Michael Fraser says that the deal allows the ufcw to open unionized.....SO WHAT.....where is the benefit and what part did the union play in making the deal any better.....NONE.You have no spine MR Fraser and you sold out Loblaws,Zehrs and Fortinos in order to get into RCSS.Keep the cash coming in is the new motto of the UFCW.The UFCW couldn't organize a free lunch,unless it in San Francisco,let alone a new chain.
Broken Boner Award
This is just too sweet. Mike "I don't do e-mail" Fraser wags his finger at the Toronto NOW for its accurate story about the UFCW's sweetheart deal with Loblaw:
quote:
Loblaws wrongs
aisles of trouble was right when it pointed out that Wal-Mart's "Everyday Low Wage" strategy threatens the future of all Canadian workers (NOW, July 31-August 6). Where it's wrong is in its suggestion that the 12,000 current employees of Loblaws are about to see their hard-won wages and benefits rolled back. That's simply not true.
What is true is that their union, UFCW Canada, has developed a strategy to allow Loblaws to open unionized (unlike Wal-Mart) superstores that would offer employees wages and benefits far superior to any other big-box chain.
In stores currently open, food-handling employees and cashiers would continue to receive their current salary and benefits package. No change. No rollbacks.
New superstore non-food employees' (handling household merchandise) starting rate would be lower than food employees. But their benefits and union protection would be the same as their brothers and sisters. And as vacancies come open on the food side, these new employees could apply and move to the higher wage scale.
One of the reasons Loblaws is one of the world's most profitable food chains is because of the quality of its union workforce. Workers who are treated with dignity and respect are more productive.
Michael J. Fraser, National Director, UFCW
Having secret bargaining meetings with Loblaw and refusing to hand out the true text of the sweetheart deal is about the furthest from treating members with dignity and respect as you can get.
How the hell is signing a contract that provides for wage scales starting at minimum wage and going to $10 an hour after 10 or more years of part-time work (identical to Wal-Mart) treating members with dignity and respect?
Ya, Mike, they get exactly the same as their part-time UFCW brothers and sisters--sweet dick all. Oops! Sorry, they get no benefits except leiu money that may help some of them pay a fraction of their UFCW dues and initiation.
Mike, the UFCW signed a Wal-Mart deal with Loblaw. They also got cheaper grocery rates in the new stores. Part-timers work for about $5 an hour less than full-timers.
The UFCW has ensured that they will never be able to organize Wal-Mart, Costco, Zellers or any other retailer and do anything appreciable for those employers' employees.
From now on, being UFCW will mean little more than having the chance to pay part of your minimum wage to the UFCW.
Mike, the UFCW's deal is indefensible, so stop trying. We're looking for candidates for Grand Marshal of the Weasle Parade and for recipients for the Broken Boner Award. Don't make us have to put you in the running.
At the convention, while magnifying all of their sterling achievments in Canada, they kept the Loblaws deal at a dull roar. It may be that their conscience was eating at them a bit? Nothing that a little pepto and some caviar couldn't take care of.
The UFCW couldn't organize a peeing contest in a brewery
quote:
A lie travels around the world while the truth is puttin its boots on. Winston Churchill
I don't think it had anything to do with their consciences. Their "unprecedented breakthrough in bargaining" blew up on them just before their departure for the convention. It was never supposed to be debated publicly or held up to any kind of scrutiny.
By the time the fellas unpacked their bags in San Fran, we'd already been pissing on them for a week or so, a DFR complaint was being filed and members were going public with their outrage. I guess they realized that if anyone scratched the veneer of the "forward thinking accord" they might uncover the terrible and ugly truth: The the UFCW is lower its members' wages so a big fat profitable business can compete with Wal-mart and make even more money.
It must have broken their hearts to have to stay quiet. I gather that in years past the Canadian flunkies have beaten their gums profusely about their great accomplishments.