Comment Archives: Stories
Re: “Is Raley's Going the Way of Walmart?: Grocery Strike Goes Into Day Four”
i'm all for higher wages and good benefits but raley's could be getting ready to fire all their employees and higher the highly skilled (not) walmart workers who leave after 6 months. this is when all businesses make the remaining workers after downsizing make up the difference by having them do more work for the same or less pay. seems labor won't have much power until wages get driven down to nearly a par with china.
Re: “Is Raley's Going the Way of Walmart?: Grocery Strike Goes Into Day Four”
Be Loyal is right. Margins are low and overhead is high. The truth of the matter is the UNION has only THE UNIONS best interest in mind. Raleys has to pay the union to administer union employees health care costs, which is higher than average, if Raleys were able to administer the healthcare themselves they could lower overhead costs. But of course the union would lose money that way, so they fight it. Is it too much to ask Union Employees of Raleys to contribute $14-$18 a week for medical benefits? The Union Employees have been too spoiled for too long. Do the research and see what most Americans who are fortunate enough to even have coverage pay, I guarantee it is far more than $18 per week. Where was the UNION when NON UNION retailers such as Wal Mart, Target, Trader Joes, etc. came to California? It's had to stay competitive with these retailers taking more and more grocery sales while paying a minimum wage. As a Grocery employee myself, I feel the offer is more than fair that Raleys is offering. There are far too many people out of work with no benefits at all that would feel lucky to have the union employees strife! Raleys never PROMISED any employee lifetime medical benefits, the only PROMISE is the contract agreed upon by Raleys and the Union which expires every few years and has to be RENEGOTIATED. NOTHING LASTS FOREVER! The only thing this strike is doing is sending customers to the competition, and they may never come back,so guess what striking employees......you may not have a company to come back to because you and the union are helping to put Raleys out of business. Remember a Company called ALBERTSONS who's employees went on strike? Where are they now? So when you do put Raleys out of business have fun getting a job at Safeway for $9.95 an hour because they won't rehire you as a Journeyman clerk.
Re: “Press Democrat Ownership Includes Sandy Weill, Norma Person, Jean Schulz, More”
Your power as a consumer is your only means with which to show your dissatisfaction with the new ownership, or even part of that new ownership.
Re: “Is Raley's Going the Way of Walmart?: Grocery Strike Goes Into Day Four”
I'm just a Raley's customer - but I love the store & go out of my way to shop there for the excellent produce, clean quarters & the friendly staff. I've weighed the arguments and won't cross the strike line, in a show of support to the workers.
Re: “Is Raley's Going the Way of Walmart?: Grocery Strike Goes Into Day Four”
I am quite upset by your terse reply to this long and heartfelt outpouring from a dedicated and now distraught employee. For someone trying to pay for a roof to live under, get kids through school, keep up insurance payments--three billion in sales is an astronomical figure. But apparently you are more worried about parsing words than understanding the extreme duress your demands are placing on working families. Where is your heart, BeLoyal?
Re: “Is Raley's Going the Way of Walmart?: Grocery Strike Goes Into Day Four”
“Our family to yours-a Raley’s odyssey”
What has lead to the fine family business known as Raley’s to turn from one of the best places in America to work, to one where the grandson would give the food away rather than pay his grandfather’s employees??
Unlike his grandfather & mother, he grew up in an ivory tower, never having to stock shelves or rub elbows w/ the help.. His mother, having grown up in the store & grandfather not only saw us as employees but as friends, family and associates, having grown together, married and raised families etc together..
Perhaps we should feel sorry for the man now having to run a company he did not create & the burdens he is struggling to carry.. But that is hard to do when single mothers are forced to choose between feeding their children & standing up for themselves..
From high above in the ivory tower a $100 a week seems a mere pittance, but for those living week by week it is the difference between supporting ourselves & getting support from the state….
And sadly many do.. Yes, there are many employees already qualified for services including food stamps, AFDC, etc…
For many of us that have been w/ and loved this company for decades being forced to choose between our own self interest and the personal ambitions of our founders grandson is a bitter pill indeed………
For we built this company with pride and being the best at serving the needs of our customers and our employees..
I hope and pray that those around him, those that grew up in the stores, those for whom had there been no union, as Michael seems to want, they themselves would not be where they are today…
They know who they are and we expect them to speak out, not only on our behalf, but their own..
Michael is a great person, whom I have met many times, so I don’t think it is to much for “us” to ask him to do the right thing.. As we are eager to do right by him, as we have done for his grandfather for 77 years…
We have employees on the street and customers crossing the street but we can get back to work now before more damage is done…
I ask that Michael consider this, as well all friends, family & shoppers write Michael Teel and request that he allow us to work together again, as his family has always done..
Mr Loyal Employee
Re: “Is Raley's Going the Way of Walmart?: Grocery Strike Goes Into Day Four”
3 Billion is profits? In reality the company has 3 billion in sales...not quite the same. The margins are low and overhead is high. I can't believe the union member buy into this misinformation.
Re: “Empire News”
well since all news agencies are pushing their own agendas, i doubt that this 1 well ether.
Re: “Chairman Sarris”
An endowed chair? Really? "The purpose of the endowed chair is to foster greater understanding of the Native American culture and communities of California. This endowed chair was made possible through the $2.5 million donation from the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria."
Building a casino wouldn't have been on the minds of getting him his endowment now would it?
