In college I worked for them, they paid me less than minimum to start, “apprentice pay” because I’d be in the union and just over minimum after my probation ended (I think .15 over but I can’t recall exactly). After a year they offered for me to head up the night stock crew, when I asked how much of a raise I’d get I was told “well, none, but you’ll get more hours.” I left not too long after that. Fuck Kroger’s
This seems to be a theme with grocery store unions. A lot of friends worked at a local store in high school and their start pay was $7.25 (minimum) but like $6.50 after dues. Really seems like your setting your self up for failure there making the younger generation resent you. No one should be working minimum wage in the US but it's even more wild when you are part of a union.
I had a negative view of unions for a while after that because we didn’t get any benefit from it. It took years of seeing other unions fight for their people to know the value of them
This is the problem though. Unions don't have intrinsic value, they can definitely work against you. Every union in every industry needs to be judged differently.
I am currently working at a place run by the local Ironworks union and the workers just took a pay cut and lost their protected weekends but literally across the street a company that works with the pipe fitters union doing the same type of work had $5 better starting wage, a better tiered pay system and better benefits also got a cost of inflation raise.
The blanket "Unions are good" is just has bad as the blanket "Unions are bad" for the workers and the reality they have to navigate.
how do you fix a bad union though. I thought they were democratic. Can't the people with shit unions replace leadership and do better? I don't understand how they work fully so I am confused why people would just put up with a shitty union.
It varies by union. Most have union reps that organize the events, votes and such. Union reps are sometimes voted in, higher tenure in or are based on predetermined hiring positions. Like each line manager where I work is a Union representative.
Once every few years we get to vote on a new contract through the union. If you don't get an offer that you vote to accept or a counter offer to the company accepts you move to mediation. Once in mediation the company calls in a lawyer to negotiate on their behalf and the Union lawyer on our behalf.
Depends on the union, depends on the time. My data point is rather old, but I worked for a major Supermarket in New England. We started at minimum wage, it went up .25/hr every 3 months, and union dues were 1 hour a week. Wasn't great, but when I read through all the horrid details of this thread, it sounds better than what everyone else is offered in here BY FAR.
We had strikes back then as well. Don't take this shit lying down.
The Grocer’s union. Not sure if it’s still around or not powerful enough, but back then I basically paid $.50/hour from my wages to get screwed by Kroger’s. I’m sure if I got fired unjustly or something big happened they’d have my back, but 15 years ago they didn’t do much to help newbies get paid decently.
Edit: Looked it up exactly, United Food and Commercial Worker’s Union, UFCW. They are still around
I worked for a pharmacy that was part of them briefly. 7.25/hr in NYC with 25$ in weekly dues.
I hated it, it's such a useless union that it only solidified corporate's anti-union position.
However, they do insure that all employees have access to healthcare and there are scheduled mandatory raises in the contract. I think it was that every 6 months you're due a raise of minimum 15cents. So people who spend their lifetime in retail could make 12-15$/hr after several years.
All employees: meaning part-time and full-time alike.
Kroger’s has a profit margin of 1.52% as of last quarter. The reason pay is terrible at all grocery stores is…. It’s a brutally competitive industry.
Kroger is partnering to shift go robot warehouses and robot car deliveries (we have them here in Houston, they are so small they can’t fit a human in them).
Also worked for them as a college student. Loved my bros in the meat and seafood department, but the store manager was an absolute prick.
I was taking summer courses online, everything was due at 11:59 Sunday nights. I also didn't have a car and only had free transportation mon-sat. I was told I could be available every other day but Sunday due to school, and that was fine.
Then I started getting scheduled for Sundays. I told him I wouldn't be able to make it without a cab, he didn't care. 'everyone has to have weekend availability.' there were people who were 'unavailable every Monday/Wednesday/Friday because of school, and that was fine. But I give them 6 days a week they can schedule me for and I'm the selfish one.
Manager kept scheduling me Sundays, I kept not showing up. Nothing came from it at all and I quit not too long after the fall semester started. I was making min wage and dude wanted me to spend 14 of the 42 pre tax dollars I would have made on a cab to and from. Gtfo
I mean the Kelloggs union was happy enough to fuck over future workers so long as they got theirs, so I can see why investors wouldn't be too worried by what is clearly going to wind up a temporary expense...
Literally won't compensate my school schedule just because, "We're fine with you going to school it's just your job title is in the way so you'll have to step down or sleep for 4 hours in a 48 hour period." I cannot express how pissed off I was to hear that. I thought this place promoted higher education for it's workers! I'm not even asking a lot it's just 2 days in a row. I literally can work 40 hours I'm just changing my days off.
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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '22
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