May Day Strike

[eleanorrigby]

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Employees-Whole-Foods-Amazon-strike-May-1-15237965.php

Quote

 

A second wave of strikes is expected to hit Friday as essential workers from Whole Foods, Amazon and other large corporations demand better protections amid the pandemic.

Employees at Target, Instacart, Walmart, and FedEx – in addition to Whole Foods and Amazon — plan for a national walk-out on May 1 in response to a lack of health safety inside stores, according to a report by The Intercept. The employees are expected to call out sick or walkout during their lunch breaks.

“We are acting in conjunction with workers at Amazon, Target, Instacart and other companies for International Worker’s Day to show solidarity with other essential workers in our struggle for better protections and benefits in the pandemic,” Daniel Steinbrook, a Whole Foods employee and strike organizer, told The Intercept.

 

I hope the meat processors follow suit and band together. This is the time if there ever was one. It won't be easy to train a scab if all the trainers are striking.

The strikers are asking you to avoid Amazon, Whole Foods, Instacart,  and Target.

https://twitter.com/msainat1/status/1253003563875340288

 

 

 

[preraph]

They definitely need to be providing these workers with the same stuff as healthcare workers.  It's very frustrating because that stuff is just NOT available to the public.  I did orders some expensive plain little masks, but it cost me $50.  It would be a big expense and no telling when or if they will ship.  My sister has waited two months for stuff that said it was available on Amazon.   They will list it and then not ship it.  

 

They need to all be wearing masks and need to be changing gloves and washing their hands regularly.  Maybe best to use hand gel -- but where do you buy it?  I haven't seen any hand gel for sale in six weeks and checked again yesterday.  They need to be using hand gel constantly if they're serving.  You can't get it if you're not a healthcare or first responder best I can tell.  It's not going to retail.  

 

One thing they could do, but it would make servers still not have any $$ is they could all go to ordering over the counter and picking up the order when it's done themselves.  But then you still have servers out of work, so....

[sothereiwas]

I think they should go for it, and Amazon should be free to fire and replace them. 

[preraph]

I can tell you Target has made little or no changes to accommodate people on this deal, and normally they are one of my favorite retailers.  They aren't doing grocery parking lot pickup or delivery, they aren't even letting you order toilet paper, paper towels or any of the hot needed goods online to be delivered like they always did before.  They have them listed, but it says they won't deliver and you can't pick them up.  So I'm good and mad at Target right now.

[sothereiwas]

1 minute ago, preraph said:

I can tell you Target has made little or no changes to accommodate people on this deal, and normally they are one of my favorite retailers.  They aren't doing grocery parking lot pickup or delivery, they aren't even letting you order toilet paper, paper towels or any of the hot needed goods online to be delivered like they always did before.  They have them listed, but it says they won't deliver and you can't pick them up.  So I'm good and mad at Target right now.

Companies like this, who are not satisfying their customers, should expect to feel some pain as those customers go elsewhere and also, probably hold a grudge. This is a calculation Target and others have to make the risk/reward computation on and hope they don't figure wrong. 

[eleanorrigby]

18 minutes ago, preraph said:

They definitely need to be providing these workers with the same stuff as healthcare workers.  It's very frustrating because that stuff is just NOT available to the public.  I did orders some expensive plain little masks, but it cost me $50.  It would be a big expense and no telling when or if they will ship.  My sister has waited two months for stuff that said it was available on Amazon.   They will list it and then not ship it.  

 

 

I just got some N95 masks that I ordered over two months ago and my mother just got some cloth masks she ordered maybe two weeks after my order.  They charged her over $125 for 7 cloth masks. I think I was lucky to place my order before the price gauging got out of control. Mine were $15 for 10 masks. 

The other day I went to visit her and she gave me her grocery list that she had been planning to order online. She was expecting to spend $90 plus $10 tip for the delivery, I got everything on her list for $40. That's an insane markup for delivery.

[preraph]

Yes, that is price gouging.  I have been doing mostly parking lot pickup and that's not marked up, but delivery has always had a fee.  It depends where.  I did okay on both Kroger delivery and Tom Thumb.  And it just depends, too, on the person pulling the order as well sometimes.  I always use delivery occasionally, but I don't like it as well now because they are not making the items you need most available to deliver, which is really low.

[sothereiwas]

5 minutes ago, eleanorrigby said:

That's an insane markup for delivery.

People willing to expose themselves to risk charging a high price to offset the risk. It does seem high but it's an example of people on the front lines getting paid more I reckon. 

