UFCW Update: Almost laughable...if it weren't so pathetic

As part of our ongoing expose of the absurd and farcical nature of today's unions, you may recall that it was only a mere two weeks ago that we exposed the two-faced, hypocritical practices of the United Food & Commercial Workers' union bosses.

It was here that the UFCW bosses' firing of their own workers without warning and prompting others to go out on strike, then bragging about the strike brought them new effciencies was revealed.

This, of course, followed our February 8th exposure of the UFCW's Cash-for-Cards scheme, as union bosses have been caught paying money to workers inorder to get other workers to sign union authorization cards.

Well, on the East Coast, slightly more than a week has passed since the UFCW entered into a new three-year contract with New England grocery chain Stop & Shop. But the news isn't all that good for the UFCW-represented workers...

Although the UFCW averted calling its 43,000 Stop & Shop members out on the picket lines, new reports have it that the Stop & Shop chain will be closing 55 floral and 155 seafood departments. This means that as many as 1,000 UFCW members will be laid off.

Union boss James Riley, secretary-treasurer of UFCW local 328, acknowledges that "...we can't keep them from firing people and closing stores."

[So much for the myth (or, more adroitly, 'delusion') of union job security.]

Of course, Riley shouldn't be too worried because, as those folks at Unionfacts.com point out, he's gotten a 45% salary increase (34% in 2002 alone) since 2000. Far more than the average UFCW rank and file member has gotten.

Currently, more that 2,000 miles away on the Left Coast, the UFCW is in the midst of negotiating 'renewal' for already-expired contracts covering 65,000 grocery workers in SoCal. It was the 2003 expiration of these agreements that prompted the disastrous 140-day UFCW strike and lockout that idled 70,000 workers and devastated thousands of workers' lives.

In fact, workers are still recovering from bitter effects of that UFCW debacle:

For Celeste Cook, the Southern California grocery strike of three years ago was so traumatic that she and her husband eventually left the industry and the state, moving to Arizona. Cook's voice quivers as she remembers the stress the 4½-month strike and lockout had on her marriage, her friendships and her children. The former wall deli manager blames it for the divorce of her brother, also a grocery worker.

According to those folks at UnionFacts.com:

UFCW members collectively lost 4.58 million days of work, with terrible consequences for workers. The environmental publication High Country News described it as "a brutal strike that cost millions in lost wages, and resulted in broken marriages, lost homes and cars, and even suicides." Even then, the publication noted, when the strike was settled, "some workers have had their wages and benefits slashed."

Now, however, the UFCW has changed its SoCal negotiating strategy. In fact, it's not even talking about striking at this point. At this point, it's all drama. Instead of walkingoff the job--or even threatening to walk, the UFCW has begun acting, as in street theater! That's right!...STREET THEATER! Butchers and bakers and even candlestick makers becoming thespians?!?

So it would seem.

We're surprised the Actors' Equity Association isn't throwing a hissy fit with the UFCW for raiding their craft.

After all, with AEA's members' wages only averaging about $7,000 a year--far less than poverty wages--they could use all the work they can get. Unless, of course, the UFCW is already using union actors? (Somehow, we don't think that's the case.)

So, there you have it...

All of this seems almost laughable, if it weren't so damn pathetic.