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Is It Time For Labor Unions Again?
Learning from the past to improve the future
Note: I provide links to all of my sources. They are underlined and in boldface. I want my readers to be able to check out all sources for themselves.
Many people are stuck working jobs that are unsatisfying. Employers expect people to put in longer hours without compensation or try to “streamline” the workforce so people are essentially working jobs that used to have two or three workers to do them. Inflation has been going up faster than wages. The pandemic made things worse. People who were called “essential workers” during the lockdowns did not feel rewarded.
According to a 2021 article in the Washington Post, Norma Leiva, who worked as a warehouse manager with Kroger’s subsidiary Food 4 Less, joined a protest in front of the chain’s North Hollywood store. The company’s union had gone without a contract for months. Kroger had cut it’s $2/hour “hero” bonus after only two months. Meanwhile, CEO Rodney McMullen got a major raise, to $22 million a year.
Naturally people like Leiva feel screwed. In the article, she is quoted as saying “I think that we are essential workers, that we’ve always been essential workers, not just now during the pandemic.”