[Redhead14]

9 minutes ago, preraph said:

Yes, that is price gouging.  I have been doing mostly parking lot pickup and that's not marked up, but delivery has always had a fee.  It depends where.  I did okay on both Kroger delivery and Tom Thumb.  And it just depends, too, on the person pulling the order as well sometimes.  I always use delivery occasionally, but I don't like it as well now because they are not making the items you need most available to deliver, which is really low.

I use Instacart and there is a shopper/delivery person who usually works as a nurse but doesn't want to do that right now because her young daughter has an immune disorder and is a single mother.  She feels that grocery shopping is a little less of a risk.  So, she gave me her number and when I put in an order I send her a text and then she can get the order from the system queue.  I set up a very good tip for her -- $40 per trip.  I told her I wish she wouldn't do this either, but she feels it's the lesser of two evils. 

This is the kind of situation that the goverment will need to set up some provisions for.  People who are high-risk or care for someone who is high-risk, and need to work but may not be able to.

 

Edited May 1, 2020 by Redhead14

[eleanorrigby]

 From what I have seen grocery store workers only got a temporary $2 an hour increase, less than $100 extra a month and I've heard that it's already gone for some of them. IMO it's not anywhere near enough extra money to make the risk worth it, and paying $100 for $40 worth of groceries is going to run through a $1200 stimulus payment very, very quickly. 

 

 

 

[preraph]

Wow, that is very generous!  Here, unless there is a place to put in a tip online, it's not happening because no one is handling cash.

[preraph]

1 minute ago, eleanorrigby said:

 From what I have seen grocery store workers only got a temporary $2 an hour increase, less than $100 extra a month and I've heard that it's already gone for some of them. IMO it's not anywhere near enough extra money to make the risk worth it, and paying $100 for $40 worth of groceries is going to run through a $1200 stimulus payment very, very quickly. 

 

 

 

That's not enough for them to supply their own PPE, even, assuming they could get any.

[Redhead14]

1 minute ago, eleanorrigby said:

 From what I have seen grocery store workers only got a temporary $2 an hour increase, less than $100 extra a month and I've heard that it's already gone for some of them. IMO it's not anywhere near enough extra money to make the risk worth it, and paying $100 for $40 worth of groceries is going to run through a $1200 stimulus payment very, very quickly. 

 

 

 

I tip very heavily but I suspect there are a lot of people who tip the minimum. 

[sothereiwas]

3 minutes ago, Redhead14 said:

This is the kind of situation that the goverment will need to set up some provisions for.  People who are high-risk or care for someone who is high-risk, and need to work but may not be able to.

This I agree with - rather than blanket lockdowns, facilitate those who are actually vulnerable in making themselves as safe as possible. 

[Redhead14]

1 minute ago, preraph said:

Wow, that is very generous!  Here, unless there is a place to put in a tip online, it's not happening because no one is handling cash.

The tip is added to the bill when someone schedules it online.  I can put in any amount I want.  It gets charged to my debit or credit card with the grocery bill.  No cash changes hands.

[eleanorrigby]

1 minute ago, Redhead14 said:

I tip very heavily but I suspect there are a lot of people who tip the minimum. 

Or can't afford to tip at all considering how much the groceries are marked up.

[preraph]

I had one thing like that, but for the most part right now the pickup is free.  Maybe it was Kroger delivery that had a place for a tip, because I only did that once.  I know Tom Thumb doesn't have that, but they already charge for the delivery and a customer service fee of $4.  

[Redhead14]

Just now, eleanorrigby said:

Or can't afford to tip at all considering how much the groceries are marked up.

I'm not finding that groceries in general are being marked up much in my area.  Some products like paper products are gouging.

[eleanorrigby]

Just now, Redhead14 said:

I'm not finding that groceries in general are being marked up much in my area.  Some products like paper products are gouging.

That's good. I was shocked when I saw how much my mom would have paid if I hadn't been available to shop for her the other day. My daughter lives with her but she doesn't drive so she's only able to bring home as much groceries as she can carry for a few blocks. I normally do the shopping every couple of weeks but I hadn't been down to LA for a month because of the shelter in place order. 

 

[BC1980]

51 minutes ago, preraph said:

They definitely need to be providing these workers with the same stuff as healthcare workers.  It's very frustrating because that stuff is just NOT available to the public.  I did orders some expensive plain little masks, but it cost me $50.  It would be a big expense and no telling when or if they will ship.  My sister has waited two months for stuff that said it was available on Amazon.   They will list it and then not ship it.  

 

They need to all be wearing masks and need to be changing gloves and washing their hands regularly.  Maybe best to use hand gel -- but where do you buy it?  I haven't seen any hand gel for sale in six weeks and checked again yesterday.  They need to be using hand gel constantly if they're serving.  You can't get it if you're not a healthcare or first responder best I can tell.  It's not going to retail.  

