Organic food delivery drivers vote to return to job in good faith
AUBURN, Wash. -- Drivers who make deliveries for United Natural Foods voted to return to work while they continue negotiating a new contract.
The Teamsters union members voted 80 to 14 to stop picketing. It was not immediately clear whether the workers would return to their jobs on Thursday or on Friday.
The drivers had hit the picket lines Tuesday morning after rejecting the latest contract offer from the company.
The union members, who deliver organic produce to area grocery stores, said they don't make nearly as much money as their counterparts at other companies.
The company's contract with the drivers expired in May, but the drivers kept working while negotiations were under way. The union said members rejected United Natural Foods' "last, best offer" over the weekend.
"At the point that the company refused to honor their contract, they decided that it was time to go out on strike and see if they could get them to come back to the table and bargain a fair contract," said Brenda Weist with Teamsters Local 117.
The company, in a written statement, said its latest offer included a 10.8 percent wage increase over three years.
"UNFI has made numerous concessions during the months of negotiation and believes that the latest offer it presented to the union is fair, reasonable and competitive," the statement said.
The company had said it would be hiring replacement workers to continue making deliveries.
United Natural Foods supplies organic foods to independent markets and large grocery store chains, including Whole Foods, PCC, Metropolitan Market, Safeway, Fred Meyer, QFC and Albertsons.
The Teamsters union members voted 80 to 14 to stop picketing. It was not immediately clear whether the workers would return to their jobs on Thursday or on Friday.
The drivers had hit the picket lines Tuesday morning after rejecting the latest contract offer from the company.
The union members, who deliver organic produce to area grocery stores, said they don't make nearly as much money as their counterparts at other companies.
The company's contract with the drivers expired in May, but the drivers kept working while negotiations were under way. The union said members rejected United Natural Foods' "last, best offer" over the weekend.
"At the point that the company refused to honor their contract, they decided that it was time to go out on strike and see if they could get them to come back to the table and bargain a fair contract," said Brenda Weist with Teamsters Local 117.
The company, in a written statement, said its latest offer included a 10.8 percent wage increase over three years.
"UNFI has made numerous concessions during the months of negotiation and believes that the latest offer it presented to the union is fair, reasonable and competitive," the statement said.
The company had said it would be hiring replacement workers to continue making deliveries.
United Natural Foods supplies organic foods to independent markets and large grocery store chains, including Whole Foods, PCC, Metropolitan Market, Safeway, Fred Meyer, QFC and Albertsons.
Glad to see the UNFI workers back at work. They provide a valuable service to many retailers.
If you're not making as much at this company as employees make at other companies, I suggest that you go work for one of the other companies. Â Problem solved.
the sickest thing in all this, in Hostess, and Sensata, and Kaybe Toys, and AmPad, US Steel, and Fig Newtons, is that too many people are brainwashed by Fox News, into being complicit in the destruction of the middle class and bread winner jobs. Â You chide these people for wanting a living wage, and being able to actually own a nice little home, and put their kids through college. You tell them that they should work for 10 bux and hour with no benefits because other people will do the job that cheaply. Â How utterly sad to see how stupid so many Americans have become. Â And you pile on the the people in America whose jobs have not been sent to India and China, WHY? exactly? Â So that billionaires can get richer and people in Bangladesh can die trapped in a sweat shop because they'll work for $43.00 a month to produce clothes for Walmart, and Sears?? Â Is that what you'd like for us?Â
 @TrT "And you pile on the the people in America whose jobs have not been sent to India and China, WHY?"- You're right, that is a big part of the problem. But that isn't UNFI's fault and action like this right before the busy holiday in the food business ain't gonna do nothing to win my sympathies. And, if you are implying that their drivers only make 10 / hr. than you clearly don't know what the !@#$ your talking about. I'm in the food business, and UNFI ain't no US Steel. Their employees are treated fairly.
 @TrT What do you consider a living wage? This country allows you the freedom to work, pursue your dreams,no where does it promise success. There is no promise that your chosen field will make you successful.When most AMERICANS  now there pursuit is a bigger house,bigger car,fancy outfits as a measure of success. Problem is living that lifestyle is just debt ridden living from hamburger to hamburger. No longer do AMERICANS  want to save money,or invest . if people would learn to stick it out in the original home,buy a better car ,not necessarily a bigger brand new one ,success would be at hand.Â
 @Maynard G Krebbs  @TrT Well said. Those drivers make a hell of a lot more than 10 bucks an hour as someone above was implying, and they are getting a 10% increase over 3 years. I think that is not only fair and reasonable, but UNFI is putting themselves out there a bit by doing that in these faltering times. If they didn't like the wages, they should've never have taken the job in the first place.
