What A Non Union Company Did To My Sister And Hundreds Of Others.

just ranting here and totally helpless to do anything about it. My sister worked for Farmers Insurance for over 30 years and was let go along with hundreds of other high seniority employees 9 months before her 55th birthday and her full pension is gone.. so now she just gets a small fraction of her pension ( company run ) and has to start all over again in life. this , i found out, is a fairly common business practise at Farmers and probably other huge non union companies. just pisses me off 100 fold and i can't do anything about it.
You should give them hall number at the international. That dude is a master negotiator and wouldn't let that happen. I bet you everyone who sits on the board at farmers insurance is a republican. Just saying.
 
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anonymous6

Guest
thanks all for support. the big companies have too much clout with congress.

my sister is super smart. she was high up in the co. they flew her all over to troubleshoot problems at Farmers hubs. i'm sure she and her displaced co-workers looked into the legality of this. of course Farmers crossed all the t's before doing this.

the real sad thing about this is that it's just not Farmers. I'm sure this happens in a lot of big insurance companies. that is why my wife and I shop at Mom and Pop places when we can. it may surprise a lot of people that we usually get better merchandise at a competitive prices once you establish a good relationship with the merchant at these place. Mom an Pops used to be the backbone of this country. now congress treats them like a disease. the American people can still vote with their dollars.

i don't have twitter or facebook but i am going to post her story on graigslist rants and rave in all the major cities in the U.S. if i can change minds of only a handful of people like here, it will have been worth it.
 

bottomups

Bad Moon Risen'
You are a SCAB for going to Wal-Mart.
Turn in your Union card!
2013_0330BdayMoms0229.jpg
​Didn't have the luxury of shopping around. Needed antibiotics for a shark bite!
2013_0330BdayMoms0229.jpg
 

Brownslave688

You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
Why would any of you walk into a non-union store in the first place?

I've never walked into a Wall-Mart nor will I ever, shame on you that have set foot in that store.

I've delivered at a Wall-Mart twice, and both times I left their stuff outside in the dock, I refuse to walk into their garbage dumps of working-class exploitation!



We bit over the top in my opinion. I've even had stuff delivered by FedEx. Oh the horror.
 

PT Stewie

"Big Fella"
The teamster that works next to me wife works at wm. It sucks but is survival. They have on occasion treated her badly as most of us have been at one time or another . The difference is we have each other, 240,000 strong UPS teamsters ,she has to suck it up and take it for low pay because the mortgage is due.
PS Guess who carries the health care for the family ? Not those as- holes from Arkansas.
 

PiedmontSteward

RTW-4-Less
The teamster that works next to me wife works at wm. It sucks but is survival. They have on occasion treated her badly as most of us have been at one time or another . The difference is we have each other, 240,000 strong UPS teamsters ,she has to suck it up and take it for low pay because the mortgage is due.
PS Guess who carries the health care for the family ? Not those as- holes from Arkansas.

A friend of mine was fired from Papa John's in early January for calling in during a massive ice storm that shut most of the city down. Over two thirds of the employees in my area - alone - called in that day, including myself. There were wrecks on every major highway.

This guy had been a stellar employee and had been in management at one point. He never missed work and had no discipline on file - but he was fired for calling in and refusing to let another driver (he was a line worker) put himself at risk picking him up.

Me and about 60-75 other people spent Super Bowl Sunday jamming their phone lines to hell and back with a script that I wrote and passed out at work and via e-mail. No orders got through for the entire half hour leading up to kick-off. There was also another $300-400 worth of pizza that was ordered and never picked up.

Sometimes we think we have it tough (and we do) but at least we don't have to eat **** and smile at the same time like some workers in the service industry.
 

bottomups

Bad Moon Risen'
My son cut his leg open on some lava rocks while boogie boarding. Telling everyone at school he survived a shark attack thanks to his Batman Shark Repellent. Will have an awesome scar and am pretty sure the story will get better with age!
 

Bagels

Family Leave Fridays!!!
They run a commercial out west here that shows the prices of goods bought at Walmart and the same items bought at Fred meyers which is owned by kroger. The Walmart total was only 6 or 7% lower than Fred meyers, which employs union workers with higher wages and benefits. Walmart is not that much cheaper!!! I'll spend the extra 6 bucks supporting union benefits and healthcare.

Kroger's in the process of overhauling its pricing models, eliminating double coupons & reducing sale items in favor of lower everyday pricing. But even then, the pricing on a typical basket will always be at least 10% higher than Walmart -- products sold at grocery stores have incredibly high product margins, but are usually eaten by high overhead costs. This hurts Kroger, which operates neighborhood stores, but helps Walmart, which attracts large numbers of consumers. Of course, Walmart also has the luxury of high-margin non-perishable general merchandise and Kroger continues to provide full-service.

