I grew up in a Union house because my Dad was a firefighter. Starting from age seven I was told growing up how good unions were. I grew up in a one income household with a family of seven living under one roof. My stay at home mom would do odd jobs in order to keep me in baseball. So I learned early in life how to compromise. If I wanted have the equipment I wanted for baseball I wasnt going to get big birthday or Christmas gifts. When I turned 16 and started looking for my first job I ended up with a choice between three jobs. By this time my parents had been divorced for two years. So I had to grow up really fast since I am the oldest of the children. I chose the job as a bagger at Krogers. The selection fell down to two things it was close enough I could ride a bicycle there and it was union. I dont know if they still are today. The first two weeks went over fairly well. But in the third week I went I in to work there was a Union rep there wanting to talk to all the front end workers. Since I got lumped into category I went to the meeting. Even though this happened twenty years ago I will never forget this week of my life. The union rep was there to explain that the union was fighting for a dollar raise for the cashiers not the baggers. But if the company didnt agree to the terms everyone who was apart of the union was going to strike until they did. So for the next week I paid attention to all the rumors that were going around. That following Monday morning I got up and was reading the newspaper while I ate breakfast. I noticed an article that said Kroger had offered a fifty cent raise to the cashiers. So I was confident through out the school day and baseball practice that when I went to work that the union would compromise and take the deal since it was half of what they were demanding. Boy was I surprised when I pulled up on my bicycle that afternoon and all the cashiers and baggers were protesting. Now this is where unions gave me a bad taste in my mouth. I parked and locked up my bicycle. Then started towards the front door. The union rep stopped me and my friend and told us that the front end workers are on strike until they got what they wanted. I wasnt going to get a raise. I wasnt going to get paid if I didnt clock in. So I politely handed the sign to someone else and went inside to work. Inside all the department managers were running the cash registers. Two days later the union and Kroger compromised on a seventy five cent raise. Every thing went back to normal for me. School baseball work until I went to get my next paycheck two weeks later. After paying federal state and local taxes I would usually have around 120 dollars on my paycheck. Since my parents had gotten divorced I used that money to pay for the fees needed to keep me on the traveling team. Back then there wasnt AAU teams with sponsors yet. But to my paycheck said something I will never ever forget. It said negative thirty dollars because of union dues. I asked the on duty manager what was going on and he said I needed to get in touch with the union rep. I was a couple hundred dollars short of the money i needed for the next tournament where everyone knew that college scouts were going to be. When I finally got in touch with the union rep I was told that they were charging me $50 for each day that I crossed the picket line. I dont remember what I said back but it was the last day I have ever worked for a Union. And for those wondering I did play in that tournament and I spent the summer mowing my coaches yard to work off the money he paid that my parents couldnt cover all of it. Rich
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 08:53:04 +0000