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In Reply to: Re: Staying current too---Just a few ideas posted by AG on January 30, 2004 at 17:54:36:
I enjoyed reading your and Alan's comments.
I have sort of an odd background in that I was raised in a union household (both Father and Mother were members). I currently hold membership in four labor unions, but by a twist of fate, I am now the President of a unionized company So... now I function as Management.
This whole mixture has put me in some fairly odd places. Because of my background, I have been asked to sit as a Trustee on several union Trust funds, health, pension, training, etc. I also sit on grievance panels for our industry. I am also a member of the negotiating team for the huge Convention Trades industry here in Southern California for the workers at the Covention Centers in LA, Anaheim, Long Beach, San Diego and other locations in between.
All that said... my opinion is:
Wal Mart really is the best and worst of our system.
Here in Southern California we are about four months into a supermarket strike. The union is being asked to make concessions that will allow the unionized markets to compete with non-union WalMart. WalMart has said they are coming into Southern California with a large number of super centers, and where they have done that in the past, unionized markets have had to close.
Even though I am currently a Manager, I do not cross picket lines, and I ask my family not to as well. It has been a challenge, but we have managed to find what we need at other stores that are not involved in labor disputes.
WalMart will probably win in Southern California, and I think that our markets like Vons, Albertsons and Ralphs will fade away.
It is a shame, because this was a place where an average person without an advanced degree could end up making $15.00 per hour, with health and pension benefits. They could afford an apartment, and if their spouse had a similar job they could support a family.
If WalMart wins, we will have cheaper groceries, but a whole segment of our population here will be making lower wages ($8.00 per hour is what I've seen published) and have no health insurance. Yeah, Hamburger might be 30% less than when we bought it at Vons, but if your wage and benefit package has been cut by 50%, what does that mean?
Recently, I was shopping for padded stacking chairs. We rent them to Exhibitors at the Conventions we service. The cheapest price? Staples. I bought 200 of them for $19.95 each, which is the same price I paid the last time I bought chairs in 1986. They came in with a red and white sticker on the back of each chair, "Made in Canada" with a maple leaf.
I was surprised by that. Here is a country with a higher standard of living than ours, that has national health care. But, they can ship a chair into the US for less than we can make one here?
The TV in my bedroom died a few months ago. It would be around $200 for an the repair guy down the street to fix it. So, I went to the local warehouse club and bought a new one for under $200. It was made in Mexico. Probably by people making slave wages.
The thing is, that if it still cost $500 for an American Made TV from RCA, then I would have just given the work to the repair guy, and I wouldn't have thought a lot of it.
I guess my point is that we are seduced by lower prices, up to and at the cost of our own jobs. I believe that Bill Clinton said that NAFTA would work when Mexicans made higher wages and Americans made lower wages. I remember thinking that I didn't want to make less money. Again, if I can get a TV for 30% less, but I'm making 50% less, who just got screwed?
It is all very complicated, and I don't personally hold out much hope for it getting better any time soon. I think that in our lifetime we will see the elimination of the middle class, and we will have rich people and poor people. I really don't think that we have the collective brains in this country to do anything about it.
It's a very depressing view, but given what I've seen and who I'm exposed to in my line of work, I have a hard time being optimistic.
