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UFCW: A study on how they got to where they are today.

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wm pasz	quote Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 7:33 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto	taffy, I doubt very much that the strike was triggered because Fraser was a hot-headed new local president looking to make his mark. I'm quite certain that Fraser did nothing without the approval of Cliff Evans who I'm also certain was lurking in the back ground and choreographing Fraser's every move. Evans would never have allowed his nephew to piss off a major employer and provoke a strike unless the two sides wanted to provoke a strike. Everything you've described makes this one smell like a choreographed event (this kind of thing really does happen). Evans wants the employees rolled into CCWIPP. The company wants major concessions. They reach a backroom deal. Now they have to get the members to swallow it. They know that's not going to be easy. They'll have to take them out on strike and starve and stress them out to the point where they'll swallow it. The period leading up to Christmas and the period just after are the best times to do this as people are really strapped financially. That's why Fraser "broke with tradition" and made a strike happen when it did. I'm sure they were all expecting that it would be a short one but the members surprised them. Things took longer than expected and the members rebelled more actively than was expected. That's why all the votes and manipulations on voting day. It's a really disgusting bit of deception but it's not the first time it's happened and it certainly wasn't going to be the last. A couple of questions for you: Which of Conrad Black's boys was involved in the bargaining? I thought Black sold off Dominion stores to A&P in 1985 or thereabouts? As far as changing the pension plan from MFM to CCWIPP, Bill is right. This would have to be negotiated and ratified. Was there a vote of the members on this issue (it sounds like there might have been one after the new contract was in place)? Or maybe they wrote some stuff into the contract that nobody noticed? I'm not sure what you mean by the statement that "no other 175 local took pay or language cut"s since the MFM strike". There have been some awful concessionary deals involving other Local 175 contracts (workers at Safeway in Thunder Bay took a miserable concessionary deal after a lengthy strike in 2003, workers at Fortino's were stuck with the secret RCSS deal in 2003 and took a follow-up screwing last year). Again, interesting how millions of dollars in donations to CCWIPP and other UFCW slush funds go hand-in-hand with concessionary deals. LY - the two California companies into which CCWIPP poured a few millions are Case Financial Inc. (as defunct business that financed lawsuits) and World Blend Shoes (also defunct). It's completely weird that a Canadian pension plan would loan money to these two outfits in California (when there are plenty of fly-by-night and high-risk business closer to home). Whether or not they have any ties to Loveall's business, I don't know but nothing would surprise me. The fact that they've been hanging out there though raises the possibility of a connection, that's for sure. _________________ Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else. - Malcolm X
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taffy	quote Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 4:34 am
Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 104	Hi, WM, The name off the the AP Chief Neg. was John Peardon young and demure, I had the pleasure,(for lack of a better phrase///) to be across the table for the first set of talks with AP. we were in the last year of a Neg 5 yr agreement with MFM, so there was little to Neg. but it was made VERY CLEAR that next year would be different, as most agreements at that time were 2 year duration,the end our 5 yr would be neg on an off year. It was agreed that the group I was working with the so called radicals of the ufcw, we would be selective where and whom would run for for that set of neg . we new there was a strong possibility of a strike and we also new the ufcw were incapeable of organizing it. I do not believe that the strike was part of a bigger plan, it is awsome to think that the ufcw and Cliff Evan,s could pull this off.Do you really believe Even at their best they could put this together? At a the next set of neg.following the strike the priority was to merge the mfm unit with the AP unit ,the MFM unit workers will be covered under a B contract with AP workers gauranteed rights under the A contract,The origanal MFM agreement agreement had a full time job gaurantee 80% full time 20% part time plus other language that was fought for over many years, at this time there is no full time % gaurantee( before you ask no one knows it JUST DISAPEARED,)and B store workers pay is based on the the $2 an hour pay cut after the strike and A store workers are still earning an Avg. of $2 an hour more. At the this set of neg. I was elected to represent my brother & sister 2 out 12 members of the commitee walked out the others voted to reccomend, Why? the offer included buy outs and the oportuinity for a % of B stores (mfm) to become A stores (AP) with the higher wages. I believed then and I believe now that equal work deserves equal pay, but dangle the carrot and see who wins, we all know the answer to that, so to compare apples to apples in the the greater Toronto area this includes Ind. Loblaws( local 1000 ) local 175 Fortinos, Barns,Etc. MFM once led the industry in collective bargining, now I would put them in the bottom 10%. I am the original cynic and fought for many years to protect both my own rights and those of my fellow workers. It would be a very sad day if I thought that my union would stoop to the leval that you suggest. Yes they are an awful group of people, yes they take advantage of the worker,s, but even I do not believe that your assumption is correct, if turns out to be true I hope they all rot in hell. I still believe it was personality conflict I have chatted with M. Fraser and listened to J. Peardon you would not find a room big enough for these two ego,s add to this that ufcw supported Fraser and AP gave the green light to Peardon, and watch the sparks fly soooooory to say I was in the middle It was a long 30 years and to be honest life at present, is good in retirement with my $240 month ccwwipp pension, as you can see I did not get rich but when I look in the mirror I did my best
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wm pasz	quote Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 10:44 am
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto	I can sure understand how it would be hard to believe that such bargaining table charades actually take place and may have taken place in negotiations in which you were involved. But I can tell you that these kinds of things go on and they're not that hard to orchestrate either. (People who are capable of this level of deception are, in my view, capable of bargaining table chicanery as well.) The deal is done before the bargaining takes place. High level representatives from the company and the union have an "off the record" meeting and hammer out the major issues in advance. They then strategize as to how they're going to manage the bargaining process to get to the desired outcome. If the union leader(s) believe that the members will have a hard time accepting whatever it is that they have agreed to then they tell the company guys that they may need to have a strike to soften them up. I've seen this kind of crap happen so I know it's real. It doesn't take a bunch of geniuses to pull it off either. All you need is a negotiator who can do some tough talking at the bargaining table to make the negotiating committee think he's really serious. The management guys usually sit there coolly and dispassionately saying the same crap over and over again. Sometimes they get into heated arguments but these are also choreographed in advance - to give the members the impression that things are really getting tense, that the company reps are bastards and that their union negotiator is taking a tough stand. Did this happen in the MFM 1993/94 bargaining? Maybe or maybe not. From what you've told me though, I'd say the possibility is there. (A sign of choreographed bargaining: The union negotiator pulls a lot of hystrionics while the management team sits demurely by). Knowing the level of involvement that Evans continued to have after in UFCW affairs after his 1992 retirement, it's a stretch for me to believe that Evans was not involved in these negotiations and that he would have allowed Fraser to provoke a strike with a major employer just because he was a hot headed new local president out to make his mark. It's far more likely that Evans was pulling Fraser's strings and if that was the case, we must ask ourselves, "to what end?" _________________ Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else. - Malcolm X
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