Anyone heard of them? They only operate in California, Nevada, and Arizona, I believe. But the unions are actively picketing their stores, and have been for a while. However yesterday they started in at the one I go to, so I'm taking the fight to them and urging everyone to shop there, and start taking some of the market share from the oligopoly.

Apparently the employees don't get "fair" compensation and benefits, so closing the company down and giving them nothing is the humane thing to do. Whatev, they have good meats, mostly organic food, but also sell name brand stuff. I'm not going to let some yuppie goon tell me where to shop, let alone force me into a union run joint. I don't work there or anything. These douches just genuinely pissed me off.

the yuppies are scared that they will take over the share Wholefoods has

Isn't Whole Foods another non-union store?

Unions suck ass

__________________
So many Women so little duct tape.

The presence or absence of a union does not, by itself, influence where I shop.

Everyone I know who is in a union is there because they had no choice. Their choice was: Join the union or don't get a job. Doesn't that seem "Un-American?" I though America was all about protecting liberty and freedom etc etc. Is it proper to force people to join a union and pay dues or be barred from employment? Doesn't seem right. IMHO.

__________________
1998 C230 330,000 miles (currently dead of second failed EIS, yours will fail too, turning you into the dealer's personal human cash machine)
1988 F150 144,000 miles (leaks all the colors of the rainbow)
Previous stars: 1981 Brava 210,000 miles, 1978 128 150,000 miles, 1977 B200 Van 175,000 miles, 1972 Vega (great, if rusty, car), 1972 Celica, 1986.5 Supra

A dentist opened up near my house coupla years ago. The union people used to picket his place because he didn't use union labor. My question to picketers is

1) It's his money. Why get upset at how he spends it?

2) Could you be more competitive in your labor pricing?

__________________
You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

Precisely. Hence, my frustration. Competition, of a non-union sort, takes a strike off the table for these guys. The customers go somewhere else, more employees fill in at the competitors, and those bound to a union get left in the cold if and when the union run stores get back online.

But now they've lost market share and profits since people just started going someplace else without all the nonsense. So, re-negs start and the whole spectacle was for naught.

Like the last big one, the companies found out scabs worked out just fine until the union, just to get people back to work (paying their "dues"), made huge concessions.

yes, hire non union workers at lower wages. please. then wonder to yourself how an economy like ours, based on consumerism, can ever recover, when no one makes a decent wage, and can't ...yes, buy anything?

__________________
"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

Lower wages = lower prices. I guess I need to remind you that wages have continually increased as the economy has been tumbling? Or wait, you prefer that they be unemployed altogether? No,no, Vons and Smiths will pick up the slack and just start hiring these people?

What you're suggesting will result in inflation, not recovery. An "economy like ours, based on consumerism," is the problem.

How about we control wages, control credit, increase productivity, and have a real recovery instead of another bubble?

Sounds good to me as long as you're first to increase your production without a raise in wages. I'm wondering how big purchase like cars and houses are to be made without credit.

My productivity is doing just fine, I'm self employed and my next paycheck depends on my current performance. I haven't had a "wage" in many years.

I'm not suggesting that we eliminate credit, just make it less stupid easy. There is no way that joe six-pack should be able to borrow the equivalent of a year's income to buy a new vehicle. Let's get back to reasonable down-payments for real estate, maybe we will have less foreclosures and not have another bubble. We are not doing people a favor by setting them up to fail.

If sucking ass was what my father's union did to help him own a house, car and send all his kids to school and finally have a retirement and healthcare that saw him through to his final days, then suck away.

Not all unions suck and not all employers that discourage unions suck either.

I see, your advocacy doesn't apply to yourself. What do you suggest for the majority that work for others? Increasing productivity without an increase in demand leads to lay-offs.
When it comes to credit, there's little chance to legislate or regulate away stupidity and greed.