the progressive workers' strike

[The_Dover]

Fuck them, I should be paid more.

[Finn]

Fuck them, I should be paid more.

Turn more tricks then

[jrandom]

The 'way of the jungle' gives you Dombey & Son, child labour, and an overly-polarised division of wealth. Objective morality (as defined by me) demands that society force a certain amount of redistribution for the greater good. A minimal amount of redistribution, of course; preferably one that keeps the wolves and hoodie-wearing darkies from my door while still leaving me a decent chunk of my vastly over-inflated salary, bonus and stock options package.

As you would expect, I have no idea what any of that has to do with the Progressive strike, but all the union execs I've met (I've only ever dealt with the EPMU, but they're probably fairly representative) are disillusioned, self-interested cynics, who aren't half as smart as they think they'd like to be. I bet those poor shelf-stackers are getting screwed over from more than one direction.

It's all rather sad, really. Oh, the humanity.

I'm going to drink some more Laphroaig now to cheer myself up. The world's such an awful place.

[Swoop]

Academic education is not the answer. I've hired people with all sorts of letters after their name and they have been the worst employees ever.

Isn't that the fucken truth!!!
Who would/could honestly hold their hand up if asked whether they would have some university educated and qualified dickwad with half the alphabet after their name, work on their bike OR have someone who has NO qualifications but the same amount of years of experience that "qualified boy" spent at university.
A no brainer, but this is what our society is promoting.

The progressive distributors have my support. Woolworths, countdown and foodtown have been charging disgusting prices on their goods for long enough. Unfortunately there are still folks who do not compare the prices with other suppliers and believe the crap that they are being given the "best deal" when all they are doing is helping another overseas company get rich.

[Magua]

Well, it should be a slow night at work tommorow with nothing to put on the shelves.

[Finn]

Their stock situation is not as bad as the news made out. They selected a couple of products. Progressive has 2 distribution models. Suppliers send products to Progressive distribution centres (where the strikes are) or suppliers deliver direct to store. Progressive has simply asked suppliers to deliver direct to store. No problem.

If it works well, they may close their distribution centres down but I doubt it.

[Ixion]

It is a bit trickier than that. The "direct" model is usually only used for fresh produce etc. The distribution centres receive large shipments from each supplier (ie a truck load), then split those into small shipments to each store, and combine those . IE the distribution centre gets lots of trucks, one (or more) from each supplier. Each store gets only one truck , containing a variety of goods.(Plus the fresh stuff on the direct model)

Now, if Progressive use the direct model to get round the strike (a) they're out on a limb, because to grind down the price they pay suppliers, they've extensively leveraged the "only one delivery point" benefit to the supplier. If Progressive now want Supplier X to make several hundred deliveries (and small ones) instead of one big one, Supplier X is going to take the opportunity to demand a rethink on that pricing (fair enough, hundreds of small deliveries is much more expensive than one big one). and (b) most of the stores are not set up to handle such a large volume of trucks. They don't have the space or the staff, that's all at the distribution centre.

The old military problem. Concentrate your forces, and you provide a single target for the enemy to take out.

EDIT. A lot of Progressives suppliers are sniggering happily. Very privately of course. But anything they do to help Progressive out will come at a price, depend on it. Progressive don't have too many friends, and from the suppliers point of view, it's no big deal if Progressive have stock problems, customers will just buy the suppliers product from a competing supermarket.Supplier doesn't lose any sales. Incidentally Progressive will lose out again down the line, because that pricing of theirs also includes heavy rebate payments which depend on Progressive meeting purchasing budgets.

[Finn]

You're right but they're also using a logistics company that has warehousing facilities. Sneaky huh?

[Squiggles]

i got shafted by progressive for 3 years (until early this year)... $7.50 an hr i think i started on (before tax) that gives ya what, $6 afterwards..... least the pricks could've done is discounted my lunch by a couple of bucks instead of a measely 5%.... (2x 10hr shifts = me needing at least 2 hour's works' worth of food...) ah well, those were the days.... no wait, they werent that long ago! now i tutor these rich executives kids for $25-30 an hr... sort've but doesnt really make up for the 3 years of shafting.

[Squiggles]

I KNOW THE GAP IS TO BIG WHEN THE GUY STACKING SHELVES HAS TO CHOOSE BETWEEN GETTING HIMSELF CHECKED OUT AT THE DOCTORS OR GETTING NEW SHOES FOR HIS DAUGHTER MEANWHILE THE CEO OF THE COMPANY HE WORKS FOR HAS TO CHOOSE BETWEEN THE POWER BOAT OR SAILBOAT HE OWNS TO TAKE OUT THIS 3DAY WEEKEND HES TREATING HIMSELF TO, MEANWHILE HIS SHELF STACKER HAS DECIDED TO WORK 7 DAYS THIS WEEK INSTEAD OF 6 CAUSE HIS DAUGHTER REALLY NEEDS THOSE SHOES.

That one hit a soft-spot with me worked with a guy who was like that.

[ZeroIndex]

very nicely written WINJA..

[WINJA]

You're right but they're also using a logistics company that has warehousing facilities. Sneaky huh?

THAT LOGISTICS COMPANY WILL WANT A PROFIT AS WELL , PROGRESIVES MDC IN FAVONA RD HAS BEEN THERE FOR 30 YEARS FOR A REASON , ITS THE CHEAPEST WAY TO DISTRIBUTE FOOD

[Edbear]

Their stock situation is not as bad as the news made out.

What!? Media spin...? Surely not!

[Lou Girardin]

Okay, just as long as when the company goes under (cause it couldn't survive under this scenario), all the staff have to cough up the same percentage.

Besides, inflation would go through the roof as the consumers would have to pay for this.

THe NZ owners thought they could survive when they agreed to it. But the new Aussie owners reneged.

But whoever the owners are, the duopolistic supermarket business in NZ is long overdue for a shake up. They've been screwing their suppliers for years, so it's good to see the bottom of the food chain wanting a share of the cake.
It's also interesting to hear justifications for exorbitant CEO salaries in NZ. If they did need to match international pay rates, why aren't we seeing more poached overseas?
Possibly because they're even more useless than overseas CEO's.

[Drunken Monkey]

i got shafted by progressive for 3 years (until early this year)... $7.50 an hr i think i started on (before tax) ....

Grow up. You weren't shafted at all, you got market rates. FFS how old were you when you worked there? (Oh I see, D.O.B. 20/03/1988 according to your profile - you're still a kid) You know you could've done worse as a student packing groceries at a corner vege shop. You have to start somewhere, hell I started at a supermarket for $6/hr BEFORE tax, but you don't hear me jumping up and down claiming I was shafted by Woolies.

Of course, I wasn't dumb enough to stick around the Deli for 3 years - maybe you shafted yourself? At least you've moved on now. That was lesson 1: to increase your earnings quickly, you have to skill up and move to another employer. Staying in one place can work, it just works slower. And just to show how helpful I'm going to be => Free lesson number 2: Just because your earnings are going to steadily increase over the next few years, don't expect it's going to happen for the rest of your working life. Salaries & wages are just like any other supplies, they are governed by market force and rise and fall accordingly.

On the progressive front, my friend's fiancee works in distribution management, He came in a short while ago; they acknowledge some of the contracts were unfair and have been re-negotiating them, allowing suppliers to make shorter ones than they were locked into in the past. I'm sure they're not perfect, but they aren't the complete ogres some people beleive they are.