and it looks like a pretty fair deal to me. $20/month in healthcare for a single or $40/month for a family is pretty good.
Grocery stores are a VERY low margin business. I think it is like 3-5% of the total purchase. If the current wage rates and health benefits keep increasing so will our grocery bills. This is one of the reason why places are trying the self checkout option. Worker costs keep increasing and profit margins keep decreasing. Remember this strike isn't helping anybody. Grocery stores are know under attack by WalMart, KMart, Costco and other "super"stores. They no longer have the economies of scale to keep them a better deal. Therefore they have to adjust. If they don't at some point they will disappear and those jobs will be completely lost.
If the unions can't get more out of their workers then I don't think that they have a leg to stand on. There is to much competition for them to argue. Look at what happened to the autoindustry and airline industry. Outside competitors come in without the handicaps that the existing stores have and they can beat you up pretty good. So the union is going to need to find something to give on here too.
BTW I like Vons I used to shop there all the time when I was in San Diego.
Now I shop at Mollie Stones up in the Bay Area. I pay more but the quality of goods and service make up for it. I didn't find that at Albertsons or Safeway, or Cala.
Grocery stores are a VERY low margin business. I think it is like 3-5% of the total purchase. If the current wage rates and health benefits keep increasing so will our grocery bills. This is one of the reason why places are trying the self checkout option. Worker costs keep increasing and profit margins keep decreasing. Remember this strike isn't helping anybody. Grocery stores are know under attack by WalMart, KMart, Costco and other "super"stores. They no longer have the economies of scale to keep them a better deal. Therefore they have to adjust. If they don't at some point they will disappear and those jobs will be completely lost.
If the unions can't get more out of their workers then I don't think that they have a leg to stand on. There is to much competition for them to argue. Look at what happened to the autoindustry and airline industry. Outside competitors come in without the handicaps that the existing stores have and they can beat you up pretty good. So the union is going to need to find something to give on here too.
BTW I like Vons I used to shop there all the time when I was in San Diego.
Now I shop at Mollie Stones up in the Bay Area. I pay more but the quality of goods and service make up for it. I didn't find that at Albertsons or Safeway, or Cala.