XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.republicans, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: alt.survival   
   From: rachel-madcow@msnbc.com   
      
   In article    
   forging asshole  wrote:   
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   The Kroger Workers Rank-and-File Committee urges our co-workers   
   in Central Indiana to vote down the second contract proposal   
   brought by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 700 over   
   the next three days!   
      
   Everyone who has read the highlights that were handed out to   
   workers in stores Wednesday can see this is not a “new”   
   contract, but a re-hash of the old one we rejected only weeks   
   ago. Pay raises for workers at the top pay rate will only be   
   $0.65 for the first year and $0.50 for the next two years. For   
   clerks in the Third Step, currently the highest tier, pay will   
   only “rise” to the poverty level of $17.60 an hour by the end of   
   the contract in May 2024. For the lower two tiers, clerks will   
   make just $15.75 in the First Step and $16.50 in the Second Step   
   by the end of the contract.   
      
   The Highlights are not even “highlights” but “lowlights.” They   
   are concessions through and through. Who has the UFCW   
   negotiating team been negotiating for while we’ve been working   
   under extensions through holiday weekends, making profits for   
   the company? Why are we told we can only see the full contract   
   after we ratify a deal we oppose?   
      
   The union is promoting these raises as being an extra bump on   
   top of the less than $2 increases that the company gave out in   
   2021. The UFCW is playing directly into the hands of Kroger and   
   its shareholders by painting this out to be a good deal. In   
   reality, all it does is help the company to continue amassing   
   billions in profit off of our backs and pitting us against   
   fellow Kroger workers across the US in a race to the bottom for   
   the lowest wages.   
      
   The UFCW is trying to sweeten the rotten deal with signing   
   bonuses that we know will barely put a dent in the rapidly   
   increasing costs of food, gas and housing. Full-time workers at   
   top pay, who are not leads or department heads, are being bribed   
   with a pitiful $2,500 bonus. Part-time workers at top pay will   
   get just $1,000, all of which will be subject to taxes and union   
   dues deductions. To add insult to injury, non-top pay workers   
   are not even eligible for these meager sums.   
      
   The union that supposedly represents us is negotiating for   
   Kroger and not the working class. It is time for us to take the   
   initiative to organize to fight for our demands independently of   
   the union.   
      
   First of all, we must formulate our own demands, a “red line”   
   beyond which we will not accept any contract. We propose these   
   include the following:   
      
   Increase starting pay to at least $29 per hour, the calculated   
   living wage for an adult with one dependent child in Indiana;   
   Return to the right to an eight-hour day with no penalties for   
   workers who refuse overtime; and   
   Fully-funded health care benefits for workers and their   
   families, a defined-benefit pension plan (not 401K-based) for   
   all workers.   
   Kroger and its major shareholders have more than enough money in   
   their coffers that they’ve gained off of our labor to meet our   
   demands for higher wages, better benefits and working   
   conditions. In 2021, the corporation raked in $30.3 billion in   
   profit, a slight drop from $30.9 billion in 2021 but   
   significantly higher than $26.9 billion in gross profits   
   recorded in 2019. Its CEO W. Rodney McMullen took home an $18   
   million compensation package in 2021, which was gained off of   
   the backs of workers who barely survive on $13 per hour.   
      
   The UFCW knows this, yet it’s plain to see that this “union” is   
   more interested in defending the company’s goal of gaining more   
   profits while we’re paid less than they are fighting for the   
   interests of workers who pay dues every week.   
      
   Union reps are chronically unavailable when we have questions   
   and patronize us when we express our desire to strike and raise   
   concerns about vote counting. The UFCW is doing everything it   
   can to ensure that as many workers as possible will not be able   
   to exercise their right to vote by having voting be 100 percent   
   in-person, with only a one-and-a-half hour window. This forces   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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