Feb, 2005
Ever notice how your computer screen never reflects
"real time" statistics for you to know where you are concerning your expected "rated" job performance? You have numbers on
your computer screen that are supposed to mean something; the bottom right number supposedly means your "rate for day performance".
Problem is, this number does not reflect the delays you have entered for the shift unless your supervisor took the time to
enter them and, (guess what?) they are way too busy to do that.
Ever notice how you do certain jobs differently throughout
the work year? For instance, stand-up hi-lo drivers always "stage" screen off during the busy season. It is much faster
that way. But the original standard for that job task included pulling product from overstock, labelling product, and
throwing product on the conveyor belt. I've had supervisors tell me I was not pulling rate for the week when I spent three
hours each day "staging" screen off! On more than one occaision. My computer screen rate never exceeds 115%! I'm only
doing one-third of the expected rated job, but my "rated" performance never reaches 300%? What does this
tell you about our computer rating system? How accurate do you think it is? Each of these instaces means my "rate" should
have exceeded the expected rate by approximately 200% for the week! Yet my supervisors were of the opinion that I wasn't making
"rate"!
The other interesting phenomenon is these same supervisors have
never seen instances where our computer generated "rate" was in error. The reality is no attempts have been made to
"look" for "problems" like the ones mentioned here. Problems are hard to find if you know where you should look and intentionally
don't look there!
Did you notice all the product staged in front of the racks in
the main aisle from approximately September of 2005 to just a few weeks ago? That was because the same "infallible" computer
system that is not capable of error when assessing "rate" for laborers would not allow systems coordinators to manually assign
product to reserve locations. Because the computer system is incapable of recognizing manually assigned product. That's why
the computer keeps telling you to put more product in the locations where manually assigned product exists. It does not "know"
the product is there. And it is part of the reason we were driving around in a dangeraous and unsafe work environment
for nearly half a year (With product all over the main aisles for us to drive around). Is your union doing anything about
this? I'll bet they maintain they weren't even aware this problem existed. Little wonder. It was their time study engineer
that gave the "rubber stamp" approval to our existing system.
Bob:
I see U.F.C.W. is still doing nothing as usual for the money they
take. A recently removed Meijer employee has gotten a job doing the same type of work that he did at Meijer. He'lll be able
to get health care from the same health care provider as Meijer's for less cost!
It should be noted that this company is smaller than Meijer's!
This ex-employee does not work under the same stressful conditions that he/she did at Meijer!
He/She really enjoys working for their new employer.
The company does not charge their employee for gloves to handle their
produce. This company has a higher standard for handling their produce. Therefore, they issue their employee four (4) pairs
of gloves every morning. No advertising on them and no machine vending!
There is no Union to force the employee to pay!
This person is much happier at this new job than they were with Meijer
or U.F.C.W. on their back.Perhaps Meijer and the Union could take a lesson from this company? It is not known to me if they
have race horses, Botanical Gardens, or if they are trying to organize another company.
Sincerely,
Phillip Thompson
Summer 2005
What is 1099 (UFCW)
Doing Wrong?
They’ve
been advancing their own political agenda over the best interests of dues paying union members.
Ever been asked if it would be OK for your local
to use your dues money to try to organize Wal-Mart? Me either.
And while Meijer union members are turning out for
contract ratification votes in record numbers approaching 38% of our membership (you read right, it says thirty eight percent),
our union hall cronies are off gallivanting around trying to organize an historically un-organize-able retailer like (Wal-Mart).
This demonstrates that securing a healthy union base in our bargaining unit is not as worthwhile an endeavor as hitting a
grand-slam homerun by obtaining massive more union dues with a world-wide retailer like Wal-Mart.
In other words, our union hall cronies are all about
obtaining money for political slush-funds (and houseboats and golf outings etc.). We could drop to twenty percent of our membership
showing up for a contract ratification vote and they wouldn’t give a rat’s rear-end about it. Bottom line is they
still get our dues every paycheck whether our contract sucks or not. And with the seventy-five dollar initiation
fees, they actually get more when Meijer has a higher turnover rate! Talk about an incentive for lazy self-centered union
hall bosses to keep doing nothing!
Every single person I’ve asked said they want
our union leadership to educate and inform our union brotherhood about the importance of every union member voting for our
contract ratification. So to recap, UFCW 1099 is not doing what we want them to do, but is continuing to do what we want them
to stop.
