Cue the world’s tiniest violin: The Washington Post warns that if grocery employees agree on a contract with the Safeway and Giant supermarkets, the “middle class could be out of reach.”
The Post uses the life of Safeway cashier Glennis Mitchiner to illustrate what employees may lose if they strike, or even if they agree to lesser compensation (lower wages for new employees and reductions in health benefits) under a new contract. Of course, the evil that is causing all this pain is represented by non-unionized WalMart and the bulk warehouse stores.
Mitchiner leads an admittedly “comfortable” middle-class life, because both he and his wife earn about $45,000 each annually. He is 53 years old and still a cashier, is not in management, and has been at Safeway for 34 years. But even his wife grocery shops at WalMart. He says he “resents” being asked to take benefit cuts because he feels “I earned these wages and benefits and I started to live accordingly.”
What’s he got?
? A health insurance policy that paid $78,000 in bills for his wife’s difficult pregnancy
? Health care benefits at a cost of about $17,000 a year to Safeway, with no premium payment required from Mitchener — at least three times the amount competitors pay
? Doctor visit co-pays capped at $100 per year
? $17.66 per hour and $35.32 per hour on Sundays
? A guaranteed pension to which Mitchiner does not contribute, compared to a 401(k) plan offered by most nonunion stores.
What kind of life has he enjoyed?
“Mitchiner says his salary and benefits have provided his family with a comfortable lifestyle. They bought matching leather loveseats for their living room. They collect African art. They take vacations to Disney World. They splurge on dinner at Jerry’s Seafood in Lanham and Benihana in Georgetown.
Until recently, they often talked about moving into a bigger house with a larger kitchen and more closet space. ‘It was a starter home and I’m not satisfied,’ he said, waving his hand around the living room of his house in the District’s Brookland neighborhood. ‘My wife considers it middle-class. I don’t.’
But with a strike vote looming, that plan is on hold.” (violin crescendo, sarcasm mine)
Oh yeah, his daughter also goes to a $3,000-a-year parochial school.
How did Mitchener end up at Safeway?
He made the fateful, illogical decision to quit college back in the 1970s. “In 1969, Mitchiner took a part-time job at a Safeway store…bagging groceries to help pay his college bills. Mitchiner realized that his full-time colleagues at Safeway were earning as much as many of the graduates at his college. So he quit school to work full time at Safeway, a job that provided the middle-class life a college degree had promised. ‘I realized it from the get-go,’ Mitchiner said of his job. ‘This was a good deal.’ But (his parents) advised their only son to finish Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire.”
The evil company executives for Safeway and Giant, who undoubtedly finished college and worked hard as well, continued to accept their millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, Mitchener “says it often feels like he operates his own small business, with customers who rely on him to solve their problems.” Here’s why, maybe, he should be earning those millions instead of the empty suits:
“Economists describe Mitchiner’s line of work as unskilled. But not Mitchiner. Before he could ever run a cash register, he had to memorize hundreds of product names and price codes, which he easily rattles off:
Banana, 4011. Red Delicious apple, 4016. Granny Smith, 4017.
‘Slide your card across like that,’ Mitchiner explained to a middle-aged man on a recent morning. ‘No, like this,’ he says, showing him again. Behind him, shoppers grow irritated. Eyes begin to roll, but Mitchiner just smiles.
Shoppers pepper Mitchiner with questions all day. Where is the low-fat salsa? When are chicken thighs going on sale? Why are pre-cut canned peaches out of stock?
He answers them all. As he sees it, he is what keeps customers coming back.”
Memorizing codes stamped on most produce that cross his path dozens of times per day. The patience of a saint. Knowing where the condiments are. Those are the skills of a unionized supermarket worker that are irreplaceable.
Yet WalMart keeps getting the customers. There is no justice in our capitalist economy. (sarcasm crescendo, fade violins)
