don't fall in line. They know what they're doing.

These contracts are all voted on. A classic "divide and conquer" strategy has been used successfully against the union. It's called a Union for a reason. The bargaining power lies in the unity of the laborers. They've been told they're shit for so long that they believe it, and won't stand up for themselves.

 

[jax7]

I just got a

 

[elmo_1968]

Make yourself worth more, I don't care what some uneducated unskilled person gets paid. The market decides your worth, if you pissed about at school or didn't bother gaining skills through work and now get paid nothing then tough titty, I'll get a Polish person to do it for less.

Ok, so you're retreating from "hard work moves you up the ladder" and not addressing my request to present another model explaining the collapse of wages.

A few posts ago you were claiming you paid your workers, but now we see the model that the State Department will do your compensation for you in the form of H1B's or green cards or whatever.

A little prodding gets to the truth.

 

[TeTe]

You're right. The Union has been very weak and ineffectual for a long time. They've accepted bad contracts and dug themselves a big hole.

These corporations are run by extremely intelligent people. The fear mongering tactics they employ keep people complacent with merely keeping their underpaying jobs; for fear that they may have their job stripped away completely if they don't fall in line. They know what they're doing.

These contracts are all voted on. A classic "divide and conquer" strategy has been used successfully against the union. It's called a Union for a reason. The bargaining power lies in the unity of the laborers. They've been told they're shit for so long that they believe it, and won't stand up for themselves.

Which is kind of lame way of operating. Why even be union? I mean, it's like the grocery store unions are holding on just exist because they know the big companies like Albertsons and Safeway are going to break them at any moment. Why is that? Those corporations can't even stay in business, they're always being sold off because they fail.

You have the completely opposite happening with other unions. Auto workers, pipe fitters, etc have managed to strong arm city contracts, push out non-union workers gain political clout for decades. People tend to disdain them because of their mob affiliations and mob like mentality. Then you have the grocery store unions.

It must be money. That's all I can think of.

 

[saugeye killah]

Why do they do that?

Because they're filled with bitter people who failed in their primary careers and need the union to prop them up and give them a feeling of worth. They also foster that feeling to scare staff into paying their dues to prevent them from the "innevitable" forthcoming sacking attempts by the "evil" management.

Any time you need to ask "Why do they do that?", you already know the answer.

Money.

It's always about the money. We want what's ours, you don't want to give it to us. Simple. You think sucking dicks to climb the corporate ladder is the only legitimate way to get yours. I disagree, I think the working people in this country are getting swindled, and the vast majority of them should be making enough to own a house, a car, and pay medical bills.

Your vision for this country is one in which only a very small percentage of people should even be allowed to make enough money to stay afloat. I think your country sucks donkey-balls, and isn't qualified to carry industrial-age America's jock strap.

That's third world shit, not a great prosperous country.

 

[deev]

You're probably too daft to understand this, but I'll try anyway.

There's a two-tier contract at my company that was negotiated 8 years ago. This was a very poor contract and gave the company incentive to get rid of the people who were grandfathered into the old contract. They have since begun to move towards exactly that. Getting rid of the people who work on the old contract would save the company (senior management) millions, but at the cost of these people's jobs and well being.

I don't buy into your moronic "If ya don't like it, get lost!" bullshit. That assumes that you're actually the boss, or the only one who has the power to call the shots.

That's what unions are for. It's no secret that the laborers want to be fairly compensated, and no secret that people like you would rather they were not. So there's no trickery here. It's all about which side can impose their will on the other. I look forward to imposing my will on these guys.

You wont be imposing anything, unions are a dead duck, look what happened to Unite in Grangemouth recently.

I'd like everyone to be fairly compensated, my opinion of what fair compensation for doing an unskilled job is probably differs from yours though. Happy workers work harder.

The last company I worked for when I was at uni had 2 tier contracts too. I was on the old one, double time perks on a Sunday, more holidays etc.

Did they get rid of me? Nope, they promoted me as I worked harder than the next guy.

Plenty of folk that were on the older contacts thought that was the reason they tried to sack them though, it wasn't, it was because they were crap. Their contracts will all have been costed and approved at board level.

 

[deev]

WOW! A 5k payraise. Your very important. Even when adjusted to dollars I made more than that on my profit sharing check alone this year, and I'm a union hourly worker in a union only shop. My annual earnings this were probably way more than yours also.

You fail to recognize that the ONLY way a company makes money is with workers. No matter what level they are on. Without labor there is no profit therefore they are deserving of a fair wage for their contribution. Your obvious hatred of minumum wage earners just exposes you for what you are. A middle management stooge who cant go any further, who realizes they aren't any more important than his skilled hourly workers. You now realize you have wasted your life sucking off the man only to be relegated to a stooge job, which serves no more importance than the kid who stocks the shelves or cleans the toilets.

So why don't you go look in the mirror and face your own failings, not pick on the guy who has balls enough to stand demand fair wages, benefits, safe working conditions, and proper discipline procedures with representation. which they deserve for their contribution to a company's success.

You obviously didn't read my post about the importance of workers, I don't hate minimum wage earners either, I hate the ones who think they deserve their pay despite not working as hard as the next guy. Incidentally I'm not above cleaning the toilets myself if they need it.

 

[saugeye killah]

Why even be union? I mean, it's like the grocery store unions are holding on just exist because they know the big companies like Albertsons and Safeway are going to break them at any moment. Why is that? Those corporations can't even stay in business, they're always being sold off because they fail.

That's a great point you bring up. Why are companies like Safeway and Albertson's failing?

Because companies that aren't unionized like Walmart can put the screws to them by saving billions on labor and hiring people who don't have a strong union negotiating on their behalf.

So guess what's gonna happen when unions go away and labor rights become even more deregulated? That's right, somebody who can pay people EVEN LESS THAN WALMART is going to come along and put THEIR ASSES out of business.

So if you like that idea, than yes, by all means get rid of the unions.