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Not this is necessarily the case, but I've always been fascinated by people who bemoan working at a union shop and having to have to join the union, but never seem to complain about the pay and benefits that they got as a result of it.
1) I did not want to be in the union. This is key.
2) The raises resulted in higher union dues and taxes, leaving me pretty much where I started.
I do not think A&P's decline is associated with union contracts. Other supermarkets like Kroger and Albertson's-Safeway have unionized stores and are highly successful food retailers.
A&P's downfall has been a combination of bad leaders and bad decisions over several decades.
Kroger bought out non union retailers who have remained non union and is expanding in non union states.
Ruler Foods is a Kroger company and is non union.
A&P didn't have that option.
A&P sounds like the Hostess story..they had to deal with 35 different union contracts.
The buyers that A&P has lined up don't want any union contracts.
I do not think A&P's decline is associated with union contracts. Other supermarkets like Kroger and Albertson's-Safeway have unionized stores and are highly successful food retailers.
A&P's downfall has been a combination of bad leaders and bad decisions over several decades.
I agree with this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mircea
Okay.
Kroger's plays hardball with unions, which often strike Kroger stores.
I have been a Kroger shopper all my life (over 30 years) and I have never been witness to a strike at Kroger. I also have had 5 family members working for them, one being my sister, for over 10 years and they have never gone on strike and love working at Kroger since they get discounted groceries. Kroger also has allowed many of my younger family members (between 16 and 18) to get part time jobs in order to start a good work ethic amongst our youth and they pay better than Walmart in our area, which doesn't hire many teens around here.
I know you are in a different part of Ohio where Kroger is headquartered. When was the last time that they went on strike? I am honest in that I have never witnessed a Kroger strike.
Kroger bought out non union retailers who have remained non union and is expanding in non union states.
Ruler Foods is a Kroger company and is non union.
A&P didn't have that option.
Kroger employees are union even in states that are "right to work" like GA.
Just because a state is known as "non-union" doesn't mean they don't have unions in those states.
I live in Ohio where Kroger is headquartered and as stated above I have family who works for Kroger and they are heavily unionized here in Ohio and are one of the top profitable grocers in the country.
Unions cannot by themselves make AP financially ruined and bankrupt. Neither did they do as such for Hostess or Wonder Bread. Wonder Bread and Hostess were big employers in the area I live in and I knew people who worked for both. They were not very well paid at either company and the major contributor to Hostess' issues was people buying less Hostess products, not unions.
"A&P is filing for bankruptcy, since we dont know the actual reasons we will say when a company files for bankrupt its usually having money issues. :-) and I would include that smiley face because its a jab at the normal thought you would have for a the reason your BANKRUPT. In most cases when a business is bankrupt its from BAD POLICIES and or decisions.
Because one supermarket chain is failing could mean many things but to get people WHO NEED TO BUY FOOD TO LIVE is going out of business means the people running it are morons.
As far as union and or anything else IT DOES NOT MATTER because that was just another BAD decision by A&P.
I hadn't thought of it but grocery is probably the last bastion of unionism in the retail sector. The grocery store where I shop has union cashiers (UFCW). The truck drivers who deliver the product are Teamsters, and the warehouse workers who put together the freight and load the trucks are also Teamsters.
At one time it was common for retail workers to be unionized. The landmark Weingarten case involved a lunch counter clerk who worked for a retail food service company based in Houston. Now unions have been largely extirpated from retail. Since unions are inherently able to negotiate a better wage/benefit package for their members, this makes it tough for old-line grocery companies to compete with non-union Walmart, Amazon, and Target, which is now selling a lot of food products.
To me the answer would be to try to unionize the Walmarts, Amazons, and Targets. Collective bargaining is just common sense. Otherwise you have a lone worker who is probably uneducated and uninformed, negotiating over pay and benefits with a behemoth corporation.
The problem is that unions such as the Teamsters and SEIU are now much more interested in unionizing public sector workers. That's where the membership, dues, and money is for them. Public sector unionism is basically a kickback scheme, a legal fraud, and the private sector union members can't compete with that.
I disagree, the most profitable grocery store in the US is Publix, and they don't have a union. Their employees are paid better than A & P employees according to Glassdoor, and they don't have to pay union dues. They also get ownership in the company, which pays dividends every 13 weeks and awards employees 8.5% stock in the company at the end of every year.
Publix actually ran Kroger out of Florida market.
I shop at Publix. The employees are incredible helpful and nice. They also hire people with disabilities, which I love. Yesterday my checker had a physical disability and my bagger had Down Syndrome.
They promote from within. The current president began as a bagger. 34,000 of their employees have worked their at least 10 years.
It's a great company and it's trouncing its competition in profits while treating its employees well.
Quote:
As best we can tell, Publix is the most profitable grocery chain in the nation: Its net margins, 5.6% in 2012, trounced Wal-Mart’s (3.8%), as well as those of every public competitor, ranging from mass market Kroger (1.6%) to hoity-toity Whole Foods (3.9%).
. . . .
Dean is one of 34,000 employees who have more than ten years of tenure.
. . . .
Not surprisingly none of them belongs to a union.
I disagree, the most profitable grocery store in the US is Publix, and they don't have a union. Their employees are paid better than A & P employees according to Glassdoor, and they don't have to pay union dues. They also get ownership in the company, which pays dividends every 13 weeks and awards employees 8.5% stock in the company at the end of every year.
Publix actually ran Kroger out of Florida market.
I shop at Publix. The employees are incredible helpful and nice. They also hire people with disabilities, which I love. Yesterday my checker had a physical disability and my bagger was Down Syndrome.
They promote from within. The current president began as a bagger. 34,000 of their employees have worked their at least 10 years.
It's a great company and it's trouncing its competition in profits while treating its employees well.
I disagree, the most profitable grocery store in the US is Publix, and they don't have a union. Their employees are paid better than A & P employees according to Glassdoor, and they don't have to pay union dues. They also get ownership in the company, which pays dividends every 13 weeks and awards employees 8.5% stock in the company at the end of every year.
Publix actually ran Kroger out of Florida market.
I shop at Publix. The employees are incredible helpful and nice. They also hire people with disabilities, which I love. Yesterday my checker had a physical disability and my bagger was Down Syndrome.
They promote from within. The current president began as a bagger. 34,000 of their employees have worked their at least 10 years.
It's a great company and it's trouncing its competition in profits while treating its employees well.
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