Re: “Machine Wash”
Yes, I concur. I also happened to spot the other two members, Alexis and Nikos, I presume, reading unacceptable periodicals at a Border's(pre-shutdown)...i believe Alexis was reading 'Town and Country' and Nikos was reading 'Model Airplane News'.
Re: “Machine Wash”
I saw this band once they totally ripped off the talking heads one of their songs was just a talking heads song no one just played another bands song but they did and another thing their tatoos are totally inaccurate they don't play ROCK ROLL its just jazzpunkrastafunk and they aren't fooling anyone also I take issue with the term epic in regards to their practice sessions because that's a colloquialism that doesn't apply here and also I once saw eden at the barnes and noble he was reading esquire unironically
Re: “Sneak Attack”
She marched with King? SFW! That doesn't enshrine her, just shows her political preference. She can go to SS and get a new card. Just more hand wringing from the politically correct. How long has this woman had to straighten out her lack of I.D.?
"Your lack of planning does not constitute and emergency for us"
reads the sign at the equipment rental window in our school.
Re: “Press Democrat Sold to... Doug Bosco?!”
The new owners of the PD, Doug Bosco and Darius Anderson, make their money as go-betweens between the pension funds/unions who manage trillions of pension fund dollars and Wall Street investment banks and real estate developers. For their services they receive a substantial finder's fee which has caused problems for Darius.
Here are a couple of articles:
http://inlandpolitics.com/blog/2010/08/27/latimes-political-power-player-darius-anderson-under-scrutiny-related-to-pension-deals/#more-12213
http://inlandpolitics.com/blog/2010/03/14/sacbee-darius-anderson-helped-republican-heavy-win-pension-money/#more-4325
They also helped get many of the Sonoma County Supervisors elected.
Our County has the highest pension formulas and salaries in the state. This means more of our County dollars are going to pension payments and less to County services like road maintenance, assistance for those in need, parks, libraries, etc. Instead the money gets shipped off to Wall Street and into real estate investments for their clients and even their own real estate development deals.
Now maybe the unions and the power brokers are getting tired of spending millions on commercials to quash things like campaign finance reform, (Prop 32) and future pension reform propositions, or pension reform candidates which would slow down the gravy train.
So they buy a newspaper that is probably not a good investment on its own but gives them the ability to control the local politicians and the election results by controlling the main news source in Sonoma County.
Re: “How We Represent”
Roseland is the Washington, D.C. of Santa Rosa. Everyone knows Roseland is where it's at, but nobody wants it to vote.
Re: “How We Represent”
"If minorities are already well-represented in Santa Rosa, then why can't parents in the city's most predominantly Latino neighborhood get a simple crosswalk painted on the road in front of their children's school?"
Stop spreading the hate and division. Replace the word "minority" with "White" and you'll see the stupidity of your ideas. Is there some reason the parents can't lay two boards down and spray white paint between them to make a solid white line then pick the boards up and move them five feet and repeat it again? That's what we did at our school in a White neighborhood.
As a native of San Francisco, now here, I have seen district elections make San Francisco a laughing stock and a place where not only is there no consensus but you have the most corrosive parochialism at work.
"This is a Black District" This is a White District", this district is "reserved for a Latino."
Don't do it! I am voting no on Q and you should too.
Re: “Creative Parenting”
Avoid Genetically Modified Food GMOs if you want to carry your baby to term!
Some of the GMO corn is a registered pesticide. Also, the special weedkiller that they are designed to be drenched with, kills fetal cells and causes spontaneous abortions.
Children having allergies and bowel discomfort may be reacting to GMOs.
Here's a short segment of a longer video about allergies:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_VZfyRTZZw
Re: “John Sawyer and the Republican Party "Preference"”
Typical Rustad. I'll never forget his "cartoons" that he/they/Dutra used against Torliatt in favor of David Rabbit, the faux Democrat.
We canceled our subscriptions to the Argus Courier and Press Democrat due to their extreme pro-business, pro-Dutra bias.
Rabbit, Healy, Miller, Kearney: They're ALL faux regressive Democrats. Don't be fooled. They aren't to be trusted.
This includes Efren Carrillo, faux environmentalist, who stabbed Petalumans in the back and voted in favor of the Dutra Group, who have a history of violating our environment from the west to the east coast. Indisputable!
Re: “Sneak Attack”
Can someone please enlighten me as to why having an ID shouldn't be required by law? In the majority of countries around the world a valid ID is required to participate in all government programs, to vote and to receive government welfare. I'll give the 93-year old adopted lady who lost her purse a break, but why are so many young people whatever their ethnicity/race and economic background without a valid ID? I'll tell you the biggest reason... because they don't make it down to the DMV. I am not convinced that requiring IDs is a bad thing. Yes, it was a sneak attach by the right for this election and yes it screwed a lot of people out of voting, but go get a damn ID already. You shoulda done it when they told us about the law 6 months ago.
Re: “John Sawyer and the Republican Party "Preference"”
Here's another little graphic in the vain of "who's really a republican"... http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=…
This Week's Issue
Re: “Is Raley's Going the Way of Walmart?: Grocery Strike Goes Into Day Four”
You can't retire until you're 62??? Too f...'n bad. I don't see any way I will EVER be able to retire. No pension waiting for me. Social Security is poverty. I don't have health care with my current worker but I like my job and buy my own. If I don't like it I'll go find another job. But I would NEVER be part of, or support, a union. Unions are what's killing this country and they have to go. And they WILL go. You people are living in a delusion. Go work somewhere else. Keep it up and you'll have no job at all. I'll continue to shop at Nob Hill. You don't intimidate me.