A few key excerpts:
Only about 7 percent of grocery workers hired after the strike are covered by employee health insurance, compared to 94 percent under the old contract, according to a study by UC Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education.
The study also found that after the new contract, about 31 percent of grocery workers leave their jobs each year, compared to 19 percent before the strike, and that only 52 percent of workers hired after the strike stay with their jobs more than a year.
Newly hired workers must wait 18 months before becoming eligible for health care benefits, and many choose not to be covered because of high co- payments, the union official said. Family members do not become eligible for health insurance for 30 months, he said.
Some workers are reportedly still paying off loans they made to cover expenses incurred while they were on strike three years ago.
When I point out headlines, this isn’t the stuff I go for… But rarely am I able to point to something and say, “That was the point of our demise.”
We were part of that strike. Right as it was ending, Poe finished school started his new career. Not before having to cross the pickets to go back to work two weeks before the end. He was with them for almost 5 years, working nights. We had finally started making headway financially – getting on to solid ground. But then the strike happened. I’ve faced poverty before. But never before had we actually need a charity to give us gifts for the kids for Christmas.
In order to live for needs only (groceries, utilities and the like), we had to owe my parents money for the rent and max out our credit cards as we couldn’t live on my salary alone. Thank God my employer saw fit to count the strike as a “change in life” and add us mid-plan year, so we would have health insurance.
Today? I still owe my parents back rent – if things go to plan, that portion of what we owe them will be paid off in a few months. The cards? Two are still maxed out, and I’m hoping to make headway with our tax refund this year.
This strike was the reason we’re not currently halfway to our goal of buying a house. Instead we’re at ground zero living paycheck to paycheck.
I’m still very bitter.
I found some entries from that time in my archives. There are a whole lot more, you can look at the archives around these dates to see them:
Things are not looking up
Nothing is Good
Life is pretty on Edge
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