I will not cross that picket line.
Posted by: Donna
Safeway and Fry’s employees will be striking tomorrow. They are objecting to paltry pay raises after years of accepting NO pay wages. Additionally, new employees are expected to start at minimum wage and pay more of their own money into health insurance than their predecessors were. That’s the official line on why we’re supposed to support the strike and it’s compelling on its own but I want to explain why it means so much to me.
The Safeway at Chandler and Desert Foothills Blvd. opened in 1999, around the time I bought my home in the neighborhood. I was instantly smitten by the wide selection of products and the user-friendly layout of the store. But what really got me was the customer service. The employees went out of their way to make my harried shopping experience as easy as possible. I have never visited the store and not been asked if I needed help finding something. This is probably because I rarely make a list and often rely on my intuition to determine what I need.
Over time, the Safeway employees whose faces and names whom I became familiar with became more familiar with my haplessness. “Ms. Gratehouse, are you sure you don’t need cat food?” OMG, he was right! I did need cat food! How did he know that?
He knew that because he’d been working at the store for several years and had seen me at his checkout aisle at least three times a week. He knew that I bought cat food on the same day that I bought laundry detergent. He knew to remind me to buy cat food when I had the Tide in my basket. He knew about my life and I knew about his. He lives in Ahwatukee. One day in 2006, when I went through his checkout, he grabbed my hand and told me that the LGBT community in LD20 was supporting me in my State Senate race.
He’s union and makes enough to live, with his partner, in Ahwatukee. He can drive a few short blocks to his workplace and be the friendly face that helps the people in his own community to find just the right bottle of wine and salad dressing they need for their weekend parties. And they think they’re going to replace him with a $9 an hour temp worker?
I don’t want to shop at the Safeway that’s as cheap and impersonal as Walmart. The Safeway cashiers in my community mean just as much as, if not more than, the doctors and lawyers and engineers. No offense to the people who line up to accept the jobs that Safeway and Fry’s offered to bust the strike – I know you need the money – but I am not going to support a race to the bottom.
I will not cross that picket line and I will help my union brothers and sisters any way I can.
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I worked for Fry’s in high school. They deserve better.
I admire that. There is practical and there is cheap. Cheap will always make you feel that way. I hear your point. I feel as if I’ve almost personally kept the AJ’s at Ray/Priest afloat. (yeah,yeah, i know AJs) But it is nice to have hard working people say to you
” Do you want it like last time?”
“Where is…?”
“We’ve gotten some fresh…like you like.”
It is a nice relationship where I do spend money, but I’m also helping keep a store open that I enjoy, which means I get to talk to people I’ve known for years.
I think these chains tend to see customers as commoditiies. I think the suits tend to forget that the familiar smile from the butcher, deli, cashier covers a lot of ground.
Thank you TC. You get it. It’s about more than just unions or strikes. It’s about whether or not we value our community and the people who live in it. Like I said, I feel for the people who will line up to take the scab jobs. I’m not angry with them. But we have gone from being stakeholders to fungible commodities and I wish people who say stupid things like “you should just be grateful you have a job” would wake up and realize that.
I agree.Tthese are people needing to most likely feed a child or keep a home current. This isn”t about them. This is about a retailer who has taken the profits from your area, and basically shown you that bottom dollar is more important than your satisfaction and loyalty.
This cat does not understand the tone deaf of some companies lately.
My thoughts is you will survive by a loyal core, who understand a short handed boo-boo, but want to see that familiar face saying “Sorry”.
Luckily it appears that there will be no strike.
However I did mail a letter to the AZ Republic (which there will now be no reason to publish) stating that I too, refuse to cross a picket line.
The concessions that were being asked for had nothing to do with the health of the company either– Kroger earned $1.25 billion last year and is in a recession-resistant industry. Rather it was about them trying to leverage the bad economy into givebacks.
I was in Safeway today in Holbrook after the settlement was announced and it was great to congratulate the employees there and they told me they were grateful for my support.
I am also very glad that there will not be a strike. My alternatives would have been Bashas or Walmart – not really good choices for this progressive girl.
Lovely post, Donna. I’m glad there wasn’t a strike. Sometimes I find refuge from the chaos at the grocery store, where everything centers around basic needs for a loaf of bread, jug of milk, and a stick of butter. There is something very Zen about the up and down journey through each aisle that helps my mind let go of the fact that my child’s school is once again in danger of seeing further cuts, that my legislature is overrun by ideological, short-sighted, homophobic jackholes. There is something very necessary and slightly sublime in today’s current economy, where pedicures and massages are things of dreams, that refuge and relief can be found in the simplest, most basic places, staffed by people who get where you’re at because at the end of their day, they are right along side you in chaos. So I am glad today that they had advocacy on their side, that they ultimately won out. Today their victory is one I too can tuck away to help me navigate through the rest of the chaos we all face on those very dark days looming straight ahead.