 

One thing they could do, but it would make servers still not have any $$ is they could all go to ordering over the counter and picking up the order when it's done themselves.  But then you still have servers out of work, so....

I think working in a grocery store or anything similar is very high risk. Think about the number of people you come into contact with on a daily basis. I feel safer taking care of COVID patients. At least I know what I'm dealing with and have PPE. I just make sure to constantly wash my hand and never touch my face. 

[preraph]

I think you're right, BC1980.  Because at least that's a controlled environment. I finally went into a small grocery store a few days ago out of desperation (Sprouts) and it was very bad as far as people not social-distancing.  They've asked people to only send in one family member to shop, and this family of three were taking up the whole aisle and not caring at all.  They came right at me and I told them to say away from me, but they didn't care and just kept coming, breaching the social distancing with me and two other people right by them.  Jerks.  That was enough for me.  There's too many idiots out there.  That family could have just left someone at home with the baby or in the car, but no they came in and made a field trip out of it. 

[thefooloftheyear]

We're entering a very strange and potentially scary time for employers/employees...

For one....Many corporations are actually getting a forced "test run" to see actually how many employees, how much real estate, etc, they needed to operate.....I get the feeling a lot of people are going to get pink slips as a result of this....My gut tells me that the deepest cuts will be the middle manager types that are making six figures, but aren't missed all that much when they take time off..We all probably know some of these....I know of several myself...

Employees are now getting the idea that if the government says its unsafe, well, it is then...So if they say stay home, then who's going to decide when it's safe and what measures are needed to satisfy those people?   Does the auto mechanic, pipe fitter,  or construction worker that sees dangerous conditions on a daily basis,  now require full tactical gear to "feel safe"/?  Or now do ALL those jobs need a "special added hazard pay",  because other industries that are far less physically threatening, are demanding(and some getting) that???

And then there is the issue of liability....Is this going to set off a herd of hungry attorneys suing corporations because someone gets the flu on the job??

I don't know what to say about the protests....They have a right...that's what it is...Maybe it spurs a more urgent need for automation/robotics...it was already in the works, so maybe it gets an added impetus, ?? I dunno....

Employees have had a good run for a long time now in this economy...With balance sheets cratering, it will be interesting to see what happens now...At the end of the day, no matter what, someone is going to have to pay...

TFY

[BC1980]

I can see clerical workers getting laid off at my hospital. They were already doing trial runs by not having secretaries on the weekend. As an RN, as long as I stay at the bedside, I have good job security. I can do clerical work, nursing assistant work, phlebotomy, some respiratory therapy work, ect. RNs can legally mix drugs in my state if you've been trained and no pharmacist is on hand. It happens in rural hospitals. I can see them cutting us down to only RNs on the floors, and you have to do everything yourself. 

[eleanorrigby]

15 minutes ago, thefooloftheyear said:

 

Employees are now getting the idea that if the government says its unsafe, well, it is then...So if they say stay home, then who's going to decide when it's safe and what measures are needed to satisfy those people?   Does the auto mechanic, pipe fitter,  or construction worker that sees dangerous conditions on a daily basis,  now require full tactical gear to "feel safe"/?  Or now do ALL those jobs need a "special added hazard pay",  because other industries that are far less physically threatening, are demanding(and some getting) that???

And then there is the issue of liability....Is this going to set off a herd of hungry attorneys suing corporations because someone gets the flu on the job??

I don't know what to say about the protests....They have a right...that's what it is...Maybe it spurs a more urgent need for automation/robotics...it was already in the works, so maybe it gets an added impetus, ?? I dunno....

Employees have had a good run for a long time now in this economy...With balance sheets cratering, it will be interesting to see what happens now...At the end of the day, no matter what, someone is going to have to pay...

TFY

I would imagine that people working inherently dangerous jobs already have things in place to protect their health from the hazards. But if the job also carries with it the potential to have to be around many other people all during their shift, I think they should be given the PPE that they need, and whatever other adjustments necessary to keep them safe. 

Regarding lawsuits, If I was working somewhere that didn't take measures to mitigate the risks, and/or provide me with the materials needed and I caught this virus, I'd definitely sue. 

As for automation, that's coming anyway and has been for decades. Employers won't hesitate to take advantage of this crisis to advance automation, so I hope that employees also realize the collective power that they have right now, and only now to strike for whatever they need. Automation is coming, but they won't be able to get it up and running in every store faster than the strikers can disrupt their businesses.

[preraph]

I trust healthcare workers to be disciplined and knowledgeable enough to use PPE and be careful.  Civilians have no idea how much washing and etc. that all takes.  

 

Just got today's Dallas' numbers for yesterday, another new high:  187 cases. A reflection of testing, yes, but it's still scary.