I wouldn’t shop anywhere being picketed by its own employees, or the union which includes its own employees. If they’re unhappy enough to go to the trouble, that’s plenty sufficient. For a third-party demonstration, I’d want to know the issues.
That other retail employees are also exploited wouldn’t make their complaint less justified.
That’s letting the company off the hook. Why should taxpayers, instead of customers, subsidize their hiring and scheduling practices?
Why should I care about their internal disputes? I tend to take a more nuanced approach to life than arbitrarily deciding people are “right” or “wrong” simply because they are “management” or “employees”.
It doesn’t, but in that case shouldn’t we boycott the rest of those stores too? What’s the point of going to some other store instead that, for all I know, treats their employees worse than the stores with the striking?
Well, I don’t think companies should be on the hook for health insurance for employees anyway.
More likely, the company provided insurance would be more expensive for them than buying insurance off the insurance exchanges. But to get insurance off the insurance exchanges, it needs to not be offered by your employer. I know it seems counter intuitive, but they may actually be doing them a favor by changing it this way. Trader Joe’s is doing the same thing.
And this is why I’m loathe to automatically side with picketers. They sometimes hear, “they’re cutting our insurance!” without really grokking why that’s a *good *thing.
You don’t know. Elsewhere the employees may be happy enough (for various reasons; pay isn’t the only issue). But for a picketed store, you know those people are unhappy.
If we had a decent national public option, I’d agree.
This is not true.
I completely agree, and I think these types of benefits keep people stuck in jobs that do provide it.
Not a chance.
I would not cross.
It needs to be not offered by your employer or it needs to be greater than 9.5% of your income to get the *subsidies *on the exchanges.
Better?
First I would educate myself as to the reason for the picket. Unless it turned out to be something like Der Tris’s suggestion, I would respect the picket line.
At that point I would not cross a picket line unless it was a matter of survival. If every grocery store in a 200 mile radius went out on strike than I’d eventually have to give in and buy at least milk and butter. I could make it at least a month on flour, veggies and meat from the chest freezer.
At that point I would buy as little as possible, and let the mangement know I was doing it under protest.
I wouldn’t cross it. There are other supermarkets within convenient distances. I might make management know I was going elsewhere, too.
Considering how most supermarket workers are paid, I can’t imagine them asking for anything outrageous.
It depends on the reason for the strike - I wouldn’t blanket respect or ignore a picket line. I’ve avoided shopping at other stores for lesser reasons, and I’ve rewarded stores with my business for less.
I would and did when the grocery union in southern CA went on strike ten years ago. Whether or not I agree with the union’s cause, I don’t have any obligation to them.
Today, as an employee of an employee-owned grocery store that isn’t part of the union and is located in the region where the strike is going to happen, I would wholeheartedly like to encourage everyone to not cross the picket line and come shop at our store instead. 
Not only would I shop there I’d apply for a job.
Depends. My town only has two major grocery store chains. If they’re both on strike, I’m not driving to another county for groceries.
They may not have known. Around here, construction unions have been hiring homeless people to do the picketing, since the actual union members can make money on other jobs while the union is striking in one place.
I would never cross a picket line of union workers. Ever. They might be entirely wrong about what is going on, but they are putting their jobs on the line for what they believe in. Unions have given us good wages, child labor laws, safety laws, 8 hour workday, weekends, sick leave, benefits etc. Large corporations have given us none of those things, and move jobs overseas where they can avoid such laws. The political opponents of unions have given us trickle down economics and their contempt for people not as wealthy as themselves.
On the second day of the BART strike, BART management manged to kill two workers, leading to a grand total of 8 workers killed in BART’s entire history of being the 5th largest transit agency in the nation with a 43 year operation history. What is going on with BART right now is that a bunch of Dilbert Pointy Haired Bosses are running trains, dispatch and maintenance. Very tragic that two lives were lost, management is very certain that after several hours of panic, that it wasn’t management that killed the two workers.
I shop regularly at one of the stores that will be impacted by this. I’ve shopped there for years, and I know the employees. I would feel very awkward crossing the line.
Additionally, both of my kids worked for this particular chain for a time. I did talk to one of the employees yesterday to find out what was up. I mean, I’ve read the news articles, but sometimes it’s nice to talk to the people actually impacted by this.
Make no mistake, hours will be cut to make sure less employees qualify for those benefits. Their premium pay is being taken away too. Now, if you’re a long time employee and used to counting that as part of your income, I can I understand the issue with that.
I’m fortunate in that there is a Costco nearby. I can obtain my groceries there.
However, I really hope they can come to an agreement. Most of employees don’t *want *to strike, they need their paychecks just like anyone else. Strike pay doesn’t cover much. So, for them to go forward with this is a big deal, especially in this economy.
I would. I don’t make it a habit to research the philosophy and political beliefs of every retail establishment I plan to patronize.