In St. Louis, the Grocery Union workers have been on strike for 10 days now. There are several reasons why they are on strike, but apparently our favorite Wal-Mart has something to do with it. This is what I have heard:
-Wal-Mart has decreased benefits for employees to increase profit margins.
-Wal-Mart's expansion and "low prices" have the local grocers scrambling to keep up with the competition.
-In order to increase their own profit margins, local grocers have scaled back or are not willing to negotiate on employee benefits.
-Employees want to get paid higher wages and have better benefits but contracts were negotiated pretty recently (withing the past 2 years?) so the CEO's are apparently not too willing to compromise.
-The local grocers have hired on people to replace union workers at a much higher wage. The grocers are not willing to negotiate so far.
St Louis is a VERY union city and the aspects of all of this are foreign to me- Union was not prevalent where I'm from. Have any of you heard about the strike currently going on?
Tell me what you know about Unions. I know why they exist and all the "textbook" information....there's got to be more though. I've heard of violence, being spit on and having to pay fines if you are union and cross the picket line to work again. Thoughts?
-Wal-Mart has decreased benefits for employees to increase profit margins.
-Wal-Mart's expansion and "low prices" have the local grocers scrambling to keep up with the competition.
-In order to increase their own profit margins, local grocers have scaled back or are not willing to negotiate on employee benefits.
-Employees want to get paid higher wages and have better benefits but contracts were negotiated pretty recently (withing the past 2 years?) so the CEO's are apparently not too willing to compromise.
-The local grocers have hired on people to replace union workers at a much higher wage. The grocers are not willing to negotiate so far.
St Louis is a VERY union city and the aspects of all of this are foreign to me- Union was not prevalent where I'm from. Have any of you heard about the strike currently going on?
Tell me what you know about Unions. I know why they exist and all the "textbook" information....there's got to be more though. I've heard of violence, being spit on and having to pay fines if you are union and cross the picket line to work again. Thoughts?