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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: “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: “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: “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=…
Re: “John Sawyer and the Republican Party "Preference"”
in the words of Charles Barkley "republicans are full of shit, democrats are just slightly less full of shit."
Re: “Press Democrat Sold to... Doug Bosco?!”
The press has been going down hill for along time. Let it go...it used to have so much more news...beef up the website..it is so hard to get through....who ever is charge of that get to work...it's not clean...it's old.
Re: “Press Democrat Sold to... Doug Bosco?!”
Sigh of relief, after reading the news release last night I thought the progressives had their hands in this. Thanks bohemian.
Re: “Share Alike”
Yaaaa I love Yerdle - I love giving and getting something and sharing. The Sharing Economy is a Tsunami that is rising under our feet...generation Xers are not buying cars - they are sharing cars. This is the way to transform our consumptive culture to a collaborative culture.
As Van Jones said, “The emerging shareable economy has the potential to create a new American model—one in which everyday Americans have access to additional sources of revenue, savings, and new career opportunities.” “RebuildtheDream.org”
Re: “Kernel of Wisdom”
Jeffrey Smith and Tom Malterre, MS, CN Discuss GMOs and Gluten
http://vimeo.com/51259453
One more disease caused by genetically modified food, the great imposter, that creates allergies, autism, infertility, miscarriage, prostate cancer, breast cancer, acid reflux, leaky bowel syndrome and other conditions that can be avoided.
Lets label GMOs so that people with gluten sensitivity can avoid them.
Yes on prop 37.
www.geneticroulettemovie.com
As an alternate, go to search Youtube for "genetic roulette movie"
and watch the 10 minute remix,
or look for the full length 84 minute movie.
Re: “Play With Your Food at Square Belly Food Theater”
Thanks Nick!
Re: “Hail Traffic Control”
Roundabouts are more complicated to use. Having grown up in England and learned to drive there, I can tell you that RoundAbouts are far more effective than traffic signals for most situations but the general population HAS to know how to drive through them.
This is not something we should do on a city by city basis.
Re: “Hail Traffic Control”
I really do not understand this nostalgia (pre-nostalgia, actually) for standard intersections controlled by traffic signals. They are far more dangerous than roundabouts. Studies show that roundabouts reduce injury accidents by 75%. Vehicle through-put is improved, too.
http://www.economist.com/node/21538779?frs…
Re: “Oct. 17: Howlin Rain at the Mystic Theatre”
Do whatever it takes to see this show. You will not be disappointed!
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.