 @TrT The problem is with capitalism, not everyone can make a living wage. Capitalism requires low wages so that the big dogs make a handsome profit. Capitalism has always been a ponzi scheme because the currency you work for is fake. As more people make a living wage inflation kicks in and drives the prices of products up which make them further out of reach of the poor. If everyone made a living wage in this country we would all be paying $50 for a loaf of bread. Sad but true. In the end the only way to end the fraud of capitalism is to end all forms of currency. Could be done if everyone just decided to love their fellow man.
 @Blindman  @TrT "The problem is with capitalism"
It's more than just capitalism, it's the type of capitalism that is being practiced by too many companies, their management, and many investors. Capitalism CAN be practiced with a humane and caring approach, creating a fair profit and income for everyone. But too many have adopted the Ayn Rand selfish and greedy school, having deluded themselves that the only valid profit is that ripped from the lives and needs of both the workers AND the customers, the take no prisoners greed is good that bleeds the company, and feels entitled to claim outrageous bonuses for "performance" that raided the finances and raped the workers.
 @OrcasThunder  @Blindman  @TrT Yeah, Buffet is all about the little guy... which is why he's buying back loads of shares of Berkshire to avoid taxes. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/12/berkshire-buyback-idUSL1E8NCITK20121212
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I'm sure being for the little guy is why one of the architects of ObamaCare has left the administration for a post at Big Pharma http://www.salon.com/2012/12/05/obamacare_architect_heads_to_big_pharma/
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Cronyism is a bipartisan problem, but in all cases big government fosters it, along with tax loopholes and regulations. corruption is a direct and utterly predictable side-effect of big government; the bigger it is, and the more it (tries to) do, the more corrupting it will become. ALWAYS. It's human nature.
 @RN1  @Blindman  @TrT Are you arguing we me, or with Ayn Rand? Those were HER WORDS, not mine.
But I will say this - the vulture capitalism practiced by many large corporations, personified by people like Mitt Romney. is the farthest thing from "efficient". And "cronyism" is the byword of the vultures who gather together to shred companies that may be having problems, raping the rights of the workers AND the clients.
And Warren Buffet is the exact opposite of men like Romney - he actually practices Humane Capitalism as a MORAL operation, and has been far more successful at it than the Bain shills, for himself AND his workers and shareholders.
 @DarkParty  @RN1 In RN1's case, definitely Obtuse...
 @RN1 What kind of angles do people think they are?
Acute, Obtuse, Straight or Right? :)
 @OrcasThunder  @Blindman  @TrT And too many OTHER people somehow think that government regulators are all angles who will never use their power for personal gain or profit while claiming to help "the little guy". Yeah, riiiiight....Â
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Capitalism is about efficient use of resources. Low skill, easily-replaceable workers SHOULD be paid a lot less than high-skill or difficult-to-replace workers. If you are the owner, you take the risks, you reap the rewards. It's cronyism and bailouts (a bipartisan problem) that skews things in bad ways. Concentrations of wealth are NOT a bad thing - they allow doing BIG things on private wealth. Warren Buffet could put a man on the moon if he wanted. OrcasThunder could NOT.
 @Furd "In my opinion Rand glorified the INDIVIDUAL"
Only those individuals who disregarded morals in running their businesses, looking only for the maximum profit. From the video above: "Our attitude of the moral guilt is not becoming of the leaders of the world"
 @Furd "In my opinion Rand glorified the INDIVIDUAL who worked to produce something that people would willingly pay for and it was that product that was important, the money made was secondary."
That' a bit different than what I get from her words..."Most people still lack the courage to realist that capitalism - really free uncontrolled and unregulated Laissez-faire Capitalism -Â not the mongol mixed economy we have today - was the ideal social system." HER WORDS, SPOKEN BY HER...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq9Qe67QUmA
Remember Laissez-faire Capitalism? The system that flourished while this was still a collection of colonial States ruled by Britain, which ran on the idea of "bleed the places that provide the raw materials, and the people who do the production, in order to create marvelous and never ending profits (at least until we bleed them so dry we need to find replacements)" that was a great part of why we rebelled in the first place.
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 @OrcasThunder That's certainly not the view I got from reading Rand. If anything, she despised the conglomerate corporation even more than she despised governmental interference. In my opinion Rand glorified the INDIVIDUAL who worked to produce something that people would willingly pay for and it was that product that was important, the money made was secondary.