If you can tolerate private-label goods, try shopping at Aldi's. Aldi's is cheaper than Walmart and its employees earn among the highest wages in the industry, and like UPS, even PTers are eligible for a very good benefit pacakge.
 
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anonymous6

Guest
there are scores of companies that are honest and treat their employees right and THRIVE ! yes, thrive. every major religion says that good will be rewarded.

so i just don't understand companies that want to lie, cheat , steal, and do anything for a buck.

i'd rather sleep well with a clear conscience.
 

1BROWNWRENCH

Amatuer Malthusian
My son cut his leg open on some lava rocks while boogie boarding. Telling everyone at school he survived a shark attack thanks to his Batman Shark Repellent. Will have an awesome scar and am pretty sure the story will get better with age!



AAAAH. Much cooler that way.:happy-very::wink2:
 

Catatonic

Nine Lives
just ranting here and totally helpless to do anything about it.


My sister worked for Farmers Insurance for over 30 years and was let go along with hundreds of other high seniority employees 9 months before her 55th birthday and her full pension is gone..

so now she just gets a small fraction of her pension ( company run ) and has to start all over again in life. this , i found out, is a fairly common business practise at Farmers and probably other huge non union companies.

just pisses me off 100 fold and i can't do anything about it.

This happens (sort of) with Unionized companies as well.

My mother-in-law had a similar thing happen.
Her company was closed with the contention the work was moved to Mexico when she was around 53.
A new company opened up in the same building doing the same work and she was offered a job for less money with no benefits and no Union.
She always said it was about pension because there was 40 - 50 people in their 50's and early 60's.
 

curiousbrain

Well-Known Member
This thread touches on a personal issue for me, one which I've struggled with during my time in management at this fine brown company. I've had just the right amount of the creature that I'm compelled to regurgitate part of my own back story. Also, I can partially identify with PiedmontStewards story.

My own father worked in rural Pennsylvania, doing various mining and pit jobs. He eventually was able to attend PennState and obtain an engineering degree. He continued to work in the same atmosphere, but had made the move to management - although, when discussing matters of labor/management relations, he never missed the opportunity to simultaneously praise them both, albeit for different reasons.

Anyway, long story slightly shorter, he eventually met and married a woman, my mother, whose family had money - as in, upper crusty business money. She essentially withdrew from that world for the sake of her feelings, and she and my father absconded. He supported them with the same type of job - facility/site manager, although in those days, it is my understanding that managers actually had real decision making ability.

Eventually, one of the uncles on my mothers side started a business, manufacturing/selling marine equipment - in the 80's, fish finders, sonar, and boat gadgets in general were pretty novel. My mother was tapped to be the Secretary, handling the books and accounting - which she had a degree in; my father, meanwhile, was tapped to be the plant manager where the production happened. With the familial business connections, the company rapidly grew and soon turned hundreds of millions in profit - my parents, who had an ownership stake in the company, were pretty stoked to put it mildly.

However, money is pretty awesome - so, this uncle who owned the business, essentially used a shady series of maneuvers, sold the company to a foreign investment group and kept all the money - except the pittances he paid out to his partners (including my parents) as legally required.

Obviously, I didn't spend too many holidays with that side of the family at first, but as the years passed, I would inevitably find myself with them, which was quite uncomfortable to say the least. As I got older, and understood the history, I couldn't understand how my mother (my father had since passed away) could be in the same room with them - when I was a teenager, I would raise hell (refuse to see them, or if I had to for some reason, I would purposely make a scene) whenever I was near them.

Again, as I got older, she explained to me that in the eyes of "business men", or, as she has been apt to say, "the men whom conduct business", that it really is just that: business. It's almost never personal - and when large sums of money are involved, the business is inseparable from other considerations. She went on to tell me that the wounds that business inflicts are often incredibly painful, but are usually shallow in terms of causality: it's probably fiscal.

I hate hearing about lives destroyed by business - as mentioned, it's probably one of the worst parts of modern economics; but, as my mother pointed out, I'm not a man who conducts business, and I'm not dealing with large sums of money, so the business is still separable from other considerations - such as the impact on individual lives and families.

I think the reality nowadays is: if you're not getting screwed, then you're probably doing the screwing.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
If you can tolerate private-label goods, try shopping at Aldi's. Aldi's is cheaper than Walmart and its employees earn among the highest wages in the industry, and like UPS, even PTers are eligible for a very good benefit pacakge.
\

I would shop at Aldi's but I'm too lazy to bag my own groceries.
 
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