Posted by
Playful Walrus on Tuesday, November 27, 2007 4:03:05 PM
Break out the air violins.
Adam Townsend of the Orange County Register reports that the Democrats – er, uh – the AFL-CIO is not happy with British company Tesco’s foray into the southern California grocery business.
The AFL-CIO today will be handing out anti-Tesco leaflets at the U.K. supermarket chain's new Fresh & Easy grocery location in Anaheim.
The national labor consortium accuses Fresh & Easy's parent company of poor environmental and labor practices.
Let me turn Big Labor Union Thug into English:
Fresh & Easy stores are non-union. As a result, the AFL-CIO can’t force the employees of
Fresh & Easy to regularly contribute money to Democrats and socialist political causes.
"They've been involved in the past with child labor in Europe, and we want to clear up that fact," said Orange County AFL-CIO Political Director Tefere Gebre.
Do tell. You know, a lot of a mom & pop grocery stores have been involved in child labor, too, by putting their own kids to work.
"Basically, we're dedicated to being a good – no strike that – a great employer," said Brendan Wonnacott, a Fresh & Easy spokesman. "All positions start at $10 an hour, and everyone works over 20 hours a week, so they are eligible for full healthcare benefits."
But…but…you’re
non-union! All of those employees should be forced to pay initiation fees and monthly dues so that their union reps can lose their healthcare benefits and lower the wages in negotiations, then have the employees go without any pay at all during stupid strikes!
Fresh & Easy should have twice as many union cash cows – er, uh, I mean – employees as they do now, so everyone should be limited to ten hours per week!
In southern California, the Albertsons, Stater Brothers, Vons, and Ralphs supermarkets are unionized, and the only major supermarket chains left, thanks for merger and acquisitions. Fortunately, we have a growing list of non-union alternatives, like
Fresh & Easy.And look,
Jerry Hirsch of the Los Angeles Times also has a story about “community groups” protesting
Fresh & Easy.The British owner of the new Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market grocery chain had to contend with uninvited guests Monday, when about 100 activists from a coalition of community groups protested outside a meeting with investors.
Ooooh, about 100. Watch out! It’s “a coalition of community groups” usually is code for Big Labor socialists and victicrats.
The stores debuted to crowds of curious and excited shoppers, many of them welcoming the stores to their neighborhoods and cheering the chain's convenient locations and selection of fresh and prepared foods.
Good for them.
The Alliance for Healthy and Responsible Grocery Stores, which comprises 25 community groups, was protesting Fresh & Easy's refusal to meet to discuss a proposed "community benefits agreement." It sought to bind the food retailer to certain wage levels, affordable health benefits and greenhouse gas reduction.
Translation: These people, who are
not risking their own money to invest in new grocery stores, or doing any of the work to open or operate these stores, are stamping their feet like crybabies demanding that productive businesspeople acquiesce to their Leftist agenda.
The coalition also has questioned Fresh & Easy's commitment to open stores in under-served and low-income neighborhoods.
"Financial analysts and investors from all over the world have been gathered here by Tesco so that they can tell them how profitable Fresh & Easy will be," said Elliott Petty, a retail policy analyst at the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. "However, we are also here to educate -- and make absolutely certain that those men and women understand that Fresh & Easy will face incredible resistance if they continue to refuse to engage this community."
Translation: If you build in our neighborhoods, we will rob you blind and eventually burn your store down. If you don’t, we’ll try to prevent you from doing business elsewhere.
Isn’t this racketeering?Tesco, the world's third-largest retailer, is spending $2 billion to build hundreds of small grocery stores in Southern California and the Southwest.
And
thinking people welcome that investment.
This
really ticks me off. Tesco is going to open stores
where they can make money. Why should they open stores where they will lose money? Why should their customers in other areas subsidize money-losing stores? They shouldn’t! These neighborhoods had major chain grocery stores at one time. They were robbed blind and burned down. YES, THERE ARE NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES TO RIOTING. Was it worth it? You got all of those “rebuild LA” hand-outs, but the grocery chains are gone. Smart businesses are not going to go where they can’t find good, reliable employees, or where their customers are going to be accosted by criminals, or where their insurance costs will be too high.
Don’t like it? Fight crime in your neighborhoods. Keep your kids in line.Another thing that really ticks me off about this is that when companies such as Wal-Mart or Costco try to open up stores in these areas, they are met with a lost of resistance or a list demands. Who needs the trouble?