What's with the Picketing at Meijer? Anyone know? The sign put up by the
store says the folks aren't Meijer employees, so what's it about?

28 responses total.

An announcement appeared in the mail that the
United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 954 in Toledo
filed unfair labor practices charges against Meijer on behalf of a
member (Kelly King) who worked at Meijer's in Toledo. She claims that
"Meijer wanted to bully me and other workers into accepting an unfair
contract with substandard wages and minimum benefits." 

She makes other accusations, too. I haven't seen Meijer's side of this story.

I work at Meijer, and all I know is, the picketing in Toledo
isn't working, so they're bringing it up here in the hopes that
Meijer will actually be affected somehow.

are the picketters picketting all Mejiers? Or just here cause it's close
to Toledo?

        Pattie

The Taylor store now has pickets.  Might as well spit in the wind.

I just went to the Meijer on Saline Road. They had signs up saying that
the picketers were not Meijer employees, and they apologized for the
inconvenience. There were, however, no picketers in sight.

Have they given up already? The store was mobbed.

I dont' have any sympathy for the strikers at all considering first 
of all that they are picketing a store that's not involved in their
dispute (it's not even the same union in Ohio if I understand correctly)
and, hey, if you don't like the grocery store you work for, get a 
job at some other grocery store.  It looks like an excuse to sit on their
butts for a while.

Meijer checkout people seem uniformly snotty these days; doesn't matter
which store I visit.

Mostly all seem pleasant enough to me, as usual, although not all are entirely
competent.

I've noticed the bagging skills of the cashiers has gone down dramatically
over the last year or so.  Also, the waiting lines have increased, no
matter when I seem to go. In the middle of the day, in the evenings, it's
pretty much the same: all the lines are about 3 deep and backing up into
the aisle. 

I (finally) saw pickets at the AA-Saline store and took a flyer from
them.  Same story as told above; they're complaining about unfair
practices, etc.  My guess is that they're targeting the AA employees
for solidarity purposes more than the customers.  I always think carefully
about crossing a picket line, but if their fellow union members are
crossing it, they don't have a prayer of stopping me.  I think they
should save their credibility for a rainy day.

To clarify some points:

Yes, the Ohio Meijer stores are in a different union.
They're picketing the Michigan Meijers in the hope that
Meijer will actually be affected.  (The Toledo stores
made very little money to start with.)

The baggers are incompetent because we're so short on staff that
we'll hire anything that breathes.  I expect to see chimpanzees
in uniforms sometime soon.  They might be better than some of
the new people we're getting...

The picketers (who work for Kroger, the UAW, and various other
union places around here besides Meijer) aren't always out
there, no.  Don't ask me why.  I know they're never out there
when I got to work at 7 AM, and they're usually there when I
leave in the afternoon.

I also saw picketers this time, but I couldn't see any visible effect
upon traffic in the store at all.

I just have to get in a comment re robh's remark that meijer cant
find help.  I just can't see people complaining that there is no
work avaliable.  Get a job at meijer's, while you look elsew{w3h{ere!
Work your way up the ladder to dept mgr or store mgr!
So what if it's low pay, it's a start.

Re #11    Are the Meijers around here hiring for part time or for
          full time?  I have experienced situations in which work
          place management chooses to be short handed instead of 
          allowing more employees work full time, as they say it
          costs too much.

Re #13    The part where people complain about the lack of work
          did not show up on my screen.  Can you tell me where that
          is?  Or, is this something that happens to you?

I think Meijer is looking for both full time and part time work.

Maybe #13 is confusing attitudes.  People often discuss what is 
the primary focus of their life at their time,..kpojiophp





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Well put.  >8)

At this point, Meijer is taking anybody warm and breathing for
howver many hours they want, as long as it's between 16 and 40.
And if you want more than 40, that can probably be arranged.

Rob,

What's the going rate of pay at Meijers?

No idea, I know they cut it dramatically shortly after I was
hired.  (But my pay stayed at the same rate.  >8)

According to the _Agenda_, The Toledo United Food and Commercial
Workers (Local 954) has been carrying out informational leaflet-
ting at the Meijer stores in Ann Arbor since early June.   They
are asking that people boycott the Meijer stores in response to
management demands that workers in Toledo take a cut in benefits
and hours.  

The local 954 has hired picketers to join them.  The picketers 
are paid because the Toledo union local is not large enough to
staff picket lines out of their area.  The Ann Arbor Meijer workers
are by contract not allowed to join the picket lines.

This brings up a couple of questions.

If the Ann Arbor Meijer stores are so deperate for workers, why
aren't they bringing in the Toledo workers, who have transportation.
They could even arrange several on one shift and encourage car pooling.
It seems this would help resolve the Meijer stores need for labor
and the Toledo peoples need for food and shelter.  With the
the Meijer management wouldn't feel the need to cut their benefits.

Why does this have to be such a problem?

(Last Question)
The Ann Arbor Meijer employees, are siting contract restraints
as their reason not to strike.  Isn't it always illegal to strike?

Absolutely not. Laws interdict striking in certain industries, but 
certainly not grocery and retail workers. The only law they would break
if they struck is the "breach of contract" law.

Steve is right.  Public employees, such as police, firefighters
and teachers (!!) are forbidden by law to strike.  It seems to me
that if the local Meijer employees chose to honor the picket line,
they could, the way many university faculty will refuse to cross an
AFSCME picket line, for example.

Re 19 - Good question, Dana.  Goddess knows we'd hire them if they
wanted to work here.

But it's definitely not illegal for grocery/retail workers to
strike.

Bill (who's dad works for GM and is therefore a member of UAW) thinks
that it may be illegal for a union to hire people to picket. Anyone
know for sure?

        Pattie

It's misleading as heck, but I wonder what law would make it illegal.

It seems to me that I have heard of people being paid to picket who
were not directly involved.  In the past I thought they were union
members from other locals.

This response has been erased.

Yep, it was resolved a few months ago.

If Meijer is having so much trouble getting reasonable employees maybe
they need to change there hiring practices.  I asked for and started to
fill out an application a year ago.  Stopped when I got to the lines stating
that my signature on the application gave them permission to run drug tests
and credit checks on me.  I refuse to give up my Constitution rights to
privacy just to get a minimum wage job.

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