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Should Fresh & Easy workers form a union?
September 17th, 2008, 1:50 pm · 21 Comments · posted by Nancy Luna, Staff Writer
Fresh & Easy in O.C. could become Tesco's first unionized American store.
Looks like employees of Fresh & Easy’s Huntington Beach store want to form a union.
If the Orange County workers formally “organize” as a union, they would join more than 20,000 union grocery workers employed in the county. More intriguing: the workers would be the first Fresh & Easy to form a union.
The small, format store is owned by British food giant Tesco.
But, before you do, tell me: Do you like shopping at union markets? Does it make a difference to you?
Write in and let us know.
Do you think Fresh & Easy should be a union employer?
Update — Ex-Ralphs executives charged with labor fraud
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Union? are you kidding me. I smell a consiracy by the big supermarkets and the union.
Mike — read the full story on the link..I interviewed a union “plant” — or undercover Vons worker employed at the HB Fresh & Easy. He’s been converting workers since December.
a ha. I knew it.. Man, thats interesting Nancy. Why hasn’t Trader Joes unionized? Is Fresh & Easy a bigger threat? The supermarket war continues…
It’s not like their workers even do anything. What do they need to unionize for? To make sure they continue to do nothing?
To be accurate, the “plant” is from the union, not Vons. He is just a unionized Vons employee taking a LOA from his job as no doubt provided for by his contract. That is not proof, nor even evidence, that Vons is involved.
Although it seems likely that the big grocers would want any competitors to be as burdened by the union as they are — leveling the playing field — I’m sure the large grocers would rather break the union than help strengthen it.
I like both Fresh & Easy and Trader Joe’s, but from what I’ve seen so far, the average Fresh & Easy worker is more of a robot, and thus more susceptible to union brainwashing.
Jason - If you read the actual story, I think you’ll see that I explained the Vons employee’s union objective clearly, and accurately. He is a worker on leave. He is working for the union. I didn’t mean to imply Vons sent him in to do union work.
UNIONS STINK!!!
.
Do away with unions!
Bad for society.
UNIONS are just legal and organized Extortionists.
.
Nancy - I agree, you explained it perfectly clearly in the article. My comments were directed at Mike, who it seemed might have misinterpreted your comment above (in response to his post) about the plant being an “undercover Vons worker.”
No problem, Jason. Thanks for reading, and weighing in. Either way…it’s an interesting process.
Jason, I think the supermarkets would do anything to fend off this potential threat. I hardly even shop at Ralphs etc anymore, only for small items. So its not out of the realm of possibilities that these larger markets would want to slow down non-union fresh and easy. I understand the article didn’t say this implicitly but come on, we all know its possible.
The Union is nefarious. They’ve been after F&A since they opened with people blocking store exits with union propaganda. I keep getting the same garbage in the mail disguised as F&E mailers. Union starting wages are 8.00 and hour. Fresh & Easy fight the union at ALL COSTS.
THIS should be on the OP/ED pages.
Another point. This union held it’s customers “hostage” during a STRIKE a couple years ago. Thank god, Trader Joes was around at the time.
These guys have been working there for less than a year and they’re complaining about wages and benefits? If the wages and benefits weren’t satisfactory, they should have taken a better job in the first place. And if they couldn’t get a better job, it sounds like the laws of supply and demand got them exactly what they deserve.
Unionizing F&E would be the end of this up and coming chain. A year into their launch the prospect of paying union wages and benefits would surely be a difficult financial burden that I don’t think they could survive.
Although the undercover employee is not there at the behalf of Von’s, Von’s along with Ralph’s and Alberston’s would reap the rewards of F&E going union and I’m certain they’re tacitly smiling with approval. It levels the playing field and eliminates one of the advantages of their competition.
I don’t know if the average F&E employee treats their job as a potential career or a McJob but I think unionizing would be bad for the franchise.
I work at a Fresh and Easy, and I definitely do not want the union to come in. I was already apart of the food union while I worked at Albertsons, and it is exactly why I left. However, the reason these workers want the union to come is not becase of wages and benefits, it’s because of the way we workers are treated. There is A LOT of stuff going on with in the company that people don’t realize is happening, and the workers want to try to put a stop to it. I hear my co-workers talking about how they want to fight the injustices that are occuring, but they don’t realize that voting in the union will ultimately hurt and not help us. I have already been screwed over by the food union once, and I don’t want to give them the chance to do it to me again.
I’m frankly shocked at the level of deceit by the union. If this union plant — Ozenbaugh, really is on a LOA from Vons, then he should be fired by Vons for his unethical behavior. Like it or not, his behavior has now affected the perception of Vons and the quality of their employees.
I would certainly expect that F & E has fired him - no brainer.
I know some would say I’m naive, but is it too much to ask that people just tell the truth?
Unions are NEVER the answer! Because of unions, we pay much higher prices at the other chain supermarkets. There is a huge rumor out there among management of Ralphs that Fresn & Easy is sinking, but from what I see when I shop, they are alive and well, and doing just fine without a union. That slime from the union who has infiltrated this new chain is evil and there should be laws against what he is doing. Besides the obvious sleezy act, he is taking a job away from someone who truly needs a job, and would be thrilled to get $10/hour with benefits. DO NOT UNIONIZE THIS FANTASTIC STORE CHAIN!
Unions are leeches and their tactics are clearly unethical. What laws are in place to protect a business such as F&E from these dishonest idiots?
Are you kidding?? Working at F and E is the easiest job out there.. The have good benefits, flexible schedule and good paying wages.. Granted in OC the cost of living is higher but how many other places are you going to find any job that is starting at 10 an hour. Most manual labor now a days is at 8.50 maybe 9 and after the union takes your hard earned money you’ll be left with a bunch of politics.
Trust me F and E workers - Coming from Vons myself and then going to F and E ( with many years in between) the union is the last thing you want. Why do you need politics to regulate what you do each day. Working F and E is not like a traditional store and is much easier.
NO UNION!!!!
Unions are no longer necessary IMHO, they were put in place to protect people from unfair working practices.
They’ve done their job - they’ve created new labor laws, they’ve gotten safer working places, created an ability to legally fight injustices. Now we have all that, so we don’t need unions anymore. They’re just fat mini-businesses (or large if you think of the money they pull in) that just leech on the worker to “protect” them.
Screw the unions. they make any business so inflated that they’re non-competitive - why is our automotive industry in trouble? I partially blame the unions.