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Granted that a person (or company) needs to make a profit and that workers need to be paid fairly. CEOs making several hundred times what the production workers make is inherently NOT fair.
 @Blindman  @TrT "Could be done if everyone just decided to love their fellow man."
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By gawd you're on to something!. If only we couldv oluntarily collectivize, we could all share the bounty of our labor. Human nature naturally wants to give someone else what we ourselves earned. I know that although collectivization has failed miserably in every place it has been tried, here in the good ol' USA, with our poor having a standard of living greater than most of the planet, it will be different
 @Getov Mylon  @Blindman  @TrT Communism would be the perfect system...if people weren't involved!
They figured out that the company could have all 80 of them replaced with in the next week for even less money than they make. Do not bit the hand that feeds you when there are more people standing in line for the job.
 @bustedupredneck "They figured out that the company could have all 80 of them replaced"
Actually, they accomplished what they wanted - the company returned to the bargaining table after the workers have been working without a contract since May.
 @bustedupredneck Fabulous.  Work for 9 bux an hour so the corporate bosses and fat azz investors and vulture capitalists can buy another estate.  And when they come for your job, I will not lift a finger.  Brilliant. Â
 @TrT  @bustedupredneck If it really works like that, how's about YOU go out and start your own business, and rake in that fat profit for sitt'n on your bum, eh?
 @TrT  @bustedupredneck 9 bucks an hour... yeah right. Get your facts straight.
 @TrT  @bustedupredneck Is anyone forcing you to work there?  Go start your own company and then you can call the shots.
 @TrT  @bustedupredneck As the union bosses keep taking more and more,giving away your hard earned money to politicians who could care less about you.  tell me something the Democrats have given you after you worked hard, had your money extorted from {union dues} you.Your union gives away more of your hard earned money than the company does. Look at the lifestyle of the higher up union thugs,living in huge mansions outside D.C. ,being driven around in their limos while you are working your @$$ offÂ
Did they finally figure out they're expendable to the company? Did the Hostess strike and Waste Management strike not teach them anything?
 @Just_Mike "Did the Hostess strike and Waste Management strike not teach them anything?"
Actually, the WM contract was good for the workers. And the death of the Twinky company was due to the management raping the company with large bonuses for killing the company.
 @OrcasThunder  @Just_Mike Orcas, the reality is that Hostess had incredibly complex union contracts that killed them.  The bonuses were because otherwise no competetant managers would take (or keep) the job. Â
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Put another way, without a union monopolizing the labor market, the company can easily replace a baker or a driver. Â It is MUCH harder to find and on-board a CFO, CEO, etc. Â
Orcas,
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You've just shown a double standard. Â They can't get good management (even for liquidation) without bonuses (high compensation), and your response is "screw them." Â Put another way, management won't work for the offered amount and holds out for more. Â In this case, they can be replaced or can get increases (bonuses) for it. Â Both historically happened. Â Hostess had several CEOs in a pretty short period. Â But you believe it should be a case of "screw them."
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But when the workers won't work for the salary, no "screw them" in your mind. Â The job is their RIGHT. Â Nobody else is allowed to take it (union monopolies, dontchaknow), so the extra cash is the only solution you validate.
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You are a two-faced hypocrite. Â If the worker won't work, that IS a reason to replace them.
 @Robert Seaton Robert, read the financials.  Alter Net is not exactly a straight-forward unbiased source.  It wasn't pension money that ran operations, but rather that pension futures weren't realized due to the operating loss, that otherwise would have.
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It's a complex idea compared to 'they stole', but they didn't steal. Â At least not in that particular case.
 @TCat  @OrcasThunder  @Just_Mike "The bonuses were because otherwise no competetant managers would take (or keep) the job. "
So...they blackmailed the judge to allow them to get the bonuses..."Give up the bonuses or we will simply flush everything down the sewer!"..yeah, convince me that there are no "competent" people who can't oversee a bankruptcy...in fact, why didn't the judge simply appoint some professional manager types who could do this on a contract. I think it's called "receivership", where a court appointed staff oversees the breakup of a company.
Heck, maybe Mitt Romney was available...he has a lot of experience in that line of work.
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"without a union monopolizing the labor market, the company can easily replace a baker or a driver."
If there is reason to replace them, it can be done under the union. If it is just to pay less, or to lay them off when they are old - and nearing retirement - in order to avoid having to pay a pension, why is that "right"?
 @TCat, uh...not so much: http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/twinkie-ceo-admits-company-took-employees-pensions-and-put-it
....lest they go the way of the Twinkie