Grocery Strike Raises Union Questions

Posted on | November 12, 2009 | 1 Comment

Mary Ann Miller

Wow!  The holidays are coming up.  Arizona is rated as having the second-worst financial crisis in the nation.  Unemployment is the highest in decades.  A large number of experienced grocery workers are job hunting because of the recent economic challenges at local chain Bashas’.  Opposite sides on the national discussion on health care all agree that rising costs are unsustainable. And this is the time the union wants to strike Fry’s and Safeway?

Folks, pick your battles!

The sticking point in negotiations appears to be what new employees should contribute to their health care costs.  This doesn’t impact the people who will be walking out of jobs during these tough economic times.  The argument that it will eventually lead to lowered coverage for current employees is specious.  No one has said that’s on the table, so it won’t happen during the proposed contract period.I’m afraid there won’t be a great outpouring of sympathy for people who are objecting to new hires being charged $5 per week for health coverage, when so many folks pay so much more.  But I’m sympathetic.  I’m sympathetic because the union is using its members to try to build its own reputation as a fighter on behalf of workers’ rights.  Instead, it’s putting those workers in a terrible situation.  While it doesn’t bother me at all that the union is making itself look bad, I feel for the people working at the stores.  They will be most harmed. 

Union membership has been steadily declining.  Is it any wonder when its leadership doesn’t know the difference between defending its members and throwing them under the bus?

Mary Ann Miller is the President/CEO of